Second Thought Project
反思計畫
©Wen-Li Chen 陳雯俐
About
⇌漢
The Second Thought Project (https://secondthoughtproject.com) is an ongoing learning journey focused on social justice. It offers notes, thoughts, reflections, conversations, and toolkits to support this journey.
The project is driven by the perspectives of being an educator, BIPOC, and a parent who believes in humanity. I aim to plant seeds of hope, change, dignity, and integrity, fostering a world of understanding and practicing social justice to create a peaceful life.
1
Introduction
2
Personal Equity Reflection
3
WHAT IS SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WHY DO I HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT IT?
4
Five Tools / Strategies / Techniques
5
Five Resources
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Preface7
During Work
8
In My Head
9
What is Microaggression?
10
How to Have COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS With Students and Community as Educators?
11
How to Have COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS With Yourself?
12
Practice using a compass as a navigator to start a conversation and reflection
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Self-Reflection
14
Amy Chua
15
Amy Tan
16
Writings between 2022 and 2024
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II
Visual Essay/Poem
VIEW PDFPreface
I was born and grew up in Taiwan. Now I’m a citizen of the U.S.A. I’m a bilingual professional with two Master’s degrees in art and education. I’m a first-generation undergraduate and graduate student in my family. I’m a first-generation immigrant. In Taiwan, I had a stable job and life; I could fully make my choices and decisions as a woman. After immigrating to the USA with my white husband, I had optimistic hopes of finding my place in this new society, as I had wanted since I was a bilingual designer with a reputation and experience. I was wrong.
I was rejected from hundreds of applications for entry-level, junior-level, and senior-level roles, as well as for all kinds of job titles, as a graphic designer, visual communication designer, creative director, and art director, in my first year back with my husband. I started reflecting on my abilities and portfolio. I have made it better and better, with more narrowly focused goals to think about how design can help me grow as a tool and assist in solving problems in daily life, after years of doubt, a sense of unwelcoming, and a sense of powerlessness due to depression and confusion.
By year two of living here, I started teaching at a higher education institution through networking, and I have been an educator since then. My higher-education degree paid off, and it became openly available. This is part of being privileged. On the other hand, I now have over 100k in debt after studying again, becoming a new immigrant, mother, and citizen. Do I regret it? I don’t regret it, since this learning helps me define who I am as a woman, a lifelong learner, an educator, and a human being who values knowledge, critical thinking, and the power to make well-informed decisions within a sound framework.
I came in as a green card holder who relies on family-related connections. But I couldn’t get any benefits that a citizen can apply for or obtain, such as child care assistance, fellowship or scholarship for students, or women’s welfare support system if I ever want to have a child, or an opportunity to study again in higher education if I can pay triple the higher tuition fees as an international student. Our whole family currently relies on my partner’s one-person, full-time income. If I hadn’t applied for citizenship two years after our child was born, I wouldn’t have been able to manage to stay here and write about this after several years.
During the renewal process of my second green card, that was the most nerve-racking period I have ever experienced. I can’t work or travel back to Taiwan because I’m concerned that the first Trump administration would turn me away at the airport if I tried to reenter the country.
After I gave birth, I feared that I would lose my husband and my child. So, I decided to apply for naturalization in 2019 instead of renewing my green card, and I finally completed the process by January 2020, receiving a certificate of naturalization and becoming a citizen of the United States of America.
Why do I have to move and stay here? It’s simple. I want to stay with my immediate family. We have established a new life in our new place TOGETHER. I want to thrive, have the dream as everyone else does. Of course, I can go back to Taiwan if I want. But I have started to fall in love with the people, the places, and the community around us, which keep me informed, learning, and reflecting. It took me almost a decade to get where we are now, even though we are just normal Americans with monthly paychecks, to get life going with debts, uncertainty, hope, and change.
Most importantly, the USA is a symbol/beacon that taught me about democracy, collaboration, freedom, education, human rights, equality, and equity. I want this country to continue doing so and to serve as a model for others globally. That’s what I believe.
And suppose there’s no consistency in the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment” across the country. In that case, I think the fight is necessary to protect the foundations of fairness and equality established by the Fourteenth Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Reference:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/29/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-bold-plan-to-reform-the-supreme-court-and-ensure-no-president-is-above-the-law/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Protection_Clause
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment
U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIV (Fourteenth Amendment).
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv [law.cornell.edu]
Library of Congress.
Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection and Other Rights.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/ [constituti...ngress.gov]
Equal Rights Amendment – Current Legal Status.
LegalClarity, December 13, 2025.
https://legalclarity.org/what-is-the-current-status-of-the-equal-rights-amendment/ [legalclarity.org]
Congressional Research Service.
The Equal Rights Amendment: Background and Recent Legal Developments (R47619).
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47619 [congress.gov]
National Archives.
Statement on the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Process. December 17, 2024.
https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2025/nr25-004 [archives.gov]
U.S. Congress.
S.J.Res.108 – A Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to Reaffirm That No Person Is Above the Law.
118th Congress (2023–2024).
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/108/text [congress.gov]
The American Presidency Project.
Fact Sheet: President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law. July 29, 2024.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-bold-plan-reform-the-supreme-court-and-ensure-no
Author’s Note (2025):
This introduction was written in 2024 during the Biden administration. In April 2025, when revisiting the references, I noted that the original White House webpage cited in this article—“FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law” (July 29, 2024)—had been removed from the official White House website following the transition to the Trump administration.
Although the original government webpage is no longer accessible, the content is preserved in independent public archives, including The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as contemporaneous media coverage. References have therefore been updated to reflect these archived sources.
04/23/2025I wish I had been taught this earlier so that I could have protected myself and learned to accept myself as I am.
I am
an immigrant,
an artist,
a mother,
an indigenous person,
a woman of color,
a multiracial,
a daughter,
a granddaughter,
A non-stop voice with echoes as the remainder.
for myself, for you, for everyone, for the next generation that speaks of truth, love, care, peace, integrity, dignity, and justice with self-affirmation.Here I am,
tangled like intertwined wires
tied with a plastic twisted tie.
Standing next to the piles of debris,
disappointments, distrusts, disconnection,
disruptions, disconstructions,
and something left to move forward,
for the people who were born here,
grew up here, moved here,
immigrated here, and stuck here
to claim where the home is for them.
To find a small, thriving plant,
coming out of the dirt underneath the concrete,
the disaster and the strong survival instinct of nature.
It takes time, patience, witnesses, notice, and intentions.
Nothing more than fear being provoked with hate and lies
intentionally blown up with fire and violence.
I can smell the smoke,
mixed with orange and red flame,
spreading outside the window,
when the baby was asleep in the room.© 2026 Wen-Li Chen 陳雯俐All Rights Reserved Website Manager: Wen-Li Chen
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