Racial Triangulation - Literature review Example

tile Racial Triangulation Racial triangulation can be defined as the situation in which Asian Americans were considered as outsiders while Whites and Blacks are considered as insiders in America. Although racialism affected Native Americans, Mexicans and African Americans just as it affected Asian Americans, the Asians were excluded. This was referred to by Claire Kim as a way of going beyond Black and White. This is made clearer by Aoki and Takeda (2008) who argue that African Americans have found it easier to claim American citizenship than Asian Americans after the Civil War. Asian Americans were distinguished as foreigners while Black Americans were considered as natives. At this period of racialism, White Americans were favored over all other racial groups in America. A Black person would be considered more as a native than an Asian American. Although Asian Americans have lived in America for more than three generations, they are still assumed to be foreigners. They speak English like the Black and White Americans, by they were still outsiders. According to Kim (1999), Asian Americans have been racially triangulated in relation to Blacks and Whites. This means that they have been located in racial locations with reference to Blacks and Americans. This occurs in two major ways. First, relative valorization occurs when Whites valorize Asian Americans in relation to Black Americans on racial basis as a way of dominating both groups, especially Black Americans. Secondly, racial triangulation can be viewed as a way of civic exclusion whereby White Americans assume the Asian Americans to be inassimilable foreigners racially and culturally in order to exclude them from political and civic society. These two factors of valorization and exclusion are analytically and functionally related. The concept of racial triangulation was clearly indicated by the need for labor and the dominance of White Americans. As the dominant group, White Americans noted that placing Asian immigrants as superior to Black immigrants but inassimilable and permanently foreign. This enabled the Whites to use Black Americans for their economic benefit without including any of the two groups in the polity. Although the Whites did not want Asian Americans in America, they accepted them as foreigners because they needed their services. Aoki and Takeda (2008) define racial triangulation using a political perspective, arguing that insiders (White Americans) and outsiders (Non-white) were distinguished by political systems. According to Aoki and Takeda, like Claire Kim, the whites have historically been considered as insiders while the nonwhites have been considered as outsiders politically. Historically, it was also common in United States that to be positioned as an outsider or a non-white makes one to become politically, socially and economically disadvantaged. Triangulation can therefore be considered as a mechanisms used by the dominant Whites to create an advantage for themselves economically, politically and socially. Racial triangulation also occurs because race is something that people invent – it is not natural or biological (Aoki and Takeda, 2008). People construct racial groups through social and political processes. “White” can just be viewed as a color of the skin, but in racial triangulation the skin is not a sufficient mechanism of determining who is white. Asian Americans have a lighter skin than Black Americans, but they are not classified as “white”. Therefore, racial triangulation is not about the color of the skin but about social and political construction that discriminates one group from another. The political side of the definition of racial triangulation can also be seen through the exclusion from naturalization. The Whites pursued their interests, and by excluding Asian Americans from being naturalized they denied them the opportunity to participate in elections and representative governance (Kim, 1999). As a result, nobody represented their interests in the polity. This also served to strengthen the dominance of the White Americans politically. This political exclusion of the Asian Americans subjected them alien land laws and other unfavorable political legislations. Racial triangulation can also be explained in terms of color line. In this case, the idea of being white or non-white depended on the superficial perceptions of people on the physical appearance of various racial groups. According to Kim (1999), Californians considered a white person to be worth two Asians, and one Asian to be worth two Blacks. This shows how far the line of color is drawn to place one race on top of others. Triangulation in terms of color lines does not occur as a natural phenomenon in the field of genetics. Instead, it has been seen as a concept developed by humans to construct a line for obtaining advantage over others (Aoki and Takeda, 2008, 4). It was an effective way of propagating discrimination easily. In United States, the issue of race was used as a basis for discrimination since colonial era. After independence, the constitution still favored slavery, and as we have noted, slavery was a part of the racial triangulation process. After independence, USA passed law that allowed immigrants to be assimilated into American citizenship as long as they were from a proper race. Seemingly, Asian race was not proper for assimilation; hence they remained unassimilated for a long period. Within this period, the Whites used the color line between the Whites, the Black slaves and the unassimilated Asian foreigners to obtain advantage for their own race. Citizenship gave Whites more privileges than the Asians who were not given the opportunity to become citizens. They received constitutional protections including ownership of property. Racial naturalization was a common practice that was used to create discriminatory measures against those who could not be assimilated, especially the Asians. Non-citizens, especially the Asians, lacked legal protections for property rights and other issues related to naturalization and citizenship (Buenavista et al, 2011). Preventing Asians from being citizens enabled the government to exclude them from constitutional protection in terms of property ownership and other rights vested on American citizens. A good example of discrimination due to lack of naturalization or citizenship can be illustrated by the case of the Vietnamese who were born in Germany and migrated to United States. Tam Tran’s parents fled to Germany due to the Vietnam War. He was then born there and later migrated to United States. The immigration court of America then ordered that they should be transferred to Germany because they did not qualify for naturalization. Germany did not welcome them, so they just stayed in America, although not as citizens (University of California, 2006). In this case, racial triangulation is practiced because the American government did not grant Tran citizenship, considering him as a foreigner in American sol. Tran says that although he may not be evicted from America, he could become an American citizen under the constitution that operated in the country. Another example that defines racial triangulation is the racial discrimination of Chinese immigrants. Chinese immigration began in 1875 and in those early years they were not allowed to become citizens (Aoki and Takeda, 2008). Although Chinese were good sources of labor in United States, they were restricted from immigrating to United States through the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was occasioned by prejudice against Chinese. While Africans were widely accepted as slaves, Chinese were restricted until American employers sought for other sources of labor from other parts of Asia. The Asian immigrants were then racially triangulated. Towards the end of 18th century, USA’s alien land laws promoted racial triangulation. Through the laws, American Indians and African Indians were considered unfit to belong to the American society. In the 19th century, Asian Americans were categorized as “non-white”. Unlike the African Americans who were declared unfit for American membership, the exclusion of Asian Americans was racial. The exclusion denied them the opportunity to naturalize, and gave them a unique position as foreigners in a country where they have dedicated a lot of their years through constructive labor participation. Furthermore, exclusion through alien land laws subjected the Asian Americans to the situation of being unacceptable foreigners. This conquers with the definition of racial triangulation by Kim as the situation of treating Asian Americans as outsiders. References list Aoki, Andrew L. and Okiyoshi Takeda. Asian American Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008. Print. Buenavista, Tracy L. and Jordan Beltran Gonzales. “DREAMs Deterred: Filipino Experiences and an Anti-Militarization Critique of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act”, Harvard Journal of Asian American Policy Review, 21, 2011: 29-37. Kim, Claire J. “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans”, People and Society, 27, 1 (1999): 105-138. University of California Press. Testimony of Tam Tran. Los Angeles: University of California, 2007. Print. Read More