Asian American Community at Scripps College

I wasn't sure if I should post about this here, but I decided to just because I think its a really relevant issue at Scripps, and not just for Asian American women but all minority groups on campus.

Last semester, Scripps students started a blog called whosespaceisthisanyway.blogspot.com, which was a student effort to start a conversation about the lack of diversity and community at Scripps College. In my freshman year, I don't think I would have agreed with the posts and comments that have been made, but at a junior now, I definitely feel that there are many issues that need to be addressed at Scripps.

I came to Scripps expecting to learn more about myself. I joined various organizations and clubs, and met new people. As a first year, I also expected to find a really welcoming Asian American community to enhance and nurture my Scripps experience, and although I feel that I have grown, those communities have really disappointed me. I won't name them specifically, but I feel that some organizations, which developed to facilitate and support the development of Asian American identities and communities instead alienate and exclude the people they were supposed to help. I understand that there a rules and limits on resources which put a lot of pressure on the leaders to pick and choose people to be members of the group, but I think a lot of the time their biases and personal issues get in the way of their judgement, despite their insistence that it doesn't happen. I've been part of these groups for a long time and they talk a lot about acceptance and safe space - but when it comes down to it, they don't really live up to their claims. In fact, I think their exclusivity serves to breakdown the Asian American communities they want to build. I attribute this to the fact that the organization doesn't have a staff member responsible for supervising and advising the group. Although I respect the students who work hard to run these organizations, I think that the way they run and organize the group is exclusive and sketchy sometimes, for lack of a better word.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this....I guess I just wanted to express my disappointment in the Asian American community at Scripps and in Scripps for not better supporting these organizations so that people aren't excluded and prevented from participating. Because I feel that the point of these communities is for Asian American women to find support - despite the resources available, and I think ANYONE who wants to participate should be able to. But sadly, this isn't the case.