What article am I analyzing?
Do you know how to decide on a source that is trustworthy to use? First of all, the article I am analyzing is, “These 8 Asian American Movement Stories From The Past Year Show Us The Way Forward,” and is written by Mark Tseng-Putterman. This piece of writing was originally published on the Medium Blog site of Mark Tseng-Putterman, which he provided his twitter @tsengputterman (located in the “Bio” section); however, I found this article through Huffpost, which was published on January 8th, 2019. Mr. Tseng-Putterman took his time to establish his main argument: Asian Americans fought against their oppressive state and refused to accept the role of “model minority” by joining movements that were political and racial. First, the author states that he wants to place focus on ways Asian Americans were critically confronting housing displacement, U.S. imperialism, deportations, and state surveillance.
Next, the article explains the reasons why these movements took place with summaries about unfair education, imperialism, sexual violence, police brutality, and racial profiling. As well as, orientalism in the U.S.-North Korea “conflict”, and the practice of community care in the face of hate and Islamophobia. Followed by, the #CleanDreamAct, refugee communities rallying against the new wave of deportations, and the criminalization of survivors of domestic abuse. And finally, the author provides hyperlinks to other articles relating to the topics, signing petitions, and donating money to organizations.
Credible or not?
The source is credible because it uses real events and protests that can be verified, and found from credible outside sources. For Mr. Tseng-Putterman to demonstrate his credibility and knowledge on the topic, he mentions eight Asian American movements that range from supporting affirmative action to opposing deportation after abuse and prison. The author uses information that is covered by facts, and appear to be valid, as well as well-researched.
Additionally, he applies quotes and other strong assertions backed by sources, and sources that are factual information listed, so that the information can be verified. Furthermore, this article influences people to get more involved in movements that fight against racism and discrimination. The source is credible because it uses real events and protests that can be verified, and found from credible outside sources, and has a qualified author in this topic who’s credentials are listed as being a Contributor to the article written and his background includes: writer, scholar, and currently a Ph.D. student in American Studies at Brown University, along with an interested in Asian American movement histories and futurities. This source also has hyperlinks that work with accurate and credible origins of sources.
Who is “Mark Tseng-Putterman”?
The name of the author [Mark Tseng-Putterman] is on the page. He is qualified to write on the given topic because he is studying in college for a Ph. D in the subject he is interested in. However, given the fact that he is writing on an article about Asian representation in America and he studies American studies, he could be biased towards his views on this topic. The author does support the organization [Huffpost] because he posted his article from his original medium blog site to this organization’s site as well. I am assuming the reason why he posted to more than one website would be because Huffpost has a bigger audience when it comes to reading about articles.
Hyperlinks and Asian representation
Mr. Tseng-Putterman uses facts and statistics from articles that are from credible websites and sources. The first quote he uses is, “Incidentally, Harvard’s class of 2021 boasts a 22.2 percent Asian American student body, a record high for the university.” (para. 6). The hyperlink included shows statistics’ origin, links to the proper website to validate and is from The Harvard Crimson, a university-affiliated news-page.
Another example is, “Years of silence-breaking and community organizing culminated with the September unveiling of a comfort women memorial in San Francisco’s Chinatown plaza.” (para. 9). The hyperlink goes to SF Gate, which is a credible news source for information on San Francisco. Additionally, the SF Gate website had actual pictures of the statues and women who were once comfort women, and the information is accurate because comfort women were real.
The third example took place on June 14, in which 20-year-old Tommy Le was fatally shot by Seattle police. The quote I am focusing on is, “In the aftermath of the shooting, a Seattle sheriff’s spokeswoman said the officers believed Le was holding ‘what they thought was a knife.’… Le had been holding a pen when he was shot three times by Seattle police.” (para. 14). For this quote, the hyperlink leads to The Seattle Times, which is a credible news source. To add on to that, the incident took place in settled, the author of this article used the Seattle times article. This makes the source more close to home, and the quote is accurate from The Seattle Time. There is a repeated pattern of using quotes that are accurate and lead to credible sources.
Sad, but it’s the truth
There are two more quotes that Mr. Tseng-Putterman uses that can be validated. The next quote is, “Undocumented Asian Americans between 15 and 36 make up some 10 percent of the DACA-eligible population, and over 16,000 of DACA’s 800,000 recipients are Asian American.” (para. 26). Mr. Tseng-Putterman can hyperlink the quote to the source. The information of the quote can be found on the hyperlinked website’s figure 1 chart. Additionally, the quote is in an informative tone that credibly states the statistic, because it is about giving facts rather than persuading.
And lastly, Mr. Tseng-Putterman continues to provide the reader with another tragic quote, “During four years of secret war in Cambodia amidst the Vietnam War, the United States dropped some 2.7 million tonnes of bombs, directly killing a half million people and creating social upheaval that helped lead to Pol Pot’s rise to power.” (para. 29). The hyperlink works and brings the individual to an accurate website where the quote is found under the subtitle, “The Bombing”. Furthermore, the quote is a fact, rather than a personal opinion. Mr. Tseng-Putterman’s ability to choose the information that is accurate and reliable demonstrates his credible, which is significant when choosing to use his article as a credible source. Mr. Tseng-Putterman concentrates on the factual part of each example he uses, and although he may sound bias in some parts of his article, that is to be expected since his article is an opinionated piece of writing.
Work Cited
“Comfort Women.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women.
“Justice Department to Investigate Harvard’s Admissions Process: News: The Harvard Crimson.” Justice Department to Investigate Harvard’s Admissions Process | News, http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/8/3/DOJ-investigation-admissions/.
“U.S. Secret Bombing of Cambodia.” Rabble.ca, http://rabble.ca/toolkit/on-this-day/us-secret-bombing-cambodia.
Hooker, Sarah, and Michael Fix. “County-Level View of DACA Population Finds Surprising Amount of Ethnic & Enrollment Diversity.” Migrationpolicy.org, 24 Feb. 2015, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/county-level-view-daca-population-finds-surprising-amount-ethnic-enrollment-diversity.
Rubenstein, Steve. “‘Comfort Women’ Statue Unveiled in SF Chinatown.” SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Sept. 2017, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Comfort-Women-statue-unveiled-in-SF-Chinatown-12222122.php#photo-14202640.
Tseng-Putterman, Mark. “These 8 Asian American Movement Stories From The Past Year Show Us The Way, Forward.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 8 Jan. 2018, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/these-8-asian-american-movement-stories-from-the-past-year-show-us-the-way-forward_b_5a53d008e4b01e1a4b187e47.
Tseng-Putterman, Mark. “8 Asian American Movement Stories from 2017.” Medium, Medium, 24 Dec. 2017, https://medium.com/@tseng.putterman/8-asian-american-movement-stories-from-2017-f1c04f51fb18.
Tseng-Putterman, Mark. “Mark Tseng-Putterman (@Tsengputterman).” Twitter, Twitter, 8 Aug. 2019, https://twitter.com/tsengputterman.
Willmsen, Christine. “Man Killed by King County Deputy Was Carrying a Pen, Not a Knife as Initially Reported.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 24 June 2017, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/man-killed-by-king-county-deputy-was-carrying-a-pen-not-a-knife-as-initially-reported/.
