AAS 345 OL - Contemporary Asian American Issues

UNIT OBJECTIVES

1. Examine community activism
2. Consider alternatives to formal politics
3. Think about the role of students as activists
   

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How does your life intersect with history?
2. Have certain historical events shaped your life or influenced your life plans?
3. Have you discovered why C. Wright Mills describes this intersection as both, “a terrible lesson, and a magnificent one?”
   

TASKS FOR THIS WEEK

• Wednesday, April 30th -  Post your response to the essay assignment in the discussion forum - Activism by 5:00pm
• No need to post responses for this final essay but please do read what your fellow classmates are sharing through the assignment. I know I always learn a lot with this final essay.

Note: Most of your postings have been credit/no-credit but this last essay assignment will be graded.

Final Essay Assignment (Autobiography & History)

According to sociologist C. Wright Mills, we can always discover an intersection between history and autobiography. Each person’s life unfolds within a particular historical period, and an individual can understand their own experience by locating their life within history. Each person’s life is shaped by historic events such as war, immigration, racism, oppression of women, economic recession, civil unrest, etc. As C. Wright Mills states, this discovery is, “in many ways a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one.”

This quote is from Mill's book, Sociological Imagination (1959)

• For an abbreviated presentation of the essay from which the quote comes, follow this link
• For the complete version of the chapter, follow this link
  

For this Essay Assignment you should write a two-and-a-half page (approximately 500 words) autobiography linking your life to history. You should provide some background information about yourself (place of birth, where you live, what is important in your life, life aspirations, etc.).

The readings about Yuri Kochiyama and Philip Vera Cruz should help guide you in the sense that you read about their lives and are able to see how historical events shaped their lives and also how they shaped history through their own engagment and confrontation with those historical forces.

In the essay, you should focus on the following questions:

• 1). How does your life intersect with history?
• 2). Have certain historical events shaped your life or influenced your life plans?
• 3). Have you discovered why C. Wright Mills describes this intersection as both, “a terrible lesson, and a magnificent one?”

Once you have written your essay, post it on the Activism discussion board.

READINGS

OPTIONAL

• The Promise of Sociology - C. W. Mills
  
• The Sociological Imagination, Chapter One - C. W. Mills
  

Comments (3)

	1. 04-23-2008 18:39
	Yellow Team YELLOW TEAM:  Anahit Bazikyan  Lorena Barton (Moderator)  kittipong tontisukkarom  khorolgarav Murphy  Melanie Grafil  Juranita Thiraphoj  Kristin Baylon    Our group discussed the successes of the 80-20 initiative. The 80-20 is a non-partisan group that was formed to give a voice to the Asian Americans. They have has success by motivating 80% of this group of voters to vote for a bill or candidate that supports their issues. They send out 700,000 emails to gather their group behind common goals    The questions about the coalition groups & politics were very confusing. We looked over the readings and talking about how these groups have banned together to give them a more powerful voice about issues that effect both groups.     Several of the people in the Yellow Group felt that one of the reasons that Asian have not been successful in politics is because the “model minority” paints them as quite and shy, not quick to jump into a conversation. Registered Report

Lorena Barton

	2. 04-30-2008 11:00
	Yellow Team Where can i find the readings about Yuri Kochiyama and Philip Vera Cruz Registered Report

Khorolgarav Murphy

	3. 04-30-2008 13:54
	link to readings on Yuri Kochiyama and P The readings about Yuri Kochiyama and Philip Vera Cruz may be found by clicking on this link:    http://www.csun.edu/~smr78195/aas345/week1345.htm#fourteen    It worked for me so hopefully it should work for you! Registered Report

Cathy Viado

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