Thread by @ProfHsieh

I just started this book & I can tell it is 🔥🔥🔥So excites to read about #AsianAmerican women scholars’ resistance AND renewal in the academy. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for ❤️

Will probably tweet to this thread thoughts as I’m reading. My first is how much I appreciate that the book begins w/ a women of color in academia manifesto that embodies #solidarity and notions of #collectiveresistance #fightthetower

From the prologue by Shirley Hune: "The idea that #AsianAmericans are a quiet, hard-working, & docile people who do not "rock the boat" is a gross misunderstanding of their realities....1/2

A fuller story of #AsianAmerican agency against injustice must include an analysis of Asian Americans' oppositions to racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other inequities." -- Shirley Hune 2/2

"Asian American women are constantly navigating multiple intersecting hierarchies of race, ethnicity, nationality, class, skin color, accent, and other biases with gender stereotypes." Hune p. 10 #Fightthetower

Reading about the tenure & promotion fights that #AsianAmerican scholars like Jean Jew, Rosalie Tung, Marcy Wang & Don Nakanishi had to fight is eye-opening. Grateful for these pioneers whose legacies paved the way for subsequent #AsianAmericans in academia.

“Asian American women are both privileged & oppressed in this system in a way that causes them to be particularly vulnerable, esp. when they awaken to and become active against the structural illogic & inequities of academia” Valverde & Dariotis (p. 35)

"Asian American women are seen by academic administrators as ideal representations of diversity because of assumptions that they will present exotic faces while remaining silent." Valverde & Dariotis (p.35)

This 👉 "We have seen so many #AsianAmerican women academics whose voices are silenced forever through death, extreme illness, retreat from the academy, or being shamed into silence. It is bc of these silences that we must question & resist the oppression of the system" (p.47)

In ch. 3 by Valverde, Pham, Yee & Mai: "In contrast to this [model minority] stereotype...#AsianAmericans experience higher rates of #impostersyndrome, or the self-perception that they do not really belong in academia or deserve the positions they have achieved... 1/2

...The combined effect of both the model minority stereotype & the #impostersyndrome paints #AsianAmerican women as not experiencing real oppression, while promoting the notion that they have achieved their status bc or their perceived proximity to white men." 2/2 (p. 112)

Honestly, ch. 3 "The Killing Machine" has me worried for my health & well-being. While I am so grateful to have encountered few barriers myself to my tenure, promotion & movement into leadership, I know that even a smooth process has come w/ emotional & physical costs.

The constant feeling of having to prove my worth is real. I'm working to unlearn this, but it's so hard.

And also👉"Many #AsianAmerican women experience academia as an unhealthy environment. It is even more so for women w/ families. Bc of this, 1 of the most challenging & stressful components of being a female academic is balancing the overwhelming demands of fam & wk life" (p.122)

Back w/ quotes from #FighttheTower: "We [AsAm women] have come to learn...the cost of speaking out and speaking up, that we will be 'shushed, shunned, shamed,' but speaking out is the way to save ourselves, change the system and prevent harm to others." (p.159)

“We cannot remain asleep. We must awaken. We must liberate our hearts & minds to free the truth from layers of structural deception....We may not often have much individual power, but collectively we can make powerful changes” S. Deloso #FighttheTower (p.167)