Racial and
Ethnic Politics
in the
Are Asian-Americans similar to other “hyphenated Americans”?
How is their process of
immigration,
assimilation, naturalization, and “becoming American” differed from
earlier
groups of immigrants?
I. Asians
A diverse group in terms of language,
culture,
religion, family relations, immigration patterns and time periods –
Discuss push/pull factors for
specific groups
A. Most predominant groups:
Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Indochinese (Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Thai).
B. Have experienced a lot of racism, discrimination, prejudice in States in spite of fact that today they are though of as a ."model minority"
- because high proportion of Asians found in high status professions, technical fields, and small business owners.
- 30% of Chinese are prof. or tech workers vs. 15% whites
- but also in low skilled - 24% Chinese vs. 7% whites
higher median family income
but 60% of Chinese households, for
example,
have more than one family wage earner compared to only 51% of white
families.
yet stereotype that all are
successful
profs.
many live in working class families
or in
poverty
C. Koreans - high ratio of
self-employed
1 in 10 Korean-Americans
1 in 15 non-minorities
1 in 67 African Americans
This disparity has caused a lot of
interracial stress between Koreans and Blacks in inner city
neighborhoods
Blacks often interpret poor English
and
cultural detachment, of Koreans as racism against Black customers.
Philly disc jockey said “they are
sucking our
blood" station apologized - Malcom said the same about Jews.
D. Numerous incidents of
violence
against Asians
1980s MI frustrated autoworker
beat
Chinese man to death with baseball bat (though he was Japanese).
Numerous other incidents of whites or
Blacks
beating Asians to death (some later acquitted)
II. Chinese Americans
A. The first group to be
excluded by
formal immigration legislation in the
1. Began arriving
to US
during Gold Rush 1849 and fleeing Tai Ping Revolution (1850-64)
2. Encountered
discrimination, often excluded from mining camps, barred from sending
children
to school, obtaining citizenship,
not allowed
to testify
in court.
B. Stereotypes of Chinese
aloof, exotic dress, braids
“cunning inscrutable"
“distrustful"
dirty/disease ridden (concentrated in
mining,
C. recruited by mining companies
(to replace
Mexican miners)
1852 foreign miners’ tax
targeted Chinese
required any foreign worker not
intending to
become a citizen to pay $3/month
note that Chinese were not
eligible for citizenship
under 1790 Naturalization Act – making citizenship available only to
“white
persons”
yet, determination of who is white
left up
to administrators; a handful of Chinese
were naturalized
Railroad companies
to build Central Pacific RR -
D. 1860
Chinese were 9% of
But 25% of the labor force
almost all males (custom that wives
stay, with
husbands parents in his absence - intended to return to
1860 male: female ratio in US was
1284:1
1890 2,678:1
E. Yet intermarriage
forbidden
There were anti-miscegenation laws
referring to
Chinese in 14 states
1. Led to many brothels springing up in Chinatowns and to the stereotype of Chinese men as sexually immoral, against family.
F. 1870s - economic slump -
RR
finished
Led to the Panic of 1873
Chinese victims of much racist
propaganda by
Democratic Party in
Labor unions excluded Chinese from
joining.
G. First restrictive immigration
law in US
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Only business men, clergy, students,
tourists
could enter - temporarily. Not allowed to work.
1. 1850 -1882
225,000
Chinese came.
In 1885 (after
tightened up
loopholes) 22!!
2. Act good for 10
yrs -
Congress renewed in 1892 and renewed and extended indefinitely in 1902.
3.
4. Organized labor
-
American Federation of Labor - 1893 convention resolution -
said Chinese
brought nothing
but “filth, vice, and disease” to US along with other wildly racist
charges.
H. Faced much
discrimination/segregation in
residential, business. many opened businesses not in competition with
whites -
restaurants, importers, shops, associations of Chinese merchants.
Segregated in
J. US Supreme Court
decision in
US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)
Children born to Chinese immigrants
on American
soil did enjoy citizenship by jus soli and by virtue of the 14th
Amendment
K. Wu notes that Justice Harlan, lauded for his arguing for a “colorblind society” in his dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson (1898) was notorious anti-Asian.
In this very dissent he wrote:
There is a race so different from our own that
we do not
permit
those belonging to it to become citizens of the United States.
Persons belonging to it are, with exceptions, absolutely excluded
from our country. I allude to the Chinese race. (see Wu,
pp.
146-147)
III. Japanese Americans
A. Japanese first came in 1868
for two centuries Japan’s emperors
forbade
travel and foreign visitors; any attempt to emigrate punishable by
death.
1. small numbers
to US at
first 1879 - only 55
1900-24,300
1920-111,U00.
2.
primogeniture in Japan
as push factor
many 2nd and 3rd
sons came.
mostly- in West
many worked in
agriculture,
some very successfully.
B. Other California growers
resented their agricultural
success.
1. 1913 passed
first
discriminatory law against Japanese in CA
Barred all
“ineligible for
citizenship” from owning land
(i.e.,
Japanese - US
Naturalization Act of 1790 still in effect: only free white people
could become
citizens;
modified in
1868/14th
Amendment - included people of African descent, i.e former slaves.)
2. 1920 - prevented Japanese from being guardians of land owned by children who were citizens passed in NM,AZ,lA,MT,ID,OR
C. Social Segregation: 1906 SF
School Board
sent Jap. children to Chinatown (already seg
D. Worst case of discrimination:.
1941- Internment.
See Wu pp. 98-103
1.
Japanese
Americans interned
127,000 in 1940;
94,000 in
CA;
63% US born
110,000 of those
interned
were 2nd or 3rd gen, some with as little as 1/8 Jap ancestry
2. Placed in
“relocation centers” in AR, AZ,CA,CO,ID,UT,WY
3. Note that
Japanese
Americans in HI were not interned, Wu says because as 1/3 of the HI
population
the economy would
have
ground to a halt; difficult to pull off in wartime.
4. Korematsu
v. US
(1944) – Supreme Court legitimated the internment of Japanese Americans
5. not until Endo
v. US
(1945) - ruled all loyal Japanese Americans set free unconditionally
6. about 10%
were
given compensation in 1948.
7. 1976 Pres
Ford
signed an executive order closing the camps
8. 1988
Congress
issued a formal apology
$20,000 in
restitution
to the 60,000 surviving detainees
III. Filipino Americans
A. Spanish heritage; majority
Catholic.
B. Philippines used to be US possession; Our ally in WWII
C. January 1942 legislation allowed immigration/naturalization.
D. Since Immigration Act of
1965 quite
high immigration
US Filipino
Population
1970 - 343,00;
1980 - 775,000;
1990 - >1
million.
90s - averaged
about 65,000
immigrants per year.
Making Filipinos
the 2nd
largest Pacific Islander/Asian group in US (after the Chinese)
E. **Note the reverse gender
pattern
-women often come
first -
work as domestic laborers, nurses, home health care workers
IV. Korean Americans
A. Recruited for sugar
plantations in HI
after Chinese were excluded by 1882 legislation.
B. Between 1903-05 about 8000 came (only 600 women) between 1907 and 1924 mostly just “picture brides” came.
C. 1953 - Korean War;
Refugee Relief
Act
Increased
immigration to US
D. 1958 many war brides came back with their GI husbands
E. By 1990 799,000 Koreans in the US
F. 70 percent living in US
are
Christians
(compared to only
30% in
Korea)
most Methodist and
Presbyterian.
G. Success in small business
explained by
rotating credit associations - kje (keh)
other groups have
too.
V. Vietnamese Americans
A. “The Boat People”
thousands came
in1979. (also
some from Indochina)
B. To alleviate some of the
risk
taking, President Carter authorized 14,000 Vietnamese refugees per month
to enter the US
for 15 mos.
C. Refugees resettled in all
fifty
states, scattered.
A problem for
forming strong
immigrant communities, but beneficial for assimilation.
D. Since 1975, 1 million SE Asian refugees have come to US.
E. Belief system a mixture
of
Confucian and Buddhist - strong belief in astrology, fate/karma; born
with
certain traits.