March 2021 American Cultures Newsletter
Dr. Harvey Dong
Department of Ethnic Studies and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies (AAADS), UC Berkeley
Dear Friends, I was the first recipient of the Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award and have been teaching Asian American Communities and Race Relations (ASAMST W20AC) for almost a decade. Here are some thoughts regarding teaching the class and how the work of faculty and students in the classroom can strengthen the work against hate. One hurdle with the committee on courses in creating my class was whether an Asian American community class could be comparative enough across race and ethnicities to make it qualify for the AC requirement. I remember reworking my syllabus and thinking back on the time periods and subjects covered that for Asian Americans, whether pre or post-1965 immigration entries, the state of race relations have always been an important point of reference to explain the Asian American experience.
To understand the more recent hate violence against Asian Americans, it is important to study the context and the perpetual foreigner positioning in which Asian Americans are constantly placed. The context encompasses national and international factors such that, when crisis hits; Asian Americans, portrayed as the perpetual foreigner, become susceptible to abuse. The spectre of the yellow peril threat led to violence and Asian exclusion laws. War propaganda and racism created public fears about Japanese American disloyalty; which created the narrative facilitating the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans, ⅔ US-born. In the 1980s, intense competition between Japanese and American automakers provided backdrop for virulent anti-Asian hate violence that resulted in the murder of Vincent Chin by two unemployed autoworkers. The enclave communities in which students visit were the results of institutionalized racism where survival meant to live in segregation. However, when land values rose in these communities due to big development, 120 Filipino and Chinese tenants of the International Hotel in San Francisco Manilatown; they had to organize one of the largest anti-gentrification struggles in the Bay Area which lasted from 1969-2005. The police abuse and beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the acquittal of the police officers; led to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 where community tensions with Korean American grocers became exacerbated by the media and police. In South Central Los Angeles, store camera footage becomes released on public tension of the shooting of 13 year old Black teen Latasha Harlins and shopkeeper Soon Da Ju over alleged shoplifting by Latasha Harlins. The release of the footage is shown multiple times in conjunction with the footage of the Rodney King beating and police acquittals. All this had the effect of breaking up existing Black-Korean dialogue meetings and the destruction of $500 million of Korean American businesses.
No matter their smaller population numbers in pre-1965 or their higher numbers and visibility in post-1965, Asian Americans have always been in a precarious racial spotlight. In the civil rights movement, the Asian American model minority myth is introduced. Conservative politicians and mass media portrayed Asian Americans as the quiet, apolitical, bootstrappers, who overcome adversity through individual merit without having to protest like the African Americans. Presented as a compliment, the model minority myth is a dangerous stereotype and has distorted real conditions in the Asian American community. It covers up differences within the Asian American community and divides Asians from black and brown communities. A racial hierarchy is reinforced with whites at the top, blacks at the bottom. Asians placed in the middle. Except when an international crisis hits such as the Covid-19 pandemic, political demagogues spew xenophobic statements that become a release for anti-Asian hate incidents and hate crimes. According to recent studies by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, San Bernardino State University; in 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen 150% while overall hate crimes have dropped 7%. The Stop AAPI Hate National Report covered 3,795 incidents reported between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021. While covering on a fraction of the actual incidents, the report exposed the vulnerability of Asian Americans to racism. The breakdown of the hate categories included: Verbal harassment (68.1%), shunning (20.5%), physical assault (11.1%), civil rights violations (8.5%) and online harassment (6.1%). Women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. The more outrageous acts of violence have against Asian elderly with regular news reportage of elderly being pushed to the ground, knocked off wheelchairs, suffering from serious injury and death.
A number of the incidents have involved assailants who were persons of color which has led to a divide within the Asian American community with conservatives calling for more policing and progressives calling for systemic approaches which include multiracial community patrols, more funding for street ambassador programs and anti-poverty programs. In Oakland Chinatown, I’ve been on community panels related to Asian-Black relations and combating anti-blackness within the Asian American community. Because Oakland has a history from the Black Panthers and their calls for rainbow solidarity, younger generations have been continuing that work. There has been visible Asian American involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement and there has been Black community support in donations to victims of AAPI hate. Black Panther veteran Tareeka Lewis designed a logo for the Oakland Chinatown Coalition with the slogan: “Asian - Black Unity which is worn by community members.” The history of the Asian American movement is rich with lessons regarding alliances with Black Indigenous Peoples of Color. This began with the TWLF strikes at SF State and UC Berkeley which led to the establishment of ethnic studies curriculum, the anti-apartheid movement which led to the AC requirement, the twLF hunger strike of 1999 that saved and revived ethnic studies that led to the creation of the Center for Race and Gender and the Multicultural Community Center. Institutionalizing these gains has been important and with it our classes are in a good position to bring the lessons of how to build multiracial solutions to dealing with issues such as AAPI hate.
From analyzing many of the community issues, Asian Americans learned how to fight, build alliances and strategize to create space for survival. Rather than remaining passive and isolated, intergenerational solidarity was built between the older immigrant generation and the younger 1.5 and second generations who learned from the protest history of their elders. For most students in the class, the material is new and when applied to community field trip visits and volunteer work in community organizations, the subject matter evolves from learning subject matter in books to learning and applying knowledge to change the contemporary world. They work together to not only become community observers but work to reshape the meaning of community itself.
