Asian Americans fighting for their rights - Essay Example

Asian Americans Fighting for their Rights The model minority myth or the reversed racism issue is one of the unrecognized problems of the multicultural society in the United states. Asian American students stress that it is hard to follow the enormous expectations they not even asked for. They are expected to be extra-smart, extra-successful, rich, good-natured; the statistics that show higher risk of exhaustion, a sufficient level of poverty and inefficiency in studying among Asian Americans is being either forgotten or ignored (Model Minority Stereotype for Asian Americans). The myth nevertheless was not created from nothing. The history of the Asian people’s adaptation in the American land was full of struggles and accomplishments, and it served well to create the certain mentality, way of life, habits and experience. These preconditions served well to the maintaining the certain way of life and magnificent development of Asian image from the colored second-grade people in the model superhuman minority. The positive opinion regarding the Asian Americans has built up not so long ago. At the beginning of the cultural mixing, Asians faced discrimination in both possibilities to immigrate and further living – employment, studying, housing. The people from the variety of countries, such as China, Japan and Korea, Philippines and southeast Africa were traveling to America in order to find the new life (Civil Rights. Issues of Asian and Pacific Americans: Myths and Realities 2). Chinese immigrants were the first to arrive. The variety of reasons, including both economic and physical destruction of China due to the floods, famine and Opium Wars caused people to move to the United states and mix into the society that already has been diverse (A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State). The immigration has started in 1850 but was illegal before the 1868, and under the following conditions Chinese people took every job they could have, including railroad construction, work at the gold fields, logging camps, salmon canneries. They worked eagerly, asked for less wages compared to the local workers and it caused certain discontent in the society. Some did not want to compete for the job, some considered the existence of the Chinese social group misbalancing for the society, some disliked Chinatowns as they, with prostitutes, opium and gambling, could threaten the culture of the United States. Social discontent ended up in accepting the laws that minimized the Chinese immigration and adaptation, and later – basically limited the Chinese immigration itself. It caused the anti-American boycott in 1905 and certain strain tribulations in the diplomacy between China and America (Chinese Immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts - 1866–1898). The similar situation – the economical industrialization and restructuring of the economy, forced the part of the Japanese people, particularly farmers, to move to Hawai’i sugar plantations. After the Hawai’i become a part of the United States, people just moved further into the continent, attracted to the new possibilities. Nevertheless, they still agreed for the difficult jobs, and the demand was high. Filipinos become the part of the Asian American population due to the annexation of their lands with the States, and thus had the equal rights to the other American people, still some run from the misery and sought for new life in the continent. A lot of people traveled to earn money and go back home, but due to the circumstances they had to stay. The restriction of the immigration was far not the only act of discrimination against the Asian Americans on their way to build their place in the multicultural American society. The laws that did not allow Chinese people to vote or limited the possibility to sue against the white people were accepted (A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State). The law that prohibited Asian women to immigrate in 1882 created the situation in 1890 where for each Chinese woman there were thirty Chinese men. The anti-Chinese movement became only stricter in 1880, people through the states started attacking Chinese people – in Tacoma 700 people were expelled from the city, their houses and manufactures were burned, other attacks took place in Seattle, Pasco and Walla Walla. The discrimination continued to increase. Since 1789 it was prohibited for not white people to become citizens. Moreover, the male immigrants were prohibited while females with the kids could still come. The law that proclaimed citizenship according to the race raised the issue of the impossibility to buy or rent the land. The favorable position of Filipinos as the citizens did not protect them – they were feared due to the possibility of mixed marriages and the ability to compete for the workplaces, it has become common to expel Phillipinos or limit heir quantity on the certain positions. In 1937 there were attempts to prohibit the mixed marriages, Phillipnos where also proclaimed resident aliens. The most repressive event considered the Japanese diaspora, that, during the Second World War, was literally relocated from the shore area into the depth of the continent and forced to leave home and jobs. These Japanese people were citizens of the United States, legally. The Italians and Germans that were also politically suspicious were not relocated in the same way. Some of the Japanese, nevertheless, still agreed to take part in the military actions. As the result, the Japanese battalions become one of the most highly decorated units in the US army. The totally Japanese battalion was only the first step or creating the society inside the society. The baseball teams, consumer cooperatives, and literary societies were created. The communities of adaptation help, “kenjinkai”, existed even before the war. They were the social associations that helped people from the Japan to adapt, often by uniting people from the same villages or counties. Such effort helped to create the phenomenon of Japanese Americans, the culture that developed by both living in America and preserving culture and language of the own country, developing the social rights protection, sports culture including basketball, administering own religion. The Chinese community, concentrated mostly in Seattle, was built in the similar way, based on family and district associations. Benevolent associations could instruct on language and social activities, offer loans. Later such institutions started helping also in legal issues, the union of the institutions created a coalition to regulate the issues in the Chnatown. Businessmen created bonds with influencing White businessmen, the religious services also were recreated. Filipinos also started to unite with the people of the own nation, in the variety of ways, in order to preserve own rights and culture. Their attempts ended up in starting a bunch of successful lawsuits regarding the rights of the diaspora: the union that protected e rights of fish canners against exploitation, protecting the right for land lease, challenging the “alien law” regarding the state of Filipinos. The religious base of their community formed due to the Roman Catholic Church. The issue of the International Hotel in 1970’s has become the breaking point in the protection of the rights of the Asian Americans. Basically, it was a part of the remains of the Manilatown, where elderly workers – people but not citizen, could live. The government gave them no privileges that were promised for taking part in the war. They also had no families – the law that has been active in their younger ages prohibited Asian women to immigrate and simultaneously did not afford multiracial marriages. This place afforded these people not only the roof and walls, but also the community similar to the family, with the certain specific culture. The project of restructuring the town would allow to improve the infrastructure, but it might cost people who lived there the living room at the affordable price, and, moreover - a home, where they lived or decades. The attempt to destroy the building next to the other institutions of the Manilatown ended in the massive protests from both people who lived in I-Hotel and the people of the same race that united to protect the remnants of the Manilatown. The legal struggle lasted for years, until at first the arson – consequences of which later where refurbished with the efforts of volunteers, and later - the reselling of the property and the forced eviction were performed (Salomon). The fact of such unity and the possibility to hold on to the rights gave the people the belief in the unity, and understanding of the importance of preserving the cultural heritage. What is most important - it was probably the first precedent where the immigrants allowed themselves to protest, and have gone impressively far in protecting their rights. Ironically, that part of the San Francisco was not rebuilt until the due time, and in the 2005, the I-Hotel was reconstructed and once again works (The International Hotel Senior Housing & St. Marys Chinese Catholic School). The history of the Asian American fight for own rights is not only limited to the International hotel issue. The start of the activities is marked between 1960s and 1970s, and is concentrated in three basic events: creation of the Asian American Political Alliance of Berkeley in 1968, Third World Liberation Strikes performed in 1968-1969 by San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley, and the actual International Hotel incident. The events that took place during the Vietnam War together with the attempts of the black people to struggle for own independence influenced the world view of Asian American people encouraging them to request for own rights and safety. The new worldwide wave of freedom changed both culture and minds of the Asian American youth: new music, new possibilities and new rights that seemed worth fighting for. It ended up in making strikes, but what is more important – the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley created in 1964, started its activity in order to protect the legal right of free speech. The 1968 has become the year of creating an Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA), that addressed the protection of the rights of “Asian American”, - a multinational variety of people of the certain races that consequently were considered to be the “alien people”, due to the superstitions and disregarding the actual state of things. AAPA was the first multinational Asian alliance and it has quickly spread its influence through all the United States. This precedent influenced the formation of the even more diverse union - Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), that consisted of Chicano, Black, Asian and Native American students. The demands of the union were as follows: the relevance of the ethnicities in their rights, the studies that would consider the cultures of the different ethnicities, the possibility to elect and dismiss the electable staff. The alliance lasted for months, despite the forced attempts to cancel it and has finally ensured the fulfillment of their demands. Some of the demands were maintained in the Ethnic Studies departments for forty years. The fight for the rights extended to the level of attempting to influence the social problems in local communities. It urged the creation of local centers that helped the people in need, these centers differed according to the place of origination, diaspora and the addressed issues (Asian American Movement 1968). The fight for rights is not the only action the Asian American performed in order to create the place for themselves in the modern society. They worked hard in order to gain it. The Cold War times become the period of restructuring of the Asian Americans. The Japanese people rehabilitated themselves in the eyes of the nation. Chinese Americans, to the contrary, were treated with suspicion, according to the creation of the Peoples’ Republic of China, but the anti-communist actions did not begin. Moreover, the Chinese people were carefully adapted into the society if they had the wish to cooperate – the unreliable ones were deported. Inefficient methods of checking unreliability ended up particularly in the departure of the rocket scientist Qian Xuesen, who would later create the PRC’s rocket program. Asian Americans also could gain political ground by embracing the democratic and capitalist values, and military achievements gave them the status much higher than an alien nation. Disregarding the troubles with employment, people worked with gardening and domestic service, and the American-born Japanese could work under the specialization received at the university. The favorable conditions gained due to anti-discriminatory politics and veteran benefits, created the impression of the substantial social growth. The possibility of such growth would influence the status of America as of multicultural democracy. The long-awaited status of the state gained by Hawai’i in 1959, that was feared due to the possibility of the Asians to be elected, allowed the Japanese American Daniel Inouye and the Chinese American Hiram Fong to enter the Congress and protect the rights of Asian Americans, particularly regarding the immigration reform. The immense demand of multi-racial culture influenced the popularity of autobiographical writings among the Asian writers and the consequent creating of book-based musicals and later - films, caused the actual changing of the stereotype of the Asian culture. The Asians were accepted, but more like a symbol of the different culture inside the system. The Cold War influenced Asian Americanorld from both good and bad sides. From the one side, it created more misbalanse and more refugees, from the other side – refugees could escape to America and become famous and respected. A definite part of Asian people received vast preferences and important projects, thus becoming famous and influencing the creation of the myth of the model minority. Some American-born Asians and immigrants received good jobs in business, science and technic development due to the education. Nevertheless a great part of Asians remained working on low-paying, low skill labor vacancies. The development of the diaspora raised the variety of cultural and social issues to deal with, a part of which was handled by the joint efforts of the youth, through the idea of cultural nationalism and the unite efforts, thus strengthening the cultural influence of the diaspora (Hsu). In 1966, two popular magazines, influenced by both relatively good statistics and general enthusiasm, promoted a specific image of Asian Americans that actually is quite common in the modern American culture. It was the type of person that overcomes the severest pressure, receives the social acceptance and becomes excellent. The crucial moment in the forming of the model minority myth is the actual productivity of Asian Americans. And it is not the matter of race, but more of the upbringing: there is no belief among Asian American kids that the math is an inborn talent – everything can be learned. They strive harder than Whites do, become better, meet higher social expectations and have to strive harder – it becomes a vicious circle (The Model Minority Is Losing Patience). The issue is not in Asian excellence, but in the racial inequality that artificially creates seemingly equal conditions under the point that the measurement sample is White. This stereotype may sufficiently harm the Asian American students themselves by both influencing their mental and social state (Yoo). Moreover, this stereotype creates a biased attitude and can become a hindrance for the potential student to enter the university. Becoming someone’s model does not make Asian Americans feel better in any possible way. The model minority is a myth artificially inspired by the post-war times. This myth encompasses the variety of reasons: actual efficiency prescribed by both upbringing and cultural influence, the seemingly long-gone prejudice of the alien nature of Asians, the cultural-social urge to seek the living embodiment of the American dream, the racial bias of the society that allows the permission of not accepting students under their race, disproportional statistics conduction. The historical lesson accepted by American Asians taught them the things that White children have long forgotten –fighting. The actual situation regarding the social state of Asian Americans remains the same: they are the alien nation that strives to preserve the rights that are inherent to each American – but not to each Asian American. Works cited "A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State." Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington. Web. . "Asian American Movement 1968." Asian American Movement 1968. Asian Community Center History Group, 2008. Web. . "Chinese Immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts - 1866–1898." U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State. Web. . "The International Hotel Senior Housing & St. Marys Chinese Catholic School." Clio. National Register of Historic Places. Web. . "The Model Minority Is Losing Patience." Economist 3 Oct. 2015. Print. . . Civil Rights. Issues of Asian and Pacific Americans: Myths and Realities. 1979. Print. Hsu, Madeline Y. "Asian Americans and the Cold War." American History: Oxford Research Encyclopedias. American History: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 1 May 2015. Web. . Model Minority Stereotype for Asian Americans." The University of Texas in Austin. The University of Texas in Austin. Web. . Salomon, Larry R. Roots of Justice: Stories of Organizing in Communities of Color. Berkeley, CA: Chardon, 1998. Print. Excerpt available at . Yoo, Brandon. "Unraveling the Model Minority Myth of Asian American Students." Education. 2006 - 2015 Education.com, 25 Oct. 2010. Web. .. Read More