As a first-year this was the first time I attended the ECAASU conference, which was held in Washington, DC. This year was ECAASU’s first in exploring a new dynamic of ECAASU being managed and held by several different universities. As this was my first experience, I can say that the structure of the conference was a nice effort in being different and new, but it was definitely disorganized which was a little upsetting as a first time attendee.
ECAASU’s initiative this year was Mission Ignition: Champion Your Cause. I appreciated the different speakers and performers who were present and made some of the first significant differences as Asian and Asian Americans in American politics, literature, and music. The workshops I had attended were ones that were okay, but not very beneficial to learning anything new. I felt they were very bare and minimal and didn’t push for depth in the discussions.
As a Hmong-American, I am already a minority in the Asian-American setting. I did not appreciate the light ECAASU portrayed my heritage and my identity and because of this, I didn’t enjoy the experience ECAASU could have been. I believe that for a conference bent on its mission to provide a safe space for Asian-Americans to talk of their stories, that it is wrong, even with well intentions- to subject a group of people in such a way where the main stream understanding of my culture is already negative. It saddens and hurts me as a Hmong-American when I am in a setting talking about identity and the institution I am in makes remarks that hold no regards to the differences that make my heritage the way it is. I honestly would have preferred, for no mention of Hmong than to what my peers and I had to listen to at the conference.
I would recommend this conference to Asian-Americans and their allies that are in the beginning stages of their social justice understandings towards Asian-Americans in America and want a broad picture of that understanding. They touch upon the basics and try for an inclusive community, but ECAASU is just a conference which skims the prominent issues of Asian-Americans.
Thanks!
Best,
Vana Xiong