In “The Ordeal of Ethnic
Studies in the Age of Globalization”, E. San Juan Jr. explains the
transformation of Asian American Studies by describing it as “both widely
endorsed and universally ignored, long established but still marginalized” (San
Juan Jr. 2005). What started as a protest with students became the Third World
Liberation Front and the birth of Ethnic Studies. Given the values of the TWLF
and community organizing, I sometimes wonder how different it would have been
if I was part of that fight 45 years ago. It was definitely a time of struggle,
but observing Ethnic Studies now, given the things that I hear and read, things
were very much different. Due to the emphasized need for academics and
research, what was supposed to be for the people by the people has become
privatized, institutionalized, and turned into research.
Question: Given current
social political circumstances, what will it take to enact on San Juan’s
proposal to commit frontal assault by polemic and mass mobilization of students
and faculty to expose institutional racism? (Organizing just fuels me with
energy!)
Works Cited:
Anderson, Wanni W. Displacements and
Diasporas: Asians in the Americas. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers UP, 2005.
Print.
image: https://churlsgonewild.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/solidarity-twlf.jpg
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