forever foreigners or honorary whites?

Question 1

dr. jim yong kim

Answer 1

• first asian american president of an ivy league institution

Question 2

forever (perpetual) foreigner

Answer 2

• regardless of how many asian americans have been in the US, people still view them as outsiders in this country
• asian americans feel like they’re a guest in someone’s house, can’t ever relax
• assumption that all asian americans are foreign-born

Question 3

pew research center asian american survey results

Answer 3

the data supports the forever (perpetual) foreigner idea

Question 4

what are the impacts of the perpetual foreigner?

Answer 4

• invisibility and glass ceiling issues
• conflicts in identity formation and adjustment
• permissible targets of prejudice or discrimination

Question 5

texas state rep. betty brown

Answer 5

• says asian names are hard to pronounce for americans
• example of “othering” based on the language she used

Question 6

racial hierarchies

Answer 6

systems of stratification premised upon the belief that some racial groups are either superior or inferior to other racial groups

Question 7

different conceptualizations of the US racial hierarchy

Answer 7

• white and non-white
• black and non-black
• a more complex conceptualization

Question 8

middlemen minority

Answer 8

• not accepted by dominant/subordinate group
• if they attempt to move into economic niches controlled by dominant group, they may become hostile and discriminate (glass ceiling)
• lower social classes may harbor resentment toward middlemen minorities and blame them for lack of access to power and resources

Question 9

racial triangulation (claire jean kim)

Answer 9

• not a single vertical order but constructed on at least 2 axes
• asians being inferior to white people but superior to black people yet as permanently foreign and unassimilable (apart from black and white people)

Question 10

open racial triangulation (1850-1950)

Answer 10

maintain/exploit expendable labor force “without making any enduring claims upon the polity”

Question 11

coded racial triangulation (1965-today)

Answer 11

new era of colorblindness or “generate formal norms of colorblindness that marks ongoing racial domination?”

Question 12

processes of racial triangulation

Answer 12

• relative valorization
• civic ostracism

Question 13

relative valorization

Answer 13

• white people valorize asian americans relative to black people on cultural/racial grounds in a way that reinforces white dominance over both groups
• model minority

Question 14

civic ostracism

Answer 14

• white people construct asian americans as immutably foreign and unassimilable with white people on cultural/racial grounds in a way that excludes asian americans from civic membership