Cultural and Ethnic Studies

Cultural and Ethnic Studies

1. After reading “Is Yellow Black or White” by Gary Okihiro, it is evident that Asian Americans, just like other racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, continue to suffer from racial oppression and discrimination owing to the binary racial schema and hierarchy in society. First, Asian Americans have been historically classified as Blacks because they share a history of oppression in America. Traditionally, African Americans and Asian Americans served as sources of slaves and cheap labor, respectively, were increasingly absorbed or excluded from the white-dominated system, and were victims of mob terror and Jim Crow rule. However, the latter should enjoy more rights and freedoms because they arrived as paid workers and not slaves, but the bi-racial classification system disregards this vital difference. Second, Okihiri claims that Asian Americans are treated the same as African Americans because they have a similar history of colonization by the Europeans. As a result, whites consider themselves superior thus cannot enjoy the equal rights and freedoms with racial and ethnic minorities, and this explains why the bi-racial divide persists today despite strong opposition from Asian Americans and other people of color. Finally, Okihiri also claims African Americans and Asian Americans are mistreated and oppressed because they share a history of the struggle for rights and freedoms. Racial and ethnic minorities have historically sought rights and freedoms formerly denied in society, as a way to ensure the promise of the constitution that underscore the equality between Americans regardless of racial and ethnic origin. American is a country of immigrants, including the white people who are descendants of immigrants from the British Empire. As a result, every American has the right and freedom to pursue happiness without discrimination or oppression based on racial and ethnic origin.
2. After reading the Asian history of migration into the U.S as narrated by Helen Zia, I can divide the immigration history into three periods, namely the cheap labor era, exclusion era, and high-skill labor era. During the cheap labor era, contract workers arrived from Korea, Japan, and China, Philippines, India, and Russia to provide cheap labor to settlements and plantations established by the American capitalists in Hawaii and California. The Gold Rush influenced the immigration in California, Opium Wars, and Menji Restoration, amongst others. In the second period, the Chinese were increasingly excluded from American society following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Immigration Act of 1892 and 1924, respectively. The overflow of Chinese into America threatened native employment, thus the need to control immigration. In the final phase, a new wave of Asian immigration began in 1965 and continues to date, with American involvement in the war between 1940 and 1970 having significant influences on this change. Highly skilled laborers were needed to fill workforce deficiencies in the U.S while Asian was also fleeing political instability and persecution by their respective regimes.
3. After watching Part One of the film “Ancestors in the Americas: Part I,” I am surprised that today Asian Americans are blamed for their unwelcome arrival into the U.S, as it is Europe’s historical preoccupation with the Asian continent that led to Asian immigration. Western expansionism was based on the idea of saving uncivilized masses throughout the world. The explorations and adventures of Christopher Columbus and Lewis and Cark were focused on finding a route to Asia and the New World. As a result, the presence of Asian immigrants was convenient to the Europeans and later Americans, as Asian Americans have historically played a significant role in the founding of the United States.