Asian American Studies 197A
Winter Quarter 2002

Reflection Journal 1

How Class and Racial Identities Interact with Each Other
By Greg Hom

What I think the issue of increasing numbers of suburban Asian-American students into elite universities brings to light is the issue of how class and racial identities interact with each other. Will Asian-American students from the suburbs know about the history of oppression in this country as an intimate part of their identity? Will these students stand in solidarity with those Asian-American students who do know that oppression firsthand? Will the struggle students engage in become "liberal," nationalist, or anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist?

With increasing numbers of more upper class Asian students in elite schools, while certain ethnicities remain mostly lower class and unable to attain college education, there is the possibility that issues of racism and class-struggle will strike less of a chord with students. With a homogenized group of people that can afford to go to school, means that there will not be a strong culture of lower-class knowledge and experiences. This is not deterministic in my mind. I have come to question the validity of the "American" and capitalist system, though I am middle class. It still remains to see how I will choose to live my life and fight against imperialism, but I have the tools growing in my brain all the time. I hope this doesn’t sound ridiculous but I believe that I am an exception. I know of few people from my class background who truly talk about revolution or revolutionary change, of whatever means. I think something holding many people back is the notion that everyone can be as privileged as your typical Beverly Hills resident, which I find problematic. People are going to have to be less consumeristic and deny privilege, and I’m not even sure if I’m doing it well, though I believe that I have friends who will be critical of my life decisions and know that I want their input on these issues.

I don’t believe my viewpoint to be similar to a low-income immigrant Asian worker. As a middle-class student, I have learned a great deal about how my experience has been extremely different from many of my classmates who have had to struggle to get and remain here, and I know few low-income immigrant workers, though working on campus there is an opportunity to meet fellow UCLA employees who are definitely in that category. Due to this, I really don’t even have a sense of what general immigrant "thought" is on the subject of the gutting of affirmative action. I have a sense that lower-class people in this country who aren’t educated by socially conscious community groups or by their own history of struggle tend to believe that they can make it someday, and if not them, their children.

As a non-Asian person and generally a student at UCLA in this class, I believe that this class is important for me to learn from. Most of my educational work towards liberatory thought has come from Chicano Studies classes, and I know there are different and similar issues that face Latino and Asian students. This class will hopefully broaden my scope of knowledge of struggle and tactics that people have used in Asian communities to empower themselves and prove their humanity to oppressors. I believe that to a certain extent in my education, I am simply learning to think. Fortunately I have classes that demand action on my part, to participate in my own education, thought most of the education I have had on struggle has come outside of the classroom, though a lot of it has remained on this campus, which I have found problematic, but I have been more confident about venturing out into the Los Angeles community lately.

As I mentioned above, I am not sure of what I believe I should be doing to increase struggle and liberation in the world, and where I need to be doing it. I have thought of using photojournalism as means to inform people of injustices in the world. I would rather not, at this point, go into academia, though discussions I have had lately have made me think about it as a possibility later in life when and if I feel I have truly contributed to making the world better (and hopefully I won’t be delusional like that asshole Horowitz…). Teaching or working with youth at lower ages than college does appeal as a way to bring about critical thought. Another thought that I have been thinking of is taking on a blue-collar job and becoming active in meeting my fellow workers and learning from them and also seeing how they think about struggle, and seeing what I can do to being about change that way.