: Fed funds rate = 1%; discount rate = 2 %, secondary rate = 2.5%. below are two of the sample journal entries that acheieve 10/10  full credit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This entry received a 10/10 for fulsome meaningful engagement with assigned reading and original creative analysis. I originally signed up for this class thinking it would be more of a survey of Asian Religious Traditions – apparently, I was wrong (as stated in the syllabus.) Originally, I was disappointed, but after having completed the first readings and watched the videos, I’m both glad and interested that it is not. I must confess that this class will likely be difficult for me, as a straight white male (otherwise known as “the devil” in these current times) but that doesn’t deter me. I grew up in the Bay Area and feel fortunate to have been raised around a very diverse group of friends. I admit to thinking that racism was something I read about in the history books as it wasn’t something I overtly experienced. In 1996 I joined the military and spent a lot of time in the South (specifically Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia) where I realized racism was still occurring, while watching my friends get treated differently than me depending on what neighborhood we were in. Those feeling came rushing back as I continued the readings today.             One of the recurring thoughts I had today revolved around the people who were writing the history books at the times, and how they were unable to see people that were different from themselves through any lens but their own. In the article by Professor Lee, he explains that “explorers and missionaries have claimed indigenous peoples of the New World ‘lack knowledge of God’ or ‘have … no religion as we understand it” (Lee et. al. 130). This, to me, is one of the fundamental problems we have today: the inability to appreciate someone or something that is different from what we “know” without viewing it through the lens of our own understanding. This still happens today. Those who are writing the history only see it through their own eyes. I know this is not a uniquely American trait, though. As an example, throughout my time in the Navy I had the opportunity to travel through some amazing places. One of which, and I will never forget this, was Nagasaki, Japan. My shipmates and I had the privilege to tour the museum there dedicated to the lives lost in WW II. I will never forget the emotions I felt that day. One thing we all noticed, is that the history that lines the walls of that sacred space was very different than the way we learned it in the States. In our opinions, there were a lot of things completely left out (like the Pearl Harbor invasion for one.) Initially I was a little angry, but it didn’t take very long for understanding to wash over me. The people I met there (including a survivor who happened to be lucky enough.

1. :
Fed funds rate
= 1%;
discount rate
=
2
%, secondary
rate
= 2.5%.
below are two of the sample journal entries that acheieve 10/10
full credit
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------
This entry received a 10/10 for fulsome meaningful engagement
with assigned reading and original creative analysis.
I originally signed up for this class thinking it would be more of
a survey of Asian Religious Traditions – apparently, I was
wrong (as stated in the syllabus.) Originally, I was
disappointed, but after having completed the first readings and
watched the videos, I’m both glad and interested that it is not. I
must confess that this class will likely be difficult for me, as a
straight white male (otherwise known as “the devil” in these
current times) but that doesn’t deter me. I grew up in the Bay
Area and feel fortunate to have been raised around a very
diverse group of friends. I admit to thinking that racism was
something I read about in the history books as it wasn’t

2. something I overtly experienced. In 1996 I joined the military
and spent a lot of time in the South (specifically Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia) where I realized racism
was still occurring, while watching my friends get treated
differently than me depending on what neighborhood we were
in. Those feeling came rushing back as I continued the readings
today.
One of the recurring thoughts I had today revolved
around the people who were writing the history books at the
times, and how they were unable to see people that were
different from themselves through any lens but their own. In the
article by Professor Lee, he explains that “explorers and
missionaries have claimed indigenous peoples of the New World
‘lack knowledge of God’ or ‘have … no religion as we
understand it” (Lee et. al. 130). This, to me, is one of the
fundamental problems we have today: the inability to appreciate
someone or something that is different from what we “know”
without viewing it through the lens of our own understanding.
This still happens today. Those who are writing the history only
see it through their own eyes. I know this is not a uniquely
American trait, though. As an example, throughout my time in
the Navy I had the opportunity to travel through some amazing
places. One of which, and I will never forget this, was
Nagasaki, Japan. My shipmates and I had the privilege to tour
the museum there dedicated to the lives lost in WW II. I will
never forget the emotions I felt that day. One thing we all
noticed, is that the history that lines the walls of that sacred
space was very different than the way we learned it in the
States. In our opinions, there were a lot of things completely
left out (like the Pearl Harbor invasion for one.) Initially I was
a little angry, but it didn’t take very long for understanding to
wash over me. The people I met there (including a survivor who
happened to be lucky enough to be behind a cement pillar in his
workplace) were amazing. I saw them for who they were: human
beings. I’ll never forget that day for a couple of reasons: 1)

3. meeting that survivor made the events of that war human to me,
and 2) we all (as humans) tell the stories as they relate to us, no
matter how different it may be to others involved. I understood
why the Japanese people tell the story of WWII differently than
we do.
I realized while reading the second article, that I’m not
any different – I see things through the lenses I was given,
although I’m trying very hard to remove them. I was struck by
the understanding that I didn’t think of Indian Americans as
Asian, as discussed in the excerpt from Mr. Khyati Joshi where
he says, “Even within the developing dialogue on Asian
America, Indian Americans are the other, often invisible or
marginalized because of the widespread popular understanding
of the term “Asian American” to refer primarily or even
exclusively to East Asian Americans” (95). When I thought
about it, I knew where India was located (as I verified it on
Google), but it just never occurred to me as I fell into the trap
that Mr. Joshi discussed. Again, seeing things through the lens
that I have constructed. This was confirmed even more for me,
when I listened to Prof. Lee’s lecture on “Race and
Racialization” where he defined race as being a “social
construct,” or something of human invention, thus being
unstable and changing over time. Today was also the first time I
have ever heard the term “racialization.”
I have always considered myself relatively “woke” (to use the
vernacular of the day) but I am quickly realizing that I have a
lot to learn, and I’m happy to be here to do it. All of the
readings today, including the lecture and the video, “A Class
Divided” have shown me that, even though I’ve felt for a long
time that we, as a society, need to stop seeing things that are
different from us through our own lenses only, that I am just as
guilty as those I call out. Even after the first day, I’m starting to
see things differently – which excites me for the rest of the
course!

4. Works Cited
Joshi, Khyati, “What Does Race Have to Do with Religion?”
2006. Pdf.
Lee, “Race and Racialization”, week 1.
Lee, Jonathan, et. al., “Religion, Race, and Orientalism.” 2015.
Pdf.
In the text “Religion, Race, and Orientalism,” I learned how
strongly Western influence changed my people’s (Pilipinx
people) religious beliefs. I learned that religion was defined by
western thought and defined during the 18th century as
requiring a canon, a God, and a covenant that can be made with
said God: “the dominant conceptual model...refers to a covenant
that entails obligations between individuals communities and
their God.” (Lee 131) Western religion focuses solely on a
singular God, and this leaves other religions out of the picture,
including shamanism, and other religions that believe in
multiple deities.
This is an interesting fact to me as a Filipino American who’s
practiced Catholicism (which believed in one deity, one canon)
all our lives and is aware of Pilipinx indigenous communities
belief in multiple deities/spirits. As our Spanish colonizers (and
later our American colonizers) forcibly converted us to their
faith, we’ve essentially forgotten our old religions. Many
Pilipinx-Americans in the diaspora don’t know of the pantheon

5. of deities that the indigenous people of the Philippines kept -
and still keep. (Miller) The majority of the Philippines had been
converted to Catholicism by our Spanish colonizers and
remained to this day. Though a handful of indigenous people
that still practice the pre-Hispanic belief system - the majority
of our people in the mainland, Manila, are Catholic! I find it sad
that our colonizers so deftly managed to sweep away my
people’s old traditions, beliefs, and customs because of their
“crusade” to rid our people of our more “inferior” religious
practices. The only reason I know of our pre-Hispanic
religious/belief system is because I actively sought out more
information about it. The superiority of Christianity essentially
rid our Pilipino culture of its own belief system.
I also learned of the strong interconnectedness of race and
religion in “Race and Racialization.” Specifically, I learned
how racialization of religion has greatly influenced how we
individuals approach our own faith. This is experienced by
many Indian Americans who are immediately assumed to be
practicing Hindu just because their skin is “the color of mocha.”
(Joshi 96) It results in religion being one dimensional, and thus
amplified the idea of “othering” religious groups and
individuals. Ultimately, it seeks to oppress minorities who
may/may not fit in to their “standard” religion.
One example I can remember is when I also went to a private,
Baptist Christian high school. I always felt as if I was always
going to be a “foreigner” though I classified myself as Christian
like everyone else - though my family was notably Catholic.
Though I said I was a born again Christian just like them, it
didn’t stop them from asking questions such as: “where are you
really from,” or seemingly innocuous remarks such as “you’re
Filipino? I love lumpia!” It creates this one dimensional,
stereotypical picture of me that was hard to steer away from. I
was always going to be defined by my race despite accepting
white Christianity. It’s ok wonder that after high school I was

6. drawn back to my Catholic Church - because it was filled with
people that looked like me and where I
felt
like I belonged. Racialization, in my personal experience, has
affected the way I view white Christianity - as being seemingly
“accepting,” but subtly oppressive.
I also learned in the video “Race and Racialization” of the
importance of critically defining race as a social construct. Race
was a human invention that essentially classified people in to a
social hierarchy and gave rise to legitimizing white oppression
and gave whites people the excuse to exercise their supposed
superiority over another. (Frontline PBS) In the documentary
“A Class Divided,” an experiment on creating socially
constructed hierarchy (where a teacher deemed that brown eyed
kids were inferior) leads to this false identity of superiority; one
child when asked why he was so eager to discriminate, he says
that it made him feel “like a king.” (Frontline PBS) This false
sense of superiority defined by race gives white people the
excuse to discriminate. This is exemplified in the way the
Spanish approached their crusades- under the guise of
“indigenous people are inferior, and we know better.” Because
of this false sense of superiority, they managed to find an
excuse to rape, pillage, and colonize brown people and take
away their land and belief systems. It’s crazy for me to think
that giving a group of people the excuse to exercise authority
over another immediately leads to hatred - in a classroom
setting it can be as small as teasing, but when applied in a
larger context it leads to mass colonization, death, and
oppression of a minority group for generations.
Works Cited
Frontline PBS. “A Class Divided.”
Youtube

7. , 18 Jan. 2019,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcCLm_LwpE&t=12s
Joshi, Khyati. “What Does Race Have to Do With Religion?”
New Roots in America Sacred Ground. New York, Routledge,
2016, pp. 89-117.
Lee, Jonathan, et. al., “Religion, Race, and Orientalism
.” Asian American Religious Cultures.
Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2015.