To the author of Trespassers?: Your account on the cultural background invoked us to talk about cultrual appropriation. For most of the time, people tend to generalize a single cultural phenomenon as to represent the whole set of cultural system. Usually, a person won't truly understand the internal reason of the existence of different rituals and customs, but they will still practice it fo various reasons, sometimes just for attention and profits. Your discussion in your book about the so-called "model minority" stereotype gave us an inspiration to talk about the occurrence of micro-offense. Due to the inability to fully comprehend a kind of culture, a person may make another person uncomfortable by asking questions that gives hint to all the traditional stereotypes, and the tricky thing is that only the one who's being asked have the power to judge and explain, but sometimes explanation just won't work very easily. Your book can be modified by adding in these elements and discuss them more extensively.
How do get "the right to difference"?
The following is a letter written to Willow S. Lung-Aman, author of “Trespassers? Asian Americans and the Battle for Suburbia.” Dear Ms. Lung-Aman, After reading your book “Trespassers? Asian Americans and the Battle for Suburbia,” I was intrigued by your call for respecting “a right to difference.” You suggest that people of different identities should have to right to express one’s difference without exclusion or discrimination. In principle, I do not dispute that one should have genuine freedom of expression, but I am concerned how this can be realized. The first problem relates to the difficulty in convincing privileged communities to let go of their vested interests, which has existed since the beginning of human history, so I’ll move away from that. The second problem, related to the first to some extent, is how can we ensure that institutions can remain dynamic enough to allow for change. Just a few thoughts. Sincerely, Kare...
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