Writing Your Story: Anti Asian Racism, We Had Enough

Essay Instructions:

Write a 4-6 page, double spaced paper on the topic below.
Over the last several weeks of this class we have discussed the concepts of oppression and internalized oppression and noted the negative effects they have had on the promise of American democracy. We have defined oppression as "the systematic, institutionalized and socially condoned mistreatment of a group in society by another group or by people acting as agents for society as a whole."
The Assignment:
The task of this paper is to tell a story examining the form of oppression that most centrally affects YOUR life. In writing story, you should identify the specific form of oppression you wish to discuss (what is the group being mistreated) and then write about the concrete and daily ways that it shows itself in your life. That is, from whom, in what ways, and where do you note the effects of oppression? In your paper you should incorporate some theoretical aspect of at least 3 of the assigned readings for this class dealing with oppression. While some theoretical framing of your topic is necessary, we also want you to be as specific and personal to you as possible.
THEN, conclude your paper with 1-2 paragraphs outlining one SPECIFIC AND DO-ABLE political act YOU could carry out that would lead in the direction of eliminating this oppression from your life and the world.
YOUR Life: This paper is not a research essay but rather a thought and analysis assignment that requires you to examine YOUR OWN LIFE critically. The readings from this course and class lecture should provide you with ample background for your paper. Remember, though, that we are primarily interested in your own thoughtful analysis of oppression as you experience it in your daily life.
Final Note: Some of you may feel as though you personally are not targeted by oppression. Thus, you may, if you like, discuss a form of oppression where you personally are not the chief target of the oppression. But if you do this, you must still discuss it from the perspective of how it affects you personally. That is, as an adult, you might discuss how the oppression of children affects your life as an adult. As a European American, you might discuss how racism against people of color affects your life. As a woman, you might write about how the oppression of males affects you as a woman. Etc…
PS: The reference article has to come from:
1. http://nypolisci(dot)org/files/PDF%20FILES/Chapter%20IV_13_%20White%20Privilege-%20knapsack%209C2E.pdf
2. http://www(dot)nypolisci(dot)org/files/poli1/articles%20for%20poli%201/Race-%20Vital%20Signs%20January%202010.pdf
3.http://nypolisci(dot)org/files/poli1/articles%20for%20poli%201/Oppression%20Papers%20Project/Anonymous-An%20Immigrant%E2%80%99s%20American%20Dream.pdf
And in case you are not Asian and never experienced racism, I had started one of my personal story and I pasted it down below:
I remember the whole scenario until today, In 2013 I was applying to college and successfully got into a famous art school in Baltimore, that was a summer and my mom said that she has to come with me to the school so that she can help me settle down. Moving from San Francisco to Baltimore is not easy and we had a very long day after the trip, me and her went to this restaurant nearby the hotel and the hotel is in the suburban area. When the waitress first saw us she had a look on her face that I didn’t really like and then she took us to a seat that’s all the way in the back of the restaurant and at the time there was no one in the restaurant. My mom didn’t say anything since she can’t really speak fluent English but she told me what to order, after a long 30 minutes wait I was getting a little impatient and I walk to where the waitress were and told her very politely that we are ready to order. She was just standing there and pretend like she couldn’t understand me then she walked away like I don’t exist. I was pissed and I told the manager what happened and I said, just because we are asian doesn’t mean we don’t deserve your service here. The manager was apologizing to us and told us that whatever we order he is going to give us a discount and he told the waitress to come over and apologize to us.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

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Anti Asian Racism, We Had Enough
America has made great strides in tackling oppression an, discrimination and racism with the adoption of legislations and various provisions that have been adopted. The society has also changed over time with fewer cases of discrimination overall, but anti- Asian racism may be internalized, mediated and at times institutionalized. Any individual dealing with people, who he or she is dissimilar to them, will be cautious when interacting with them. However, open discrimination of Asians based on a pre-conceived notion that, they are foreigners perpetuates racist viewpoint that seek to downplay and disempowered the Asian community. I recount an ugly incident that showed racism and discrimination affected me and my mother. There are people who seek to balkanize people and discriminate against them for simply being Asian in America, are an extension of the notion that Caucasians made America.
One of the events that I vividly remember was a time when I wanted to apply to the art School and my mother had to come over. So as to settle down in Baltimore, my mother came all the way from San Francisco to help me settle down little did I know that this would make me realize that anti- Asian racism was more common than I thought. We went to a restaurant in a suburban area, we sitting down waiting to request our orders, but the minute the waitress saw us around the table she sneered and surprisingly directed us to the back of the restaurant. This was only one of our concerns we had to wait for another 30 minutes to be served, and so grew impatient and asked the waiters why we were not being served. However, I was flatly ignored and the waitress pretended that she did not understand me and simply walked away. There was nothing else I could do while my mother could not communicate well in English.
I have always though myself as an American, but being a minority in the U.S has its own set of challenges because of discrimination, where people treat you differently. In the restaurant incident, I finally informed the manager who apologized for being inconvenienced and the waitress was also made to apologize for her actions. The waitress’s actions highlight that there are instances where racism is internalized, and had she appreciated that we all human beings there would have been no need for discriminating against my mother and I, or giving a forced apology. One of the negative impacts of this incident is that I am now more aware that people are likely to exhibit racist tendencies against Asian American despite our contribution to the country. Undocumented immigrants face a bigger challenge for lacking citizenship finding it hard to access higher education and job opportunities (Anonymous 3).
The restaurant incident may seem isolated, but the notion of Asians as model minorities has often been propagated. While it is true that there are high achieving first and second generation Asian Americans whose parents came to America with nothing or English skills, this is only part of the story. The model minority seems like a positive, but on the flipside this has been used to deny the existence of institutional racism. The assumption goes that just because some Asi...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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Writing Your Story: Anti Asian Racism, We Had Enough

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