May 6, 1999
Asian Americans have a hard time figuring out their true identity. On the one hand, Asian Americans consider themselves to be “Asians”. This is because their ancestors are from Asia and they cherish the Asian culture. However, since they grew up in a completely different environment, their beliefs and lifestyle don’t match the people from Asia. On the other hand, Asian Americans consider themselves to be “American”. But, in American society, the typical person is a White Anglo Saxon Protestant and anyone that doesn’t fit that right feature is considered to be an outsider. Therefore, they are not Americans either. So then, what are they? Are they aliens that came from a distant planet? No, they do have a home and that is in America. However, their roots are from Asia so a whole new ethnic group is formed which is called “Asian Americans”. Their lifestyle reflects their American culture since they were brought up on those ideals, but they also keep their ethnic culture as well. With this new label, another problem develops. Since all of the Asian ethnic groups are put into this one category, there is bound to be a clash among different cultures within the Asian American group. How can we prevent these clashes from occurring and how can we make this new identity work in the future?
One of the first steps to a unified Asian American community is to identify the different groups that are present in this society. During our first APATH lecture, we did just that, and it was interesting to see how many different ethnic groups there were in APATH. There seemed to have been a representative from every Asian ethnicity. By giving a short outlook on how their lives are, it helped us understand what kinds of struggles that the different Asian American groups have to go through to make progress in their lives. Also from this lecture, I was surprised to hear that some of the people who were not from my ethnic group had the same type of problems as me growing up. It made me believe that there is such an ethnic group as an Asian American and I was not alone, even though there were only a total of two Japanese Americans in the whole APATH group.
After we have identified the different types of ethnic groups among Asian Americans, it is important to know where the Asian Americans came from and where they are in today’s society. We saw a video about the Mong people and how they “Became American”. In a way, they were forced to flee their homeland because of the horrible conditions that the Americans created. They only brought over some luggage and they were basically starting a new life. It was interesting to see how they struggled to survive in American life because of the language barrier and because of the whole new modernized world that they had to adapt to.
We saw another video that showed how much Asian Americans have come along in society. It was an Indian Beauty pageant and it featured four young Indian women with different goals. Each of them had a different background and it showed in their current beliefs and attitudes. For instance, two of the girls were more “Indian” and they stuck with more Indian routines in their dances, while the other were more “American” than “Indian” so they did “American” activities.
After we know about our history and our present, it is also important for us to know that we have leaders among the community that help in changing Asian American stereotypes. The person must also have some kind of a voice in the American society. These leaders could come from any type of profession or background. As long as they succeed in what they are doing and have the confidence to be the best, they can be featured as a role model for the younger generation.
First, we had two speakers come in from the medical field. They were Richard Low and Edna Esnil. They discussed the problems that face Asian Americans today. Although getting in to the medical profession is not as hard for Asian Americans, due to the fact that they are model minorities, they also said that there still is a little bit of segregation amongst patients and even co-workers. They also told us to stick with what you believe in and soon enough other people will start to respect those beliefs.
In the field of higher education, there is definitely a lack of Asian American people. That is why it is important for us to know that there are Asian Americans in that department. We had a speaker come in from the higher education field and he tried to persuade us into that field since the majority seems to be white people. The speaker gave us motivation to look into our dreams, although he hinted that we should look into higher education. He told us that there are two types of decisions that we could make. The first is an involuntary decision, which means that some of the choices that we make are based on pure chance and luck plays a major role. The other choice is your voluntary choice and with this choice, we can choose to become role models ourselves or to become an ordinary person. Finally, he told that in the world of higher education, it is easier to take on the role of being the role model because you educate the students and push them to challenge themselves.
One of the hardest fields to succeed in as an Asian American is in the media. When we look at mainstream television and movies, Asian Americans are significantly missing from the picture. Although more Asian Americans have been getting more and more exposure to the media in recent years, it will take a long time to see sufficient representation. APATH was privileged to bring in two Asian American celebrities that have been successful in mainstream show business. They were Actor/Director Chil Kong and Actress Pearl. They told us that the reason why they succeeded in such a harsh business is because they believed in themselves. They wanted to chase after their dream and they ignored others request and all that hard work have paid off for them in the end.
Another role model that that came and talked to us was Kinh Mae Aung from the Asian Law Caucus. She is a role model because she helps Asian Americans fight for justice in the courts. She represents thousands of cases that deal with affirmative action and civil rights. What makes her different from all other lawyers is that she focuses on Asian Americans. So she is a hero because she is willing to fight for her own ethnic identity.
After we have established our own identity through understanding the different ethnic backgrounds and by knowing our role models, we can forge onto understanding other different ethnic groups in America. Although it was unfortunate that the members from Casa Magdalena Amora and African American theme program couldn’t come to our lecture to discuss about their cultures, we had the chance to interview a person from the Casa Madalena Amora floor. This way, we were able to get exposure to a different culture through personal interaction. We asked questions about how they deal with their identity and what kind of things they do as a floor. It was interesting because I could relate to the problems they have had in adjusting to both cultures.
From all the things that we have done over the semester, we learned to understand what our identity is. The speakers that we brought in were Asian Americans who have succeeded in this world and they gave us a message that we too can become Asian American role models. In a way, we have a better chance to become that because there are more opportunities for us than they did in their days. That is why I feel that we are very privileged to have these people build a clear path for us to conquer American society.
The thing that I liked about this semester is that we had many different speakers from our community talk about their lives. With these role models, we have a better understanding on how Asian Americans are living in our society. All of the people that were invited were very successful in their profession and most of them seemed to enjoy what they are doing. For college people like us who really do not have a grasp of how the real world works, it was something refreshing to see. We are very lucky because their generation did not have the same type of role models as we do now. They had to carve the road for themselves and they are succeeding today because they were able to overcome some of the obstacles.
There were also things that I did not like about this semester. Since I was here for the whole year, I felt that last semester’s format was more effective than this semester. I liked how we had a separate discussion section last semester. We were able to hear more from the student’s perspective on the lectures rather than just the lecturer himself/herself. I think that student input is very important because we can relate to one another and we can debate on each other’s opinions. If there was this discussion, I feel that more topics would be stuck in my mind because we would have to formulate an argument at the discussion section. However, with a big group lecture format, less people were willing to express their opinion and therefore less people are going to remember what went on in lecture. In the future, I would like to see the discussion format reinstalled so more people will get more out of APATH. As for issues covered, I felt that this semester didn’t cover that much debatable issues. Most of the speakers just talked about their profession and you really can’t form an argument about that. I think that more debatable topics should be implemented in the future so people can either agree or disagree with what is being discussed. I would still keep the role model issue but I would like to also include more topics that have to do with Asian American history because I feel that if we know about our past, we will be able to build on that knowledge for a brighter future.