Midterm IDs Flashcards
1
Q
Third World Liberation Front (TWLF)
A
- formed during SF State College Strike in 1968
- Hispanic, black, and Asian American students
- goal: ethnic studies department, greater access to faculty of color, education access for people of color
- result: strike lasted for 5 months and gave rise to first school of ethnic studies
2
Q
“Asian American”
A
- term that replaced Oriental to change social and self-perception of Asian Americans
- emerged in height of Oriental hatred
- NOT racial marker, but more shared beliefs that organized Asian Americans and brought them together
- panethnic identity
- solidarity
- shared political identity and social consciousness during period of great social upheaval in American society
- rooted in social movements of late 1960s
3
Q
Orientalism
A
- Edward Said, 1979
- knowledge of the Orient produced in Europe during Enlightenment that portrays Asians in foreign, exotic way
- used to describe people of Asian descent until 1980s
- frames how people are perceived in the US
- East, perpetual foreigners, exotic, feminine, inferior
- Orientalism is based on Western perceptions of the Orient
- Orient at this point was the Near/Middle East –> not necessarily accurate
- defined West by defining East; suggests insurmountable differences between the two
- ideology to justify colonization, conquest, domination as civilizing Orientals during imperialism
4
Q
Panethnicity
A
- a bunch of ethnic subgroups
- Asian American is a panethnic identity
- product of social and political backgrounds and processes
- not unchanging unity or unchanging goal
- Asian American is social movement, but changes as society changes
5
Q
Family Album History
A
- Gary Okohiro
- photos are snapshots of the past, but need context to have meaning
- historical meaning is actively produced
- photo albums tell different stories based on organization
- history is a narrative/interpretation of facts/sources from a particular POV
- historians = trial lawyers (making a case/putting forth a credible, persuasive interpretation)
6
Q
Expansion of Europe
A
- Western imperialism and global capitalism set off push/pull factors in Asian immigration
- takeover of other territories, appropriation of material resources, exploitation of labor, political and social control
7
Q
World Systems
A
- sociological perspective to talk about international context
- assigns countries to places in world system/ecosystem (core, periphery, semi-periphery)
- 1850s: W Europe core, US periphery
- core countries become core countries because of imperialism over periphery countries
- creates uneven, interdependent spheres of core and periphery
- push-pull factors, global capitalism, labor migrations
8
Q
- 1850-1924/1934
A
- revolving door of migration
- 1 million Asians came to US
- different discriminatory legislation enacted to stop each group as they started to come in
- racism is like Cadillac, new model every year
- Asians came to satisfy US labor needs
9
Q
Treaty of Nanjing
A
- ended Opium War in 1940
- provisions favored Great Britain and began the “opening of China”
- China had to open ports to unequal Western trade, ceded Hong Kong to Britain until 1987, paid war reparations, extraterritoriality protected British citizens from Chinese laws
- carving Chinese melon into spheres of influence
- distorted domestic economy, increased taxes, increased rebellions (Taiping Rebellion)
- Guangdong Province was focal point for migrations (South China) –> Canton
10
Q
Credit-Ticket System
A
- the immigration system first used on the Chinese when they came for the Gold Rush
- coolie labor – unpaid labor after slavery
- merchant brokers in Canton facilitated migration throughout SE Asia
- put up money for Chinese to sail to US
- Chinese expected to repay debt out of earnings
11
Q
Revolving Door of Migration
A
- Chinese in 1850
- Japanese in 1885
- Koreans in 1903
- Indians in 1904
- Filipinos in 1909
- immigration restrictions necessitated replacement of Asian groups until 1965 Immigration Act removes racial exclusions to immigration
- centrality of racism in Asian immigration
12
Q
Meiji Restoration (1868)
A
- Japanese response to unequal treaties after seeing fate of China
- Japanese government adopted Western tech and industrialization/modernization
- sought to acquire power and international prestige of West to be their competitors
- start of Japan imperialism to fuel economic growth (Korean colonization)
- Japan became imperialist power to reckon with by the 20th century, but there were consequences on the ordinary citizens that fueled emigration
13
Q
Central Pacific Railroad
A
- from Sacramento to Omaha, where it met Union Pacific Railroad
- what the Chinese built up after Gold Rush
- race-stratified labor market that made Chinese wage laborers, unlike the self-employment of gold mines
- Chinese given most dangerous jobs and paid the least
- 90% of the workers were Chinese; Chinese merchants also emerged to serve needs of Chinese
- Promontory Point, UT completed railroad, but Chinese contribution ignored – Asian American invisibility
- Chinese laborers essential to making CA agricultural land, making US industrialized, and making US core country
14
Q
Chinese Laundryman
A
- Chinese men retreated into self-employment, especially laundry, bcs no other job opportunities
- seen as effeminate bcs doing women’s work
- laundries were in places with few Chinese; wealthy communities
- made Chinese subservient to larger community
- fueled racialized perceptions that Chinese were unworthy of being in higher paying jobs; worthy of exclusion
15
Q
Dekasegi Period (1885-1907)
A
- originally, Dekasegi was a practice whereby Japanese laborers would temporarily leave villages to work, but would return to native home; expanded for those who went overseas
- Japanese government regulated immigration because immigrants were representatives of Japan (wanted to avoid Chinese treatment)
- Japanese schoolboys came to study and avoid war draft
- would study in US, learn Western ways of government, then bring knowledge back to Japan and Westernize Japan
16
Q
Japanese “Schoolboys”
A
- Japanese schoolboys came to study and avoid war draft
- would study in US, learn Western ways of government, then bring knowledge back to Japan and Westernize Japan
- served as domestic servants for American families on the weekends/ at night after school
- few graduated college, but understood American labor and English (were more educated) than immigrants that came after
- this allowed them to lead Japanese labor movements
- later served as labor contractors as agricultural labor force relied on Japanese
17
Q
Settler Permanent Resident Period (1908-1924)
A
- arose due to 1906 SF School Board crisis and Gentleman’s Agreement
- change in mentality among Japanese immigrants to “we are here to stay”
- figuratively sink their roots in US soil through US agriculture to show Americans that they wanted to provide an economic and social stake in American society
- tenant farming and agricultural ladder
18
Q
Picture Brides
A
- loophole in Gentleman’s Agreement that allowed families of laborers already in the US to come
- men’s parents would find a girl, marry them without the groom present, then send the girl to America
- often, brides were disappointed, but stayed in US and contributed to Japanese ethnic economy as unpaid labor when they helped with farms and stores
- gave rise to the nisei, or second generation
- American birthright citizens
- changes priorities for parents, who need to secure fortune for family through the agricultural ladder
19
Q
Agricultural Ladder
A
- as Japanese replaced Chinese immigration, they became major agricultural workforce
- Japanese came as laborers, then worked their way up to tenant farmers, then became farm owners/operators
- agricultural ladder was a way to increase economic autonomy
- not available for Filipinos because of landowning restrictions that arose after Japanese migration, as well as the fact that land open to Asian purchase/tenancy was already filled by Asian groups that came before them
20
Q
Japanese Immigrant Economy
A
- rooted in rural agricultural activities (agricultural ladder/tenancy structure)
- urban area involvement to service needs of Japanese immigrants (hotels, restaurants, shops, markets, distributors of ag goods)
- rural-urban connection that helped ethnic economy thrive
- people could own small businesses, migrating workers had places to stay and eat, and the urban private owners didn’t need to rely on employers for wages or work
- ethnic economy strengthened by arrival of women as picture brides
- money in ethnic economy then used to support Japanese language schools for the nisei
21
Q
Gentleman’s Agreement (1907-1908)
A
- resulted from 1906 SF School Board crisis
- prohibited Japanese immigrants with passports to HI, Mexico, and Canada to re-migrate to US mainland, stopping more immigrants in US
- Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency
- picture bride loophole
- pivot point from Dekasegi to settler-permanent resident period
- Japanese gentlemen could technically still come, just not laborers
- Koreans, as Japanese colony, were also subject to these restrictions
22
Q
Ilocos Province
A
- where most emigrants from Philippines came from
- NW province
- smallest area landwise, but most densely populated
- traded with China from this region under Spanish colonialism
- this land is not suitable for cash crop growth, so becomes economic backwater/least developed region of Philippines
- people moved from here to HI and US
23
Q
Pensionados
A
- first group of Filipino immigrants
- 1909-1917
- status as US nationals allowed them to avoid the racist immigration restrictions
- came under tutelage of Filipino territorial government (US)
- university training in US
- came from elite Filipino families
- expected to return to Philippines to serve as lawyers, politicians to help Filipino infrastructure and continue as elite members of Filipino society
- by 1920, most pensionados had returned to Philippines
24
Q
The Mahele (1848)
A
- redistribution and privatization of land on HI
- Kamehameha III and Privy Council
- broke natives’ traditional connection to the land
- allowed white oligarchy to wrest control of material resources
- part of US settler colonialism/imperialism in HI
25
Q
Bayonet Constitution (1887)
A
- Hawai’i Constitution of 1887
- oligarchy and US gov’t forced this on HI monarchy
- introduced voting restrictions and stopped monarchy from passing legislation without approval of Privy Council
- undermined HI sovereignty and disenfranchised native Hawaiians and Asians
- leads to overthrow of HI monarchy in 1893 and annexation of HI in 1898
- removing political power access stops Hawaiians and Asians from being able to speak out against plantation system conditions
26
Q
Plantation Paternalism
A
- pretending workers are content
- keeping their lives happy, organized, always busy
- taken care of provided you didn’t disobey
- workers seen as children who need firm, loving hand of plantation paternalism
- strict rules and regs to be good, compliant, obedient, disciplined workers
