Asian and Asian-American Political Reclamation

The UC Berkeley AADS Introduction video taught me to utilize my agency and reject histories that prevent accessibility to my community’s needs. Before watching this video, I did not know that 1960’s Asian politics in the U.S. centered around political solidarity and its manifestation into collective change between all peoples—especially since student-activism is the “backbone” of multicultural movements (Vicci Wong). I deeply resonated with Wong’s diasporic description of Asians being “Orientals at best” because when destructive racialization is rejected, people take back control over their community’s cultural formations, productions and histories that inform one’s sense of self and identity.

By Cynthia Valentin