In week one, there was the topic of Introduction & Course Guidlines / Definition of Diaspora. The readings came from Kieu-Linh Valverde for the first reading the second is from Anderson and Lee. The piece “Transnationalizing Viet Nam'' was interesting because of the discussion of what a diaspora is “tends to evoke a sense of positive connections to a homeland, but sometimes a country and parts of its overseas population do not have good relations” (1-2). The work focuses on the connections between the Vietnamese and its overseas population in the United States. The chapter shows the significance of the Cold War and their impacts on Vietnam with the United States. With the other histories discussed, anticommunism and how it affected everyone including North Vietnam was an enormous factor of how people were so hurt and can be seen with the feelings between the diaspora and the homeland. The Anderson and Lee piece focuses on the harsh realities between class and rave on a global scale and “serves to contain and to neutralize [Ethnic Studies] as an emergent discipline.” (16).
Q: What do the authors mean when they say “neutralize” ethnic studies?
In week two, there was the topic of globalization. In the article “The Ordeal of Ethnic Studies in the Age of Globalization” by E. San Juan Jr., there is a discussion of “war on terrorism” and events of September 11, 2001 and the aftermath which still hurt many people of color today. People too frequently have targets based o ethnic and racial stereotypes and “homeland having automatically undergone surveillance and security checks” (270). The Evelyn Hu-Dehart reading talked about the visibility of Asian Americans in the United States and how we are still misrepresented with the model minority stereotype with our “largely immigrant nature” (8).
Q: how can we start combatting the nature of model minority stereotyping beyond counter narratives? In regards to globalization, how can we benefit from that erasure?
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