Introduction Flashcards
1
Q
Tiger Woods
A
- part Asian, but really leans into Af Am part of identity
- represents the fact that Asian Americans are invisible minority and spectrum of race from black to white
2
Q
American Racial Ideology as Applied to Asians
A
- continuum of black to white
- Asian Americans seen as assimilated and closer to white
- model minority, honorary whites
- therefore overlooked
- neglects history and persecution of Asian American history because AAs have assimilated, high economic and educational success
- Hispanics and Native Americans seen as closer to black
3
Q
Neglect and Distortion of Asian Americans in American History
A
- Asian immigration perceived as anomaly compared to European immigration
- seen as not actively participating in US’s growth and history
- still seen as new to US, but they’ve been here since 1700s
- Asian Americans invisible from view of black-white paradigm
- outsiders, perpetual foreigners, alien, invisible until concept of Asian American comes in 1970s
4
Q
Asian Americans
A
- diverse and heterogeneous
- 30+ ethnic groups
- origins in Asia
- one of the fastest-growing groups in US; 10% of US pop and expected to be 12%
- not just a demographic marker, but also oppositional to “Oriental” term
- term represents shift in consciousness
5
Q
“Oriental”
A
- used until 1980s
- from East
- complement is “Occidental” - from West
- “East meets West” idea suggests fundamental difference between E and W civilizations
- way of orienting European countries
- define west by marking east
- Oriental suggests east, foreign, exotic
6
Q
Orientalism by Edward Said (1979)
A
- suggests that in late 18th C, Europe in Enlightenment
- age of reason over faith in God
- Orientalism emerges in Enlightenment as humans seek mastery over nature
7
Q
Taxonomy
A
- classifying animals and plants – also used for humans (skin color, skull shape, hair texture)
8
Q
Orientalism
A
- knowledge of Orient produced in Europe portraying Asians in foreign, exotic way
- Orient was Near/Middle East (Arab countries)
- not necessarily accurate
- represented as strange, exotic, foreign, feminine, inferior
9
Q
Defining Orient Implications
A
- defining Orient implicitly defines West as the complement (familiar, rational, civilized)
- E-W binary created as Orient defines what West is not
- central to self-conception of Europe and the West
- usually pitted against each other (E vs. W, E meets W)
10
Q
Orient as Nautical Term
A
- sailors orient themselves by knowing where E is
- in that sense, E is fictional point that can’t be reached, but that you still use to understand where you stand in the world around you
11
Q
European Imperialism
A
- Asia, Africa, Americas
- Orient was site of Europe’s richest colonies
- taxonomy power coincides w/ imperialism
- Orientalism becomes justification for colonization, conquest, domination
- seen as needed to civilize Orientals
- Orientals seen as homogeneous
12
Q
American Orientalism
A
- also saw Asians as monolithic group
- more to orient Americans rather than understand Orientals
- affirming American mastery in time of industrialization as America also becomes imperialist
- also used to understand American nationality and identity
- connotes that Orientals are never from US
13
Q
Oriental Perceptions
A
- perpetual, forever foreigners within
- perpetual immigrants, outsiders
- never full Americans
- centrality of racism in Asian American history
14
Q
“Asians in the Library”
A
- textbook Orientalism
- called them “Unamerican” in the most fundamental, crucial ways
- racism so embedded in social structures that it made it normalized enough for her to post this on Youtube
15
Q
“Asian American” Term
A
- replaces “Oriental”
- results in change of social and self-perception of Asian Americans
- emerges in height of Oriental hatred
- not necessarily racial classification so much as solidarity, organizing term
- more what you believe (from nothing a consciousness)
- panethnic identity for a bunch of ethnic subgroups
- political identity and consciousness of society
- emerges during social upheaval in American society
16
Q
1960s Social Movements
A
- anti-war, civil rights, feminist
- questioned status quo and American institutions
- challenged racism and sexism at home, imperialism in Vietnam
- Asian Americans impacted by these changes –> fought to change perception of Asian Americans and ethnic studies in universities
17
Q
SF State College Strike (1968)
A
- formed Third World Liberation Front (TWLF)
- Hispanic, black, Asian American students calling for ethnic studies department at SF State Uni and going on strike
- it was about having faculty of color, access to education for people of color
- 5 months long
- results: first school of ethnic studies
- UCD has 3rd-oldest ethnic studies program, after Berkeley
18
Q
Civil Rights Movement (MLK) and Black Power (MX)
A
- CR emphasized nonviolent civil disobedience and “equal opportunities for all”
- CR: integration into society, caused 1965 CRA (end segregation), VRA (voting accessible; under attack now)
- BP not necessarily nonviolent and seeking “liberation, freedom, by any means necessary”
- BP: liberation rather than integration, more revolutionary
- movements would’ve come together but both leaders assassinated
19
Q
Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Colonial Movements in Third World
A
- colonialism abroad and racial inequality in US
- internal colonialism: marginalization, discrimination, racism
- solution is to liberate yourself from yoke of oppression, not integrate (BP movement influenced by anti-war movement)
- emphasis on self-determination rather than on shared power
20
Q
Anti-War Movement
A
- US racism in Vietnam War
- Asian Americans part of these movements because they had “faces of the enemy”
- soldiers made no distinction between different ethnicities –> all were “Gooks”
- racist war
- strengthened Asian America solidarity w/ Asian people in US and abroad
- claiming Asian American rights has international connections
21
Q
Feminist Movement
A
- not born a woman, become a woman
- society dictates what women should be
- same with Asian Americans –> social consciousness
- the term Asian American is a means to an end, and that end is social transformation
22
Q
Asian-American Studies
A
- anti-Oriental
- political empowerment, social change
- oppositional orientation against prevailing notions of power and authority
- race is essential to power structuring in society and coincides w/ gender, sexuality, etc., within groups
- critical consciousness and political orientation of being against white supremacy
- also seeks to advance Asians around the world (interracial and international)
23
Q
Radical Love
A
- wants transformative social change and equality
- rooted in love and compassion
- not anti-white
- just wanting a better future without white supremacy
- NFL footballer not bending a knee during pledge or national anthem in protest of police brutality
24
Q
White Supremacy
A
- not about white people
- social-ordering logic that organizes society along human differences, including race
25
Q
Challenges of Pan-Asian Unity
A
- not unchanging unity or unchanging goal
- goals and understanding of identity change as political, economic, and social processes change
- Asian Americans today are usually seen because of recent spike of immigration, and more likely to be foreign-born
- foreign-born Asian Americans bring a different political consciousness depending on their home country’s situation
- diversity of Asian Americans challenges unity and solidarity
26
Q
Chol Soo Lee
A
- panethnicity is product of social and political processes
- he was wrongfully convicted of one murder, went to jail, killed someone, got the death penalty
- young people held protests to free him, but South Koreans coming from SK were afraid of socialism and saw socialism in these protests
- young Korean Americans brought SK and Asian Americans together to fight for Chol Soo Lee
- he was executed
27
Q
What is a Chicano?
A
- from UC Race Project of UCD that was fighting for importance of ethnic studies
- Chicano is social consciousness as well as political ID for those of Mexican descent born in the US
- Chicano is anyone who can contribute to society while also understanding their situation in that society
- Chicano people understand society, can advance US to live up to its ideals while not assimilating or losing one’s culture
- “a love of self is a Chicano” –> social identity more important that political/racial demographic marker
28
Q
Objectivity and Subjectivity
A
- nothing is objective because there is always a subject acting on the object
- history is interpreting facts and giving meaning to facts, so not subjective
- history is knowledge of what is said to have happenede
- collating multiple interpretations from credible sources
- can still have accurate/inaccurate sources, but they are all subjective
- history is selection and emphasis of facts
29
Q
“History has to be rewritten for every generation”
A
- history is about asking questions, and every generation asks different questions
- historical past interpreted in different ways
- who made Asian American history invisible?
- need to change the subject of who wrote the book and rewrite history to make them visible
30
Q
Family Album History
A
- photos are snapshots of the past and don’t mean anything in themselves; need context
- historical meaning is actively produced by the subject
- history is a narrative out of facts and sources interpreted from a particular POV
- historians are trial lawyers more than detectives (putting forth an argument/interpretation)
- academic knowledge is not a data dump but a POV
31
Q
Primary Sources
A
- raw historical documents
- how we engage with the past and understand how history is constructed
- primary sources contextualize history and help get at meaning of events
- closest relationship in time and space to subject under study (laws, newspaper articles, literature, artwork)
- engage with these by asking questions
32
Q
Secondary Sources
A
- interpretations of primary sources
33
Q
History vs. Fiction
A
- history needs credibility grounded in material
- history has burden of proof: needs evidence and sources to make valid claim
34
Q
Asian American History
A
- changing subject in study of object
- Asian American people’s experiences written in perspective of Asian American experiences
- rewriting, redefining, reinterpreting, reclaiming AA historical experiences
35
Q
Assimilationist Approach
A
- assumes that it’s natural for immigrants to come, shed their past, and assimilate into America
- comes from studying European immigrants’ assimilation in early 20th C
- Asians that don’t assimilate are seen as deviants. wrong; can’t become part of American society
- AAs write against that distortion of AA culture and experience
36
Q
Contributions/Celebratory Approach
A
- celebrates diversity and everything that’s good about cultures
- doesn’t change course of assimilation because America is still seen as melting pot; one homogeneous identity regardless of immigrant composition
- multiculturalism recognizes difference without making a difference
37
Q
Institutionalized racial discrimination and exploitation (structure) approach
A
- focuses on organization of society: political and legal structures, laws, economy
- effects of these on lowest members of society (in terms of power and race)
- race is central to social power structure, and social institutions reflect that
37
Q
Agents of History (Agency) Approach
A
- people are agents of history
- despite social constraints of low institutional position, all humans have capacity to resist and change institutions
- not passive victims of social structures
- choices are made, sometimes imbued w/ contradictions, but still part of human experience
38
Q
Contingency
A
- history isn’t inevitable, people react differently
- history is contingent on people’s choices
39
Q
Structure and Agency
A
- 2 sides of same coin
- can’t understand choices w/out larger context
- “people make their own history, but not of their own choosing”
- structure is what happens to people, and agency is what people do when those things happen
- cannot make people passive victims of their environment who never respond w/ choices of their own
40
Q
Area Studies
A
- Asian studies: people of Asia; area of Asia
41
Q
Ethnic Studies
A
- Asian American studies
- perceived as outside cultural and racial boundaries
- comes back to invisibility of Asian Americans, foreignness, outside of US
- seen as more important to understand their history as outside of Asia, not US so much
42
Q
Asian Studies and US Foreign Policy Interests
A
- US needed to study the enemy in the Cold War and further policy interests with educated people
- Asian studies for a long time was about serving the status quo and power structures
- Asian American studies and 1960s social movements were more oppositional to the status quo
43
Q
Transnational Diasporic Perspectives
A
- Asian American experiences have to be understood in connection to Asia, events in Asia
- nowadays, there are linkages between US and Asia that were unprecedented when Asian American studies began
- AA studies are changing
- what happened in Asia to produce mass migrations in late 19th C?
