Racial Triangulation and Orientalism - Literature review Example

Lin Zhao 4/30 Midterm paper ASA100 Racial Triangulation and Orientalism Racial triangulation has been experience in very large magnitudes by theAsian Americans. This Asian Americans originates from a wide range of Asian countries some of them being Japan, China, Korea, and India. This has resulted to some kind of racial unity among the affected race, which has resulted to arising of several movements in search for their civil rights. According to Chang (41) racial triangulation is the locating of a group of people belonging to a certain race in the field of racial positions so that they can be denied certain civil rights. These are believed to occur through two simultaneous and linked processes. One of the processes is relative valorization in which the dominant group of white people valorizes a subordinate group of Asian Americans relative to another subordinate group of black Americans in order to dominate both groups. The other process is the process of civil ostracism, whereby the dominant group of white people constructs a subordinate group of Asian American as immutable foreign and inassimilable with the whites on cultural and racial ground in order to exclude them from the body of politics and civil membership (Chang 41). Racial triangulation has a very intriguing history in the American history. It is rate about two centuries ago when the Asian people first settled in America. However, we can categorize it into two broad groups that are the pre civil rights era racial triangulations and the post civil rights era racial triangulations. In pre civil rights era racial triangulation occurred openly in cultural racial terms. In the post civil rights era, racial triangulation has been christened some names to disguise it (Chang 53). However, during both periods the effect of racial triangulation is identical. In both cases, the result is having white dominance in various aspects of the economy, especially politics and academics. For instance, according to Claire Jean Kim, in his article, “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans”, he claims, “The field of racial positions generally—and the location of Asian Americans specifically—continues to reinforce White racial power, insulating it from minority encroachment or challenge.” (129). Orientalism is associating people, their culture or beliefs with the East especially the East Asia. There are various forms of orientalism practiced in America. One of the most prevalent forms of orientalism is Islamic. Furthermore, America being a multi-cultural country it has many people who are associated with East Asia. These include people of Japanese, Chinese and Korean origin, as well as people from India, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. In orientalism people are not only associated with East Asia biologically but also religion-wise and culture-wise. Modern politics relates to orientalism to some extend as we find that people associated with East Asia in America are associated with a certain political party. Furthermore, these people are believed to vote in a certain direction as well as supporting a specific candidate for a political office. Moreover, previously people of Asian origin had no political right to vie for a political post. Since they are the minority race, the racialism in the elections could not allow them to get elected posts. Furthermore, the intellectual culture previously revealed a lot of orientalism especially a belief that the graduates who were from the Asian origin were not fit to take the kind of jobs they had studied for. The whites regarded these kind of people as intellectually inferior and thus denying them opportunities. In most cases, orientalism is not based in facts and it depends a lot on speculations, beliefs, history, and imagination. The people who are associated with East Asia in most cases are people who had been born in the United States so here orientalism depend on history. In terms of culture, you can find that the people practicing it while in America have developed the culture, which is being associated with East Asia. In this case, orientalism depends on speculation and imagination. In terms of religion, no one is certain about the origin of other religions. Such orientalism depends on history and imagination. In the documentary film “Kelly Loves Tony” directed by Spencer Nakasako, Thai orientalism against American style of living is elaborated by showing how Tony and his family’s expectations—for Kelly to quite her school, stay in Tony’s family, take care of her baby and help out some family work were disagreed by Kelly. We can see that in contrast to Tony, Kelly was more impacted by American influence. She wants to finish her education, find a fine job, achieve her American Dream, to pursuit of happiness, and live in a better life. However, Tony was leaner to Thai tradition and culture, he, and his family want Kelly quite her school, stay at home, and accepted all those Thai traditional wedding ceremony. On the other hand, as the generation is passing on and on, orientalism become lighter and lighter which carries by Asian American that doesn’t their skin become whiter and whiter. Racial triangulation and orientalism are very much related. One of their relationships is that racial triangulation leads to orientalism and orientalism leads to racial triangulation. When the white practice racial discrimination, they associate the people they are discriminating with the place where they speculate they originated. A good example is the associating of black Americans with Africa. The other type, which in our case is the one we call orientalism, is associating people with certain looks, culture, and religion with the East Asian continent. Furthermore associating people to a certain place and especially the East Asia creates a racial difference that can result to racial discrimination in the form of racial triangulation. This shows that when racial triangulation starts then orientalism must follow and vice versa and thus, it is either we eliminate them both or we will find ourselves eliminating none. Another relationship between racial triangulation and orientalism is that they support one another and strengthens each other. When orientalism start to be practiced in an area with a certain degree of racial triangulation, these degree in most cases get elevated. The same happens when racial triangulation comes into existence in a place where a certain level of orientalism was practiced. The degree of orientalism increases thus indicating that these two states support each other. Due to the effects, we have to fight both of them to eliminate them. The presence of both orientalism and racial triangulation has resulted to various movements in the United States. These movements are organized to fight for the civil rights of the oppressed Asian American and they have spread throughout the country. These movements have lead to various demonstrations and mass actions throughout the country and they are rated to have begun more than half a century ago. Although these movements have been resulting to violence, injuries and deaths, there are some achievements that had been achieved so far. According to Shen Wu and Chen (221), the movements forced the federal government to grant these Asian Americans political rights through executive order, legislative action, and judicial decisions. Moreover these movements resulted to a change in the curriculum of the university students which included the establishment of ethnic study programs(Shen Wu and Chen 222). The movements have affected the image of the United States. It was believed that in this country only people of a certain race were getting employment even in the major sectors of the government like the forces. By the time the president issued an executive order to prohibit racial discrimination, demonstrations had already been planned. Even after this order, racial triangulation, and orientalism continued to exist but in a disguised manner and thus forcing the movements to continue (Shen Wu and Chen 222). Works Cited Chang, Gordon, H. Asian Americans and Politics: Perspectives, Experiences, Prospects. Port Chester, NY: Stanford University Press, 2002. Print. Kim, Jean, Claire. Politics & Society. The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans.1999. Sage Publications, Inc, 1999. Print. Spencer Nakasako. Kelly Loves Tony. 1998 Shen Wu, Jean, Y. Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010. Print. Read More