Richard Aoki Film Response

This film explores the life of the late Richard Aoki and his participation as a member of the Black Panther Party and leadership role as an activist during the Civil Rights era of the 60s, fighting for ethnic studies and and spaces in college campuses in California. The documentary emphasizes Aoki's challenging of traditional ideas of Asian-Americans as demure, cooperative, and complacent: Aoki is loud, he is angry, and was unapologetic about it. He recalls his childhood being detained in camps along with countless of other Japanese-Americans during World War 2 because of 

This reminded how many people actually had to physically fight and risk their lives just to have spaces of color and have ethnic studies specifically discussing the hxstories and issues of marginalized groups. As a first-year college student in 2017, it's easy to forget that these were not just handed to us, and many of us take these hard-fought rights for granted. The sentence "ethnic studies was born out of struggle" also deeply affects me because I am aware that just because I am now able to discuss and learn about issues in my community, the struggle is still very far from over. As a person who identifies asa first generation immigrant from Stockton, California, a predominantly low-income city of 300,000 people, I want to go back home after I graduate and be a part of the progression for change in the future. One of my goals is to be someone I needed when I was younger. Like Aoki, someday I want to be able to look back in several years and see significant change.  Recently, Stockton Unified School District has officially started to implement ethnic studies courses into the curriculum for high school students. This is so important because not a lot of kids, including myself, had access to these valuable lessons on sociopolitical issues that severely affected us as (mostly) children of immigrants.