Asian Pacific Americans' Social Movements and Interest Groups

Alef Esteban
Section 2
Week 1

Asian Pacific Americans' Social Movements and Interest Groups

     Towards the beginning of this reading, the authors probe the question "is there a pan-ethnic identity?" This interested me by looking at how people apply the term "Asian" to others generically, without specifically stating their nationality. An example I experienced was when someone was describing a person to me. They described them as Asian, and that was enough for me to identify them. Looking back, I applied the pan-ethnic term to them even if they themselves did not necessarily identify themselves with the term "Asian". Interestingly, the pan-ethnic identity has some role with describing a group of people. For example, Asian-Americans share certain historical events together and unified to accomplish a certain goal or give light of issues to the public. Even if these events contain different nationalities, together they are bounded by a pan-ethnic identity that has been imposed to them. This is not necessarily bad, as long as people acknowledge their own nationalism. In class, people discussed the possibility of people saying they're Chinese or Vietnamese to people, but they consider themselves Asian when describing themselves to someone different. Another instance would be the forms that ask to "select your nationality", some only have "White, African-American, Hispanic, or Asian" categories without a specific nationality. Without carefully looking at it or questioning it, people place themselves with the pan-ethnic term automatically.

     Question: Can the pan-ethnic term be used to a certain extent to describe a group of people accurately, but fairly?

Souce: Google Images

While the flags show their individual nationalities, the uniform can symbolize the unity of the group.

So Our History Doesn’t Become Your Future – Nadine C. Naber

Herman Sok
Section 001
Week 2

                Living on the safe soil of the U.S., we do not typically think about the affects of the foreign affairs and wars. In the piece “So our history doesn’t become your future”, Nadine C. Naber exposes the domestic and foreign consequences of the recent imperialistic agenda of the United States. Post September 11^th, Naber shows that the Bush Administration executed imperialistic policies for the “war on terror”; with “justification”, military intervention is increased on foreign nations. These military actions by the U.S. cause displacements of families from their homeland. This consequence causes me to rethink why my family immigrated to America.

Naber also reveals that the effects of the imperialistic policies are found domestically as well. Arab and Muslim families in America, with or without U.S. citizenship, are discriminated against, detained, and even deported. Coalitions and activists in turn struggle to fight for the rights of these people. Additionally, they also fought to limit the military intervention of the U.S. on their homeland. I wonder if my family had to endure a similar response after they first immigrated from war. Both American foreign presence and resulting suffering is inevitable. As Naber suggests, communities should work together to help one another because it is uncertain if another U.S. influenced war will affect another group of individuals.

To what end will America continue its imperialistic policies and at what cost? Who will be affected?

The college campus is a place for activism

Ryan Ke

Section 1

Week 2

            Campus activism is widespread and prevalent today, but it was not always so. The article “Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism,” by Robby Cohen explains how the Berkeley free speech movement in the 1960s has made it possible for activism on today’s college campuses in America to exist. It all began when UC Berkeley administrators and officials banned various activities relating to political advocacy from their campus. Students, feeling that this was a violation of their rights, fought back through non-violent protest and eventually succeeded in protecting their free speech. This movement demonstrated the collective power of college students and opened the doors to campus activism.

            For me, this article was particularly interesting and relevant because of two main reasons. First, I had absolutely no idea that our right to free speech on our college campus did not always exist in the way it does now. It is shocking to me that something that I take for granted was a right that past students had to fight and struggle for, and it makes me appreciate and value that right more. Secondly, this article makes it clear the power of activism on college campuses. There were definitely times before where I dismissed campus activism, questioning the potential impact of just a few college students while viewing it as an almost hopeless cause. Learning about the profound effect of the Berkeley free speech movement makes me ask the question, how has campus activism since the Berkeley free speech movement made a tangible impact on the world? How can it continue to make a difference? 

This picture stood out to me because it shows the unity of students partaking in campus activism here on the UC Davis campus.  

Transcending Borders

Drucella Anne Miranda
Section 01

Trigger warning** (I posted a satirical picture that may be graphic or triggering.)

As our lives are increasingly being impacted through globalization, the US is constantly in a state of historical amnesia. Although we are in a (post)-colonial/imperialist era, the race to become a powerful nation has never ended. Nation states have fought, killed, and exploited other nations and lands in order to be a dominant force concerning ideologies and economy; therefore, disallowing diversity of livelihood in order to remain in control of privileging an economy.

In So Our Future Doesn't Become Our History by Nadine C. Naber, it is illustrated how the "war against terror" is a ploy to maintain white supremacy and neoliberal ideologies. Policies for this is an extension of cultural imperialism abroad to justify violence against racialized bodies. Because of this, although based on many things like gender, religion, class, etc., there is a commonality of oppression for most of the world. To work towards solidarity in order to mobilize collectively against powerful and internalized notions of oppressive, systematic forces is a difficult journey. The system is not broken, it is working perfectly fine. It has caused internalized hatred between peoples skin color and even for themselves and so much more. It has worked for centuries to isolate us and pit us against one another. It is important for us to realize we are able to be a powerful force as well if we work in solidarity to fight a system that ultimately hurts us all.

How can we avoid perpetuating the colonizers politics as we organize?

The “Four Prisons” Ideology

Tony Tran

Section 2

Week 1

The “Four Prisons” Ideology

            I felt the article, “The ‘Four Prisons’ and the Movements of Liberation: Asian American Activism from the 1960s to the 1990s” had an idea that was thought provoking. It described how geography, history, social structure, and self were all things a person had to free themselves from. 

            For the first prison, I believed that in order to be free from geography is a time-consuming process. Contact with other ethnic people is inevitable; however, most initial contacts are one-way benefiting and require time for the two to become neutral again. 

            The second prison is history. It is something that people often don’t completely understand and have biased views on a time period. This is why the San Francisco State strike ultimately happened: to have a School of Ethnic Studies to help all people in understanding ethnic history so biased ideas can be understood accordingly. We need to have unbiased conscience and know that each other’s historical past usually can be identical in some way.

            The third prison pertains to social structure. For Asian Americans, that used to be a problem that was simply accepted and not dealt with. In that historical context, I believe that Asian Americans assumed living conditions were better than back in their native country so they just focused on pushing their next generation forward. I feel these next couple generations were the key to demystifying the whole social structure and helped push political action against such bad conditions. 

            The forth prison is self which is the simplest but most influential. We choose our path so we can push for racial freedom or just let it slide. Ultimately that is for each of us to decide and I believe we will decide accordingly once things just become unacceptable.

            I want to conclude that all four of these ‘prisons’ are intertwined in such a way that we all have went through all of these prisons maybe not physically, but through our history. Our today was built from the struggles and sweat of our past so we must acknowledge it and use it to choose our future more wisely.

Question: Is this whole racial problem still occurring in the U.S. or is the LGBTQIA the new ‘racial discrimination issue’?

Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans

Cindy Diep

Section 1

Week 2

This article talks about the Ferguson case in an Asian American perspective. While some might think that the Ferguson case does not quite matter to Asian Americans because it is an African American matter, the case is actually relatable to the experiences of Asian Americans. In the article, Soya Jung gives two reasons why “black rage” is important to her as an Asian American. For one, she understands the rage faced by African Americans because of her inheritance of han, what she called “Korean rage” due to the experiences of war. For her second reason, which I would agree with most, she describes how America tends to normalize in the death of African Americans while Asian American deaths are simply ignored, such as the low-profile death of Singh, who was killed by a white male and called racist slurs. Jung goes on to describe how Asian Americans are simply stuck between blackness and whiteness because we are neither and sometimes, quite frankly, we are invisible.

Question: Why are Asian American deaths in America often ignored by the public?

Nothing Is More Important than Thinking Dialectically

Cindy Diep

Section 1

Week 1

This article by Grace Lee Boggs reflects on the ideas of movements and struggles by Asian Americans and African Americans, and it comes from a particular perspective because Boggs is an Asian American who spent a lot of time in the African American community. Boggs also tend to describe Asian Americans and African Americans as if they are very similar due to their comparable experiences, which caught my attention. Moreover, Boggs lists out accomplishments by Asian Americans in America, such as the two Asian Americans in the cabinet and popular Asian American fashion models and news anchors, but she asserts that these developments do not stop there. There will be tensions to come, she says, and Asian Americans must figure out new ways to fix them because what worked in the past will not necessarily work in the future. This is when Boggs begin to stress that it is important to think dialectically, as suggested in the title of the article, which is described as “recognizing that what built the movement in the past is unlikely to build it in the present or future.” Towards the end of the article, Boggs brings up Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an enticing manner as she explains that his ideas can create an Asian American/African American countercultural movement. 

Question: Will Asian Americans and African Americans be able to create a countercultural movement together?