Professor Whaley Post: Asian American Panethnicity, Chapters 6 & 7 Discussion

Discussion Questions Chapters 6 & 7: 1. According to Espiritu, what type of anti Asian violence took place in the mid-20th century and why? (135) What forms of intimidation were used and how were these ideas perpetuated through visual culture and material artifacts? 139 2. According to Espiritu, what year did Asian American ethnic groups begin to obtain full rights (136) 3. How did class struggle facilitate anti Asian sentiment? (137) Is this struggle still prevalent today? 4. Espiritu notes that European investments in the 1980s outweighed Asian investments, yet a good portion of Americans believed differently and had anti Asian attitudes as a result. Why do you think European investments are seen differently than Asian investments in the US economy? How does this compare or contrast to the issue of outsourcing and the US “debt” to China? 5. Describe these three incidents, why they happened, and what they say about the ramifications of racial lumping and hate crimes: • Vincent Chin (141-154) • Southeast Asian Children Killings (155-157) • Jim Loo Case (157-160) Reading Notes: • Asian Americans are threatened for the actions or perceived actions of those who may look like or who are perceived to look them 134 • Vincent Chin: a Chinese American male beaten to death because he was mistaken for Japanese in 1982 • Anti-Chinese sentiment dates back to the 19th century, wherein Chinese were stoned and their shops vandalized; violent acts went un-punished since no Chinese American was allowed to testify against white Americans (1854 Law). • Resource and economic competition a source of anti-Asian sentiment t 137 • Anti Asian bumper stickers, English only signs, and buy American campaigns are direct and indirect forms of discrimination 139 • European investment in US outweighs Asian, yet the perception among racialists is that there is an overinvestment in the US among Asian groups 139 • Ebens and Nitz were given lenient sentences for beating Chin to death with a baseball bat (3 years probation) 141 • Public display of defacement of cars from Asia was commonplace in the late 1980s • Activists knew that when one Asian American is targeted all are threatened because of dis-identification and racial lumping • Southeast Asian elementary school children murdered by Jim Purdy • Jim Loo, a Chinese American, murdered (pistol whipped in a pool hall) for being mistaken as Vietnamese by two white men, Robert and Lloyd Piche 157 • Pan Asian organizations can breed pan Asian consciousness • Sub group identities are important, making pan Asian solidarity not always feasible or desirable • Pan-ethnicity is reactive and creative Recent anti Asian violence • David Kao (Chinese American robbed and murdered in 2009) • Balbir Singh Sodhi (one of many South Asians beaten/killed in post-9/11 disidentification crimes) • 2013 incident at Columbia University where a student was harassed: http://gothamist.com/2013/05/09/columbia_hate_crime_victim_allegedl.php#. • 5 Asian women between 50-71 assaulted in NY City in 2010 and deemed hate crimes • In 2000, In Spokane, Washington, two white men and a woman specifically hunted random Japanese women in an elaborately planned scheme to kidnap, rape, sodomize, torture and videotape them. • In 2012, at least three women were raped by a rapist targeting Asian American women in Saint Louis; other serial rapists have been identified in CA and NY. More: http://www.oocities.org/tarorg/hatecrimes.html April 30, 2000: Anil Thakur, 31; Thao Q. “Tony” Pham, 27, Ji-Ye Sun, 34, Richard Baumhammers was charged in a shooting spree; on Baumhammer’s computer, investigators found a document calling for the creation of “The Free Market Party: dedicated to the concerns of European Americans.” August 10, 1999: Joseph “JoJo” Ileto, 39, a Pilipino American postal carrier in Los Angeles, was shot nine times in the chest and back of the head by Buford Furrow. Furrow said he killed Ileto because he looked Asian or Hispanic and because he was a federal employee making him “a good target of opportunity.” Earlier that day, Furrow also sprayed 70 bullets into a Jewish community center wounding five. Based upon a book found in Furrow’s van, police believe that he was carrying out a white-supremacist self-initiation ritual. Furrow had ties to Aryan Nations and The Order dating back a decade. The U.S. Attorney has filed hate crime murder charges against Furrow. July 4, 1999: Won Joon Yoon, 26, a Korean graduate student in Indiana, was shot as he was leaving church by Benjamin Smith, a white supremacist associated with the World Church of the Creator. April 29, 1997: Kuan Chung Kao, 33, a Chinese American engineer, was shot by Rohnert Park police Jack Shields and Mike Lynch responding to a call for disturbing the peace. Based upon his ethnicity and his carrying a stick, Shields believed Kao to be a martial arts expert and killed him within 34 seconds of arriving at the Kao home. May 3, 1996: Thien Minh Ly, 24, a Vietnamese American with a masters degree from Georgetown, died after being stabbed more than 24 times at a neighborhood tennis court by two “white supremacist types” as described by the police. Gunner Lindberg later bragged to a friend, “Oh, I killed a Jap a while ago.” November 8, 1995: Eddy Wu, a Chinese American, is attacked outside a supermarket in Novato, Calif., by an attacker who reportedly tells police that he wanted to “kill a Chinaman.” June 18, 1995: Thanh Mai, 23, was with two other Vietnamese American friends at a nightclub in Alpine Township, Michigan, when he was accosted by a group of young white males calling him a “gook.” When Mai tried to walk away, Michael Hallman hit him in the face causing him to fall to the ground with such force that his skull split open. Mai died five days later from major head trauma. May 1994: Tuong Phan, a Vietnamese American was outside his home in Westminster, Calif., when a man yelling racial slurs beats him with a four-foot long stick. August 14, 1993: Sophy Soeung and Sam Nhang Nhem, two Cambodian Americans who were attacked outside their apartment by several white men who call them “gooks.” Nhem dies shortly afterward. Harold Latour is found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Two others are also charged in Soeung’s beating. August 15, 1992: Luyen Phan Nguyen, 19, a Vietnamese American pre-med student in Coral Springs, Fla., was beaten to death by a mob of white youths who called him “Chink” and “Viet Cong.” In that case, Bradley Mills is sentenced to 50 years in prison. In 1994, William Madalone, Terry Jamerson and Christopher Anderson are convicted of second-degree murder.