Saffiyah Madraswala Transcript
Please state your name, age, what college you go to.
My name is Saffiyah Madraswala. I’m 20 years old, I go to Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City…is there another part to that question?
Major.
My major is women’s studies and possibly a minor in Sociology.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Newark, NJ and shortly thereafter my parents moved to Edison, NJ. It’s a central Jersey suburb. So I grew up in the suburbs.
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What stories can you tell about your parents’ literacy values, their educational values?
So my parents value education very highly and they’ve passed that on to me. It was everything. I mean, without education, they wouldn’t be here today. But I don’t think it’s the kind of education, when I think of real education in terms of like literacy, I know that’s such a complicated term, I mean for them education was get that A+ so that you can get the scholarship money so you can pay for this education so they value that very highly so growing up I had to all of the As and that kind of stuff so that was the kind of mentality they put inside of me. But it wasn’t education in the sense of bettering yourself as a person so you can see life in as many different viewpoints as possible. It was just so that, it was just a means to an education so that with this education with this piece of paper you be able to make more money. So they value education in that it will bring you wealth and you’ll be able to feed your family in the future but not in that you know you can read a book and make yourself a better person because now you can think in these new ways.
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What was your parents’ socioeconomic status when you were a child? What is your socioeconomic status now?
So for sure. Um, I think that again my family has this immigrant mentality of, um, since they came from really poor families and by really poor I mean like when you think of stereotypical third world kind of poor it’s like that so having for both of them to get college education was a really big deal. So coming here they kind of you know worked really hard, kind of fulfilled that American dream. But it was because of the circumstances in terms of where the US was at, where the US economy was at, where the development of capitalism was at so it just so happens that they could’ve fulfilled that American dream at that point in time. So I mean my family’s fortunate right now in that we’re probably middle class or this kind of illusion of being middle class that a lot of people kind of buy into. But you know we’re at that level where I never thought of like will I have food on the table the next day. I mean there’s obviously like how many fellowships can I get, how can I pay for my college but it wasn’t this kind of like bare minimum poverty. So I’ve been really fortunate that my parents have had steady jobs and these kinds of things. So now that I’m on my own, you know paying for my own college education and that kind of stuff I think that the immigrant mentality of like…it gets complicated I think it is…because like I’m not here to like…I’m not like a paper chaser I’m not trying to make the big bucks if I was I probably wouldn’t be at this program where we’re discussing things…I would be you know studying poli sci and trying to get…I don’t know…trying to be a financial analyst like my sister. So it’s kind of worked out for my parents.
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How would your life be different if you didn’t know how to read and write?
Oh my god! Life would be very…um…I would hesitate to say that it would be sad. It. Hmm. Uh, that’s such a hard question to ask now that I do know how to read and write because like I think thinking about it in this romanticized way if I didn’t know how to read and write I’d probably like pay attention a lot more to the conversations that I had with people and I wouldn’t be bombarded with all these messages and things like that. But there is no way I can really imagine what it would be like because I’ve learned so much from what I’ve read and I guess from what I’ve written or those kinds of things so I can’t I don’t know. It made my heart sink to like think about that.
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When you were growing up what did your family think about computers and its value?
It’s again a means to an end. We had a computer so that, um, when I had a project due I was able to type it up rather than have to write it out or like we’d have Encarta, which is like an Encyclopedia or whatever, so that I could, you know, know a little bit more than other people or we had a program where I could, you know, create nice looking documents or something like that so I could do well in school. So that’s what the computer was for. Not for fun, but to be able to excel at school.
Do you have any stories about the value your family placed on computer literacy?
I think it was, again I mean, in terms of stories, if, I can remember various times when I would be online like in a chat room and my parents would flip out ‘cause they were scared about that kind of stuff for good reason. But then like they would just sit me down and be like the computer is for doing your school work and like, you have this word processing, you use the word processing document, you use this program and you, whatever, you use Encarta and that’s it and that’s what it’s about. So that was the value of the computer, what it could do for my school work.
Do you currently own a computer and if so what kind?
I do. I own a Dell laptop I don’t know what kind it is. An Inspiron or something, but it’s a PC.
How frequently do you use your computer and for what purposes do you use it for?
All the time and for everything. I use it every day. I probably spend at least an hour or two on the computer. At least when I’m in the US. If I’m out of the country it’s usually a lot less time, because I have my computer but I don’t bring it around as much. And I use it mostly for using something like Microsoft word and having to write or take notes or those kind of things, but mostly for the internet, checking my email, reading news articles, doing my research, that kind of stuff.
What stories do you have about using communication technologies like cell phones, IM, email, texting?
Oh my goodness. I hate all forms of like non human-to-human interaction. I love talking to people. So I remember, for example, I don’t know why we would do this, but me and my roommate or like me and someone across the hall would IM each other or send emails to each other. I would be like why are we doing this? Like I just want to knock on your door and talk to you. Like there’s no reason for us to do that. Or even here like we’ll text each other when we’re in, like rooms across each other we could just knock on the door. There are so many times when we do that and I get so frustrated. At the same time, though, for example when I was in the Philippines the only way I could stay in touch with people, really, if I didn’t want to like be charged an arm and a leg was to use email and so we’d have really short email conversations just updating each other me and my friends whomever and so I mean it’s great for that and also phone conversations it’s the same kind of thing and I go back and forth about how much I like phone conversations because I think that phone conversations can be a little bit awkward but again it’s usually just to keep updated with people because I’d much rather have a conversation with someone in person. But in terms of instant messaging and stuff, I do not do that. I used to be a fiend for that stuff when I was in middle school and high school and having conversations til like 5 in the morning. But I think now that I’m in college and I can have these person-to-person interactions like I want it to be like that rather than IM so I stay away from that stuff. Because I feel like a lot of people these days especially get to know each other on IM and then they’ll start talking to each other in person but I mean I don’t think there’s a reason for that. I think that if you can talk to someone and see their facial expressions or you know if someone’s sad you can put a hand on their shoulder. I think you’re supposed to, it’s not supposed to be like this, I don’t know. IMing each other and texting each other which is really hypocritical of me to say being that I do text people and I do have to call people. It’s good and bad all at the same time.
Do you have your own website?
No, but um, I do for a lot of the groups that I’m in, in terms of like, for example I’m like co-chair of United Students of Color council. We have a blog so sometimes I’ll like post articles on it and maybe write a few comments on it, or like, for example, for Asian American alliance I did a blog post on Filipino American veterans um and them being denied their rights and we had a vigil, so I’ll do things like that, but it’s not my own website or anything.
Are you currently using computer technologies to aid you in your research?
Oh, for sure. I mean it’s just use of internet if that counts as use of computer technology. Um, yeah, so just that, different search engines, also I mean just emails because for me the people I worked with or the people that I interviewed and had conversations with live in the Phillippines so being able to use my email and it aids me in my research and it is my research. Um, so yeah, for sure.