Halle Fiagle

ETHS 2420
Reflection
Kikuchi
23 November 2014
Reflection
Taking this course was a real eye-opener and challenging class. As a freshmen, I was in a
class with people more advanced in their degrees, which made me have to step out of my
comfort zone and work at a higher level.
I feel that I have learned a lot about the history, politics, culture and social experiences of
Asian Americans. Learning about the different experiences of Asian sub-groups really taught me
how different they are and the fact that they are generally grouped together does give them
enough credit. One thing that I found interesting was learning about the effects World War II had
on the Asian Americans. The Chinese were brought in as workers and discriminated against.
After they begun to understand their unfair wages, the Japanese were brought in, and so on for
the Filipinos.
Also, the presentation we watched about the speaker was very powerful. Her life story
was one that is overlooked. The American dream is thought of simply coming to America,
getting educated and getting a good job. She did attain that, but the depth of her struggles and the
incredibly hard experiences she went through as a child in her home country have an impact on
her for the rest of her life. The knowledge I gained knowing that this is the reality for immigrants
and refugees is helpful to understand their struggle in America, In class, we discussed that

foreign countries may not have the simple machines we do, and so to expect them to come here
and be readily able to assimilate into American culture is virtually impossible.
Numbers can be misinterpreted and hard to see as the facts of reality, but the statistics
along with the history and events of Asian Americans put a face to those statistics. Charts, graphs
and statistics only show the results, but to combine them with the knowledge behind it is what
makes them matter. An example of this is the rise of Asian American women in the United States
during the mid 20th century. With only charts and graphs, you know that there is a rise, but dont
know why. The knowledge that it was due to war brides for American soldiers comes
separately.
Social and political issues can be enhanced by statistics. With facts given it gives
credibility to whoever is presenting the issue. Epidemics are only word of mouth unless they
have something to back them up. When an issue is presented and backed up by facts, it makes it
more real. You can tell that factual, this is an issue.
An instance where facts do tell a story is in the immigration patterns of Asian Americans.
While it may not tell the reasoning behind the uprise or decrease, it tells you that there is a
change occurring.
Having the term Asian Americans encompass so many races and cultures takes away
from the complexity of the situation. From learning about the different ethnic groups under that
umbrella term really helped me to try to understand the differences between them. Even one
ethnic group has people who react differently to social work help, so its very difficult to
pinpoint exactly how to treat a person. However, learning about customs and traditions of the
different cultures can help to get a generalized idea on what are normal patterns and mannerisms.

We discussed in class such customs as showing respect by avoiding eye contact and a different
concept of time.
Learning about Asian Americans has really helped me to know more about the people. I
feel that Asian Americans are very underrepresented in our society and mostly stereotypes are
used to judge them. This is not to say they are the only race with this issue. If diversity were
more apparent in our society, we could come to learn more about other ethnicities and be on the
track to getting over stereotypes, hopefully the most destructive ones that lead to things such as
racial profiling.
This course helped me to understand that our countries views and records of historical
events are somewhat skewed. The experiences of immigration told by those coming to America
helped me realized that its not a perfect transition. There are many political and emotional
complications.
This course helped expand my views past my small city. The knowledge Ive learned
about cultures has helped me to empathise with them and realize that advantages I have been
born with. During this time in a battle of racism, I feel this course really helped me to assess my
stand on political issues better.