Richard Aoki and Kwon's "Youth Activism, State Reform, and Imperial Statecraft"

In Aoki, Richard Aoki fought for Asian American rights and education. The main issue that Kwan’s article looks at is the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and how the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership, a youth community, attacks it. In both cases, there are groups of youth trying to shape their own path and future.

- The AYPAL quickly found out that they had very little/limited democratic power. Kwon: “..., they [AYPAL members] confronted a state that encouraged them to be active, but denied them the right to representation and “voice” in the laws of their governance.” This also occurred in the documentary Aoki, when Richard and his group tried to express their intents and perspectives, they were shut down. However, that did not stop either groups from persevering.

- I find this absolutely ironic because being the youth, we are the future leaders of this society, but we are not allowed to take part in shaping the society we are growing in. We too are citizens just as any other individuals in the government are. So why is it that our voice is ignored and opinions tossed aside.

-  The AYPAL learned that you can not resist against something directly, so what they did was instead looked at it as a whole. “AYPAL youth called attention to immigration policies as technologies of neoliberal governance aimed at producing citizen subjects who exercise “good” choices and personal responsibility, while rendering invisible state violence and power.”

-  What I understand from this is that the issue is the government expects all citizens to just follow the laws they place, and those who do not are punished behind the scenes. I believe this further implies a controlling government, which only cares about their own interests. In Aoki, when the youth, who are supposed to be the people, were forcefully shut down by the police, beating Richard and even lying afterwards to save their image. This is quite similar to imperialism - higher-up’s interests prioritized > people and use of militant force to control.. This also still the case today. For instance, electoral vote are more valued than the popular vote of the people during presidential elections, or the recent Delta Airlines incident. The higher ups show they have little care for their people.