Month: March 2018

The DuBois Way

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In this post, I will detail my own personal method of balancing both my ancestral heritage and the culture in which I was born. My approach is centered around embracing the benefits of access to two opposite worlds to create a unique niche that incorporates both.

Something I have observed with other Asian Americans is that many of them tend to constantly stick to other Asian Americans, giving them the appearance of being cliquey and further distancing themselves from the majority of Americans. This tendency is comfortable and rewarding in its own ways, but it does not appeal to me. For me, I think it is important to take advantage of my position to break down stereotypes commonly associated with Asians. With my unique perspective, I see the potential for bringing change in people’s perspectives regarding a race that has been misunderstood or disregarded in American history.

I like to think of my philosophy as the W.E.B. DuBois in the DuBois and Booker T. Washington rivalry: I learn the ways of popular society, going by its rules to enact change in people’s perceptions of what being Asian American entails.

The foundation of my philosophy is a thorough understanding of American culture. The thing about finding a place as an Asian American in the United States is that I must be as familiar with American culture as the typical Caucasian American or even more so in order to bypass the initial preconceptions that my appearance tends to bring. This is the first step in making change in others’ perspectives. Deep understanding of the language and history as well as its modern state are they key aspects to understanding any culture. Developing such an understanding legitimizes me to the majority of Americans; it establishes me as one of them culturally.

Then, I developed a thorough understanding of Chinese culture as well. By practicing the language whenever I can and studying its history and traditions, I understand the essence of the culture that I come from and actively pursue it. The study of one culture in fact helps me better understand the other because I can compare the two. Knowing both intimately helps with developing cultural sensitivity and a more sophisticated worldview.

Next, I need to be aware of my position as an Asian American and the kind of special opportunities I have. For example, because I am not Caucasian, it is easier for me to bring up controversial or unpopular views without seeming clueless or insensitive to others. As a result, there is more of an opportunity for others to listen to a different viewpoint. This privilege allows me a sort of freedom of speech in a heated political climate that can be used not only to bring attention to an underrepresented ideas, but also to change prevalent stereotypes about Asian Americans. The key is to do so only when needed or when the situation is right, ideally naturally and within reasonable necessity.

Analysis of the Appeals of a Trans Youth Organization Website

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The Trans Youth Equality Foundation is an organization that “advocates for transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex youth ages 2–18.” It accepts donations from the general public to sponsor its various initiatives and also accepts more specific donations for transgender or non-gender conforming children to attend one of the organization’s camps. I will analyze the website’s logical appeals as well as its use of pathos.

One of the main issues with the website’s logical appeals is its lack of them. The website does not give logical appeals about why transgender children are particularly deserving of the audience’s donations, or why the audience should be concerned about the cause. Perhaps this may be because the website’s creators assumed that its intended audience was already familiar with why transgender children need extra support. They may have assumed that it is clear to everyone that transgender children have unique struggles that are not sufficiently supported in existing programs. However, this is perhaps the biggest issue with the website: it makes assumptions about prevalence and worthiness of its cause without explaining to its audience these assumptions. As a result, the potential donor pool is condensed to people who visit the website already informed of and agreeing with the organization’s cause.

On the flip side, the absence of logical appeals may be intentional. It may be a deliberate refusal to acknowledge the fact that their social cause is controversial and more of a question of value rather than fact. It may be that the organization purposefully chose not to include logical appeals in order to support the legitimacy of their cause. Justification and explanation may make the organization seem like it is not confident in its legitimacy, which is one of the main issues that the transgender movement wants to avoid. If intentional, the lack of logical appeal may be a form of appeal in itself in that it boosts the legitimacy of the organization’s cause by supporting the stance that the basis of the worthiness of their cause is common knowledge that isn’t disputed.

The main appeal that the website relies on is pathos. It features multiple inspirational quotes that support being different from others. Images of transgender children together and happy fill the pages of the website. On the donation page, the following image is located right above the donation information box:

The purported appeal here is that the donors’ contributions have made transgender children feel like they are included and comfortable. However, this particular example of attempted pathos is not very effective: by choosing quotes including phrases like “I can comfortably be myself” and “I have met so many people who are just like me” the organization is indirectly magnifying the differences between transgender children and other children, which doesn’t help to make the largely non-transgender audience relate or feel sympathy for transgender children like it may have been intended to. In fact, this example may have exacerbated the distance between people who call themselves transgender and people who don’t.

Reform the American Public High School Education System

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There are aspects of the high school public education system in the United States that are not serving their purposes and need to be amended/reformed.

 

As a recent high school graduate, I am quite familiar with the ins and outs of the standard public school education system that is implemented in many high schools across the United States. From my experiences and observations, I have concluded that there are aspects of this education system that are ineffective or even counterproductive. I believe that the importance of education lends itself to the necessity for reform in the education system and that this reform needs to happen soon.

As a student myself, I see areas that my peers and I struggle with that we have no control over but which negatively impact our educations. Some of these aspects include AP classes and the very early time at which school begins for many high school students. For example, I’ve noticed that AP classes, which are intended to give high school students a chance to earn college credit and deepen their knowledge of a subject, tend to become mad rushes to cram an unreasonably large amount of curriculum into a single year. This observation has been seen in many other schools with AP classes as well, according to a New York Times article by Christopher Drew. AP class teachers of all subjects have commented on the extensive checklist of material that needs to be covered in class and have struggled to fit all the content in before the AP tests with time to review, meaning that content needs to be finished in April for the tests in early May. There are also concerns that the AP classes do not reflect the actual level of college courses and that there are fewer and fewer schools that give credit for AP classes (Tierney).

It is important to be looking at how to improve the public education system in America because of the changes that have been occurring in the way that students learn and get information. Making sure that school is a safe, educational place for students rather than a breeding ground for stress is of utmost concern as more and more adolescents are diagnosed with mental illness. According to a report by the Center for Disease Control, “school connectedness” was found to be an important factor in decreasing the amount of substance use, school absenteeism, early sexual initiation, violence, and risk of unintentional injury (Blum, McNeely, Rinehart). In observing some of my peers, I’ve seen how disengagement with school activities can lead to a path involving many of the factors listed above. Also, because my own experiences in high school led to white hairs and eye bags, I want to look at ways of lessening unproductive stress for other students.

 

Works Cited

Blum, R.W., McNeely, C.A., Rinehart, P.M., (2002). Improving the odds: The
untapped power of schools to improve the health of teens, Center for
Adolescent Health and Development, University of Minnesota, 200 Oak St. SE,
Suite 260, Minneapolis, MN.

Drew, Christopher. “Rethinking Advanced Placement.” The New York Times, 7 Jan.
2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/edlife/
09ap-t.html?pagewanted=all.

Tierney, John. “AP Classes Are a Scam.” The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2012,
www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/ap-classes-are-a-scam/263456/.

Reflecting on the “The Price Is Right: What Is the True Cost of Higher Education?” Deliberation

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I attended the Wednesday, February 28th deliberation at the Fraser Street Commons titled “The Price Is Right: What Is the True Cost of Higher Education?”. It was interesting to compare that night’s discussion to my own deliberation, which was about mitigating the effects of rioting on the State College community.

The student facilitators were generally professional. Some did a better job facilitating the conversation than others, bringing up food for thought in response to audience members’ comments. However, I felt that the overview team did not do a great job introducing the premise of the deliberation. There was no introduction to who the students themselves were, why a deliberation was being held, and no mention of Deliberation Nation as a project. It may have been that the host students assumed that everyone in attendance was either invited or an RCL student, but at the end a few people asked what the deliberation was being held for and the students then explained that it was for a class project. There were also no personal stakes shared or recording done at all.

There was a much wider variety of attendees at the tuition deliberation compared to the deliberation I hosted. Attendees included students, the Vice President of Undergraduate Education, Penn State financial consultants, and other community members. Nearly everyone participated in the conversation, most people participating multiple times, and there were about 30 people total.

As for the content of the deliberation, I found the proposed approaches to be very interesting possibilities for reducing financial burden on students. The first approach was to make public universities free to attend. While this action would keep financial reasons from preventing students from attending college, there was discussion about whether taxpayers would be willing to pay more for other people’s educations. Furthermore, making public universities free could possibly only push back the problem of paying to graduate college, which would become much more competitive and more commonplace as well.

The second approach was to adopt differential tuition, or paying tuition based on major. Majors that require more expensive materials or have a higher average salary would cost more. I brought up that Penn State’s tuition is actually differential, as I had done research on the specifics of Penn State tuition for a Daily Collegian article recently. However, the facilitator denied this, showing to me that she was not well-versed in the material and that she was either misinformed or willing to deny a claim without any basis, neither of which would help her credibility.

The third approach was to modify scholarship distributions so that financial aid would be offered to more students or so that merit-based scholarships would prioritize students who need the money more. I thought that this last approach was a less developed than the other two approaches, possibly because it is a less realistic approach, or because the group was running low on time.

Overall, I think the tuition deliberation went well and facilitated good conversation about a relevant issue, but could have had better organization on the part of the host students.

Being “White-Washed”: a Cultural Phenomenon

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I mentioned in my previous post the idea of a “white-washed” Asian American. In this post, I will elaborate on my thoughts about it.

First, a definition: used here, “white-washed” means having dissociated oneself from one’s ancestral culture by adopting or attempting to adopt an American lifestyle. Being white-washed typically only applies to non-Caucasian people that live in America.

There are different degrees of “white-washedness” and different people will consider different people white-washed. However, in general, it entails all or a combination of the following:

  • Hanging out exclusively with white people
  • Following trends in American clothes and style
  • Inability or refusal to speak in their parents’ language
  • Denial of or dissociation with their ancestral culture in any way possible
  • Occasional touting of their ancestral culture when it is to their advantage

Being white-washed is a phenomenon that I associate mainly with Asian Americans, including Indian Americans. While I have seen white-washed African Americans, they are not as common. The reasons for this trend may be because the cultural disparity is very acute between Eastern and Western cultures and Asian Americans more commonly have parents who were born and raised in another country.

By my observations, in areas where the Asian American population is close to the national average, the vast majority of Asian Americans dabble in their heritage or are white-washed and a small percentage actively celebrate and learn about their heritage. There can also be some degree of white-washing in first generation immigrants themselves, though I can’t speak to much more besides its existence.

Generally, the term white-washed is negative and used disparagingly. While I think being white-washed has a strong correlation with being myopic, I don’t think that people who choose to turn away from their heritage necessarily have a worse way of life. It’s a decision that they made for themselves, and if they enjoy it, then I think they should continue doing what makes them comfortable. Being treated like a foreigner and stereotyped constantly is really not an enjoyable experience, and I can see why they would choose to distance themselves from the part of them that causes some grief.

I venture to say that for all Asian Americans, there is to some extent a degree of confusion or uncertainty about one’s cultural identity. It’s simply that we look to different methods to reconcile our needs for belonging and identity. No one really enjoys being alienated. The difference lies in who we turn to to find acceptance: white people, other Asian Americans, or maybe neither.

My own technique for reconciling my cultural identity question, which I will elaborate on next time, is one that seeks to intertwine both the culture I was born into and the culture that I come from. I think there is a great benefit from being in touch with both, rather than sticking only to the predominant one or solely to other Asian Americans.