This course definitely provided a lot of new information and knowledge pertaining to the pre-Viet Nam War, during the war, and post-war. Each segment revealed a lot of history and pain that has been silenced and erased within a few generations. I appreciate that we were able to acknowledge how disconnected from our history a lot of us were within our class, it really highlights the importance of having this SEA class. Without it, we would not have this information to pass along to others to keep our history alive and speak truth to power. Now knowing at least the surface level and a little below of the level of destruction that the U.S. participated in and still participates in really opened my eyes more to the deception I feel like this country creates. I didn't question the dominant narrative the U.S. has created surrounding the war and now I realized after learning about it how widespread it is. My grandpa always tells me how thankful he was to be granted entry into the U.S. and that soldiers had been very kind and helpful when my family arrived in Pennsylvania. I am glad that they were welcomed, but I feel like welcoming masks truth. Yes, these refugees were granted asylum, but it was from a country that destroyed theirs and did not provide any help at all when they came here that met their basic needs. My family struggled to stay afloat and still does today.
This knowledge that I've gained has increased my curiosity and also drives me to push further to reach my career goals. I hope to go into clinical pediatric psychology and work specifically in a SEA community to provide representative and sensitive mental health care. After hearing people's stories in class and really seeing how much intergenerational trauma there is, I feel like it is really important to have someone that can help with destigmatizing mental health care in the SEA community and providing it in a way that is accessible to all income levels and is sensitive to their specific needs. Lastly, all of the assignments we had throughout this course I feel are very helpful and a great way of bringing light to issues. Each reading brought new information and our projects allowed us to seek and find new information.
Question: Why have many universities been notorious for wanting to rid of ethnic studies? Is it truly because they see no value in the information or has the university systems become so corporate that they would prefer this type of information not learned by future generations to keep people thinking a certain way?
No comments:
Post a Comment