Matrices Of Privilege And Oppression

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The main topic that I focused on for journal 5 was on Matrices of Privilege and Oppression. Three passages that stood out to me, were #103 - Salad by Janice Mirikitani, #105 – Take a Closer Look by Carrie Castro, and lastly, #116 – Livin’ in a Gay Family by Megan McGuire. Each reading discussed each author’s struggle to battle the oppression and the inequalities set in place by society.

For my first selection, I picked #103 – Salad. Janice Mirikitani shortly, but beautifully expresses the burden she faces being a Japanese-American woman. This ties into the topics we covered in our last forums regarding racism, and the topic of oppression. I feel as though Janice struggles with some of the same burdens that I face. At the bottom of her poem, her last lines were: “Do you orientals do everything so …show more content…

There is a stereotype associated with Asians about being “perfectionists.” We always need to do everything so “neatly”, “perfectly” with ease. Everyone expects us to be super-smart and when we do our jobs, we do it to perfection; just like Janice cutting the cucumber precisely, exact, even, and quick slices. My roommate always praises me for being so “studious” and constantly makes stereotypical comments like “Of course, you should know that, you’re Asian” when it comes to anything that deals with math, or “Of course you would (referring to a job I did) you’re Asian.” There is a big burden that instantly comes with being born an Asian. We are always harassed by this stereotype, and people always have displayed these types of actions towards Asians.

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