One of the things that I notice from the past several decades was that there
isn't currently a tradition, a movement where people of Asian descent in the
United States are working in collaboration with African-Americans and
Latinos even though that kind of tradition was very lively in the 1960s
and I wanted to initiate a discussion where we might bring that back.
>Even going to UB where there's a large Asian-American population it's not
something that's really talked about like I really don't know much about the
Asian American experience or in regards to like race and social justice issues
or even historical context within the race and upbringing so I just was
really going there to get more information because only thing I knew
about the Asian Americans that they were considered the model minority or what
other people of color should inspire to be.
>One of the things I've noticed throughout high school and
throughout college is that people tend to form
cliques in terms of who they go to class with, who they hang out with, and that
just sets up an environment where these conversations don't really have to exist
so I think the main thing that I'm going to take away from attending this DIFCON
is that it's important to get your voice out that attending this DIFCON
and talking to other people who share similar mindsets or have different
experiences is not only eye-opening for the community but it's also eye-opening
for myself.
>The thing that I found really insightful or even like quite satisfying
is that Asian-Americans do understand that they have a privilege
from what I got from that conversation but also on the flip side i found out
that some Asian-American individuals understand their privilege
and don't really want to do much to bring awareness to it you know what I mean
outside of their own community.
>I think the positive stereotype that, that's kind of given to
Asian-Americans that we're really good at school that we place a lot of cultural
value on education definitely plays a big role in terms of, in terms of where
this this model minority status kind of veered off course almost because the
the positive stereotypes stems from what my parents kind of sacrificed to give me and
I don't take that for granted but it seems like others feel like it's it's a
sort of privilege that's just automatically associated with us and I
think it puts a lot of pressure not only on my generation but the generations
after me like my little brother who's finishing school now there's a lot of
pressure put on us to that-- if we fail then it's kind of like
what was all of that for?
>I think the biggest downside to a positive stereotype is when
you don't naturally fit into that mode or to that stereotype like i said
before your kind of shunned for your kind of frowned upon or people who
don't maybe belong to that community or even those who do may look at you and be
like what's wrong with you? you don't you're not really a part of this positive
stereotype so I don't want to be associated with that
so now that individual is left to pick up the pieces of how maybe they can fit
into that stereotype it's just more pressure I think even in some way
has the same pressures of negative stereotype. People who suffer from
negative stereotypes have to find ways to shed that image in a way in order
to be successful and progress and people who have positive stereotypes who come
from groups that turn that positive stereotypes have to find a way to fit
into that stereotype is to be accepted by their own communities or others
outside of it.
>Education is kind of a big factor in discussing the model minority status
that's given to Asian-Americans and I think New York City is kind of
a prime example of that. There are eight specialized high schools in the
city and you have to take an exam to get into them and the problem that
mainly white Americans and Latino Americans are bringing up are that even
though the racial balance in New York City is pretty good, about ten
fifteen percent of the population are Asian-Americans, the population in
terms of the specialized high schools is much, much less balanced.
They're arguing that upwards of sixty percent of the specialized high schools' student
population are comprised of Asian-Americans and that likely
indicates a problem which is where the negative opinions come from.
>One of the things that I did when I wrote the description for the session I
facilitated was that I indicated that the Asian-American model minority myth
affects other people of color as well and that was my way of reaching out to
other people of color who were not Asian- American in order to engage them in a
discussion about this important topic.
>SoI think the conversation with
people in the Asian-American community can change and evolve because
I now see that as they are also considered people of color whether
some want to believe it or not and that,
that's the conversation we need to have with each other.