Syllabus To Do List

Everyone has a task!!!!

Put the readings together – Nancy
Put the syllabus together – Jessica
Create Blog (with initial “we wish we knew” posting) – Natty
Blog Use Instructions/Suggestions – Allison
Instructor info/role description sheet – Junko
Preliminary Course Description – Kim
Pedagogical Statement – Emily R and Emily W
*Course Assignment Descriptions (with grade breakdown, without weekly presenter instructions, without blog instructions) – Lynette and Shara
Weekly Presenter Instructions – Cheukwa

*examples: # of mandatory field trips (ex: May Day March!), thought journals, blogs

Email Jessica Reading Citations, Email Nancy the Readings

hey everyone-- below are the finalized weeks for next year's class. Please email JESSICA the CITATION of your readings (NO description) along with the week number that it goes under. Email it to jwen@hmc.edu no later than SUNDAY evening (before 5pm). If you have speakers/films/optional readings, include those as well. citations only!!

Then, email Nancy ELECTRONIC copies of the readings and CLEARLY indicate which WEEK NUMBER your reading is for!

WEEK 1: Welcome!
WEEK 2: Asian American Labor Issues: General Overview and Pedagogy
WEEK 3: History of Asian American Labor (Allison)
WEEK 4: Filipino Farmworkers and the UFW (Natty)
WEEK 5: Organizing the Asian American Labor Movement – The Role of Unions (Jessica)
WEEK 6: Effect of Socioeconomic Factors on Asian American Labor (Junko, Cheukwa, Jessica)
WEEK 7: Local Asian Americans and Labor: A Historical Perspective (Junko)
WEEK 8: Spring Break!!
WEEK 9: The Impact of Globalization on Domestic Laborers (Cheukwa)
WEEK 10: Asian Americans in the Sweatshop Industry (Emily W)
WEEK 11: Asian Americans in the LA Labor Movement (Emily)
WEEK 12: Transnationalism of Asian American Labor (Emily/Natty/others?)
WEEK 13: Immigration and Deportation Issues and Concerns, Proposing Action and Solutions (Kim)
WEEK 14: "The Trafficking Jam" - The Problem of Human Trafficking (Shara)
WEEK 15: The Greater Labor Movement (Lynette)

Facebook Event

Tad Nakamura at the 5Cs
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97837213331

Class today...

Hey everyone I'm sorry but I won't be in class either, I really am not feeling very well. I'm sorry :(

Class Today

Hey I won't be in class today but I'll post my selected readings and blog response before class time. See you at the film screening!

Tad's screening location change

Hi everyone!

Per Tad's request we changed our location for his screening to the Lincoln building.

Shara, Lynette, Cheukwa

Week 14

Salmon Tales:
How do you feel about the article's discussion about the relationship between humans and salmon?
Do you like methods they used, linking art and activism?
Did you like one banner in particular? Why?

Tellingsmiths:
What do you think publishing does to a work? As Garramone asks, "Does publishing make tellings into the truth, a truth?"
What do you think about stories, autobiography, testimonial as fiction? Truth? In academia? How are they effective?
What place do you think imagery, imaginary, and imaginings should have in truth and academia?
How do you see Garramone's ideas in relation to Asian American publications?

Confessions of a Community Activist:
What do you think of Sau Wai Tai's critique/analysis of universities and urban spaces?
How did art and artistic creation hep Sau Wai Tai and her students understand the links between race, gender, and environmental oppressions?

Garden the City:
In what ways could the Garden the City project be taken as "political art?"
Do laws controlling public (or private) spaces act as mechanisms for controlling individuals and communities?

Class tonight

Hi everyone, I can't make it to class tonight. Parents in town + illness. Sorry!

Tad Nakamura

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are officially at the Motley on the 29th for this event. We can start setting up at 6.45, while the event starts at 7.

Yay!

Post Part 2

Drawing the Line

At the end of the poem a letter from Bill Clinton is included. Do you think this is part of the poem? How is it effective to include the poem?

Smells Like Racism 

By referencing the article and from what we talk about in class, what are some race and class issues that prevent Asian and Asian Americans (Asian Indians in the article) from making the obvious connection with other oppressed groups? 

Flyer for Tad's Screening

Hi, Everyone!

Our group (Shara, Cheukwa and I) is working on flyers to send out and post around campus. Above are two drafts of the flyers (maybe we will have 2 different ones: 1 full page, one smaller?). The full page has more information (including a synopsis provided on the film's blog found here: http://asongforourselves.blogspot.com/2008/12/about-film.html ) while the short one is mroe directly to the point.

They are currently labeled with the (potential) location of the Motley and we are still deciding whose e-mail address should be listed as the more information contact. Should it be made more explicitly clear that Tad will actually be present?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated ASAP- we need to get a final one soon so that we can get it approved by the colleges for posting!

Week 13 Post-Part 1

“You Are My Sunshine” discusses the (noticeable) differences between spectacle and testimony (pg. 222).

Spectacle
· Voyeurism
· On display
· Not concerned with social justice, change

Testimony
· Speaker +audience
· The witness is a necessity
· It is an unfinished product, because it demands response, discussion, etc.

1. If I said that a museum is a spectacle because it revolves around a sense of voyeurism, for example ethnic experiences on display, would you agree? Why/why not? What about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

2. What are some examples of spectacle or testimony that you have experienced/been to? And Why would you characterize them as such (i.e. spectacle as opposed to testimony)?
2A. How can you REALISTICALLY make a production or an event that is more like a spectacle, read more testimonial?

3. In Lawson Inada’s “Drawing the Line,” what does it mean for you when Inada says, “Yosh is drawing the line” ? Why is it repeated throughout the piece?

*Optional media to look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loOBBJAP9yA (Lawson Inada talking about his time in camp and also him reading some poetry)

Lynette's Syllabus Section

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that I'm late ith this- I was involved in a car accident yesterday. Not to worry- all is well and I have a syllabus section to present to you.

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that I'm late ith this- I was involved in a car accident yesterday. Not to worry- all is well and I have a syllabus section to present to you.


My proposed title is: The Greater Labor Movement Today

1. In order to give the fact that the labor movement is not just in the US, this article is a list of recent events in the labor movement around the world. More current events and contemporary events can be found at the Worker’s World website: http://www.workers.org/ww/index.html

Andy Mclnerney . “Workers Around the World.” Workers World News Service, Feb. 1996.

http://www.workers.org/ww/1996/fileout66.html




2. AFL-CIO is the federation of America’s unions. It is international and serves 11 million members, including 2.5 million members in Working America. Their FAQ page provides answers to questions such as “In this day and age, why do we still need unions?” and their Unions101 page provides a quick guide to what unions do for people today. The local unions page provides union contacts in California.


These are all short; 2 - 3 pages at most, and the contact page is more for reference than reading material.



AFL-CIO. “Unions101”. 2009. http://aflcio.org/joinaunion/union101.cfm

AFL-CIO. “Unions Facts”. 2009. http://aflcio.org/aboutus/faq/

AFL-CIO. “Your Local Union Movement (California)”. 2009. http://aflcio.org/aboutus/unioncities/clcfind.cfm?state=CA

3. Recently, workers have had issues with FedEx and their employee policies. Many workers are mislabeled as private contractors, and thereby denied the protection which comes with the title of “employee”. For example, FedEx has a discrimination policy to protect employees, but not private contractors. The article discusses anti-union propaganda posted, managers intimidate employees, question results of elections, terminating those who ask for union, bribery by improving conditions, etc.

The article contains personal stories as well as facts about the companies; I feel that this piece really makes the labor movement real since FedEx is such a big corporation. We could assign the entire article, but I especially liked the Anti-Civil Rights and Anti-Union Campaign sections and feel that they could stand alone.

Article Summary: http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/fed-up-with-fedex.html

Anti-Civil Rights: http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/dmdocuments/ARAWReports/fedupwithfedex.pdf pages 13 - 18

Anti-Union Campaign: http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/dmdocuments/ARAWReports/fedupwithfedex.pdfpages 19 – 24


Johansson, Erin. “Fed Up with FedEx: How FedEx Ground Tramples Workers' Rights at Civil Rights.” American Rights at Work, 2007.

4. For my media, I found a clip from Stephen Colbert’s show called “The Word: Solidarity”. It is a satire on arguments given against having unions and the solutions which corporations are offering as alternatives to allowing unions for their workers.

Colbert, Stephen. “The Colbert Report: The Word – Solidarity”. Online Video Clip. American Rights at Work. http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/component/option,com_issues/Itemid,92/view,issue/id,9/



I hope that you get an idea of what I had in mind; I will bring hard copies in on Monday if you do not like to view the pages online.


Lynette

I've got a massive headache, so I won't be in class tonight.
Here's my bibliography, etc.:

1. Anderson, Michelle J. "A License to Abuse: The Impact of Conditional Status on Female Immigrants." The Yale Law Journal 102 (1993): 1401-430.

Anderson retells personal stories of immigrant women who are battered in their marriages. Their husbands take advantage of their unstable residential statuses, telling them that they cannot get help without risk of deportation. She notes that immigrant women often do not even speak English, and so are less likely to be able to receive help, even if they do manage to find possible sources of rescue.


2. Narayan, Uma. "'Male-Order' Brides: Immigrant Women, Domestic Violence and Immigration Law." Hypatia 10 (1995): 104-19.

Narayan talks about the domestic abuse that often awaits mail-order brides. Their husbands threaten to turn them in to INS if they attempt to get help, and they are unable to get out of their marriages because they could possibly lose all chances of citizenship and/or residency. She also analyzes the governmental problems that harm these immigrant women and, essentially, support their abuse.


3. Raymond, Janice G., Donna M. Hughes, and Carol J. Gomez. Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States. Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. 16 Apr. 2001. University of Rhode Island.

This project is, in and of itself, a book on the subject of human trafficking. It gives overviews of the trafficking problems, details about specific trafficking operations and their locales, and explanations of the types of experiences these women go through. It has, essentially, everything from the pimps to the purchasers, from the initial contact to imprisonment and forced sex. A gold-mine of information on the topic.



Possible Films

“So Great a Violence: Prostitution, Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry”

“The Day My God Died”

Though they don't necessarily deal with Asian Americans, they do deal with human trafficking and forced sex within it. There wasn't a whole lot I could find on human trafficking in the US regarding Asians.

Syllabus Session (April 6)

for the syllabus:
create to do lists

• this includes speaker information so they can contact them (multiple speaker options if available, and then it's up to the person who signed up for that session to take care of contacting the speaker, etc.)

For next week:

• bring a title for your week
• bring annotated bibliography of articles that you want to use for your week and email a copy to Nancy
• bring ideas of speakers or films for your week

Resources for the Syllabus

I found a huge annotated bibliography for a course called "Asian Pacific American Labor Studies" taught by Glenn Omatsu. It's full of great articles, but some of them are sort of hard to find. I've had to link+ several books.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc/classweb/winter02/aas197a/atocpart1.html

Additional Week 11 Questions

The article Reverse Racism is very powerful and puts into perspective how horribly Asian Americans were treated by whites. The article makes references to the Japanese imprisonment camps, white influence in Asia, immigration restrictions, racism, rape, prostitutes and much more.

• How do you think non minorities, especially non Asian Americans, would react to this article?

• Would the white community realize what they have done is extremely racist and wrong?

• Do you think this article was successful in getting its point across?

In the Summer of Bruce, Vijay Prashad talks about how everyone comes from all ethnicities and how all cultures are related. It also talks about how Bruce influenced people around the world through his karate as he become the first famous Chinese actor.

• What do you think about everyone originating from all races?

• Why didn't Suger Ray Leonard know Bruce was a champion boxer when he said he was influenced by a non boxer because he liked the art and reflexes of Bruce's karate?

Week 11 Questions

Sorry these are a bit late. Emily should be adding onto this in a bit.

In Summer of Bruce, Vijay Prashad presents Bruce Lee's films as points of intersection between Asian American and Black struggles against structural racism and oppression. His picture of inter-ethnic solidarity and "polyculturalism" is a striking contrast to the images of violence between Blacks and Korean Americans during the 1992 LA riots.

• What is responsible for the apparent disconnect between these two accounts?

• What role did the mainstream (read White) media play in shaping popular perceptions of inter-ethnic violence in 1992?
  

• Does the mainstream media have any responsibility for creating divides between two communities that both face structural oppression?

• To what extent do Abelmann, Lie and Prashad deconstruct the model minority myth and myths of Black/Asian American conflicts?