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.

Panethnicity a useful response to racial lumping?

Panethnicity is ultimately is a cultural group that is made up of people from several different and distinct ethnic and national backgrounds. This can be both good for Asian Americans as it is a way to identify with one another and unite as a powerful unite but I also see it as being very problematic and not the greatest way to go up against discrimination.  Instead of seeing Asians with unique cultural backround it puts all ethnicities together.  It is also problematic because of the stigma that remains today of Asian subgroups being outsiders, immigrants, and during economic struggles, people to point blame towards for lack of jobs.  With panethnicity trying to cover all of these ethnicities it also puts those stigmas on everyone.  This goes along with the occidental gaze or seeing a group through Western views of the world often incorrectly.

There are many stereotypes of Asians include the strict, rigidity Asian parents have on their children and they are usually really smart. Even if Asians were born in the US they are seen always as foreigners who struggle with the English language.  Women are either seen as weak and only follow in men's footsteps or they are overly sexualized. Media plays a huge role when re-iterating stereotypes of Asian Americans and another aspect of this is that there are minimal roles for Asians to play in movies in the first place.  This allows people to stereotype even more.  An example of Asian stereotypes in the media is the movie 21 and Over. In this film the Asian is seen as a straight A student trying to get into med school and holds back from going out with his friends initially.  He does but is blacked out and unresponsive for a majority of the film showing that Asians rarely have a large role in the film.  It also never mentions what ethnicity he is and mostly Americanizes the character. There are several moments throughout the film that highlight Asian stereotypes but this clip is of his strict father making sure he gets to his interview on time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwyjBL53Mc4

Panethnicity as a Response to Discrimination

I think that for certain reasons panethnicity could be viewed as appropriate or a useful response to racial lumping and discrimination. I think that in many ways it does gives Asian Americans a bigger sense of power and identity within the United States. They are able to come together in politics to better voice their opinions but in the same sense they are not individually able to represent their Chinese, Japanese, or Vietnamese identities. Stripping away different traditions and cultures is like taking away who that person is. If they are all considered Asian American, they are only thought of as such instead of even being considered Japanese, Vietnamese, or Filipino. It seems like a lose-lose situation.

Is Panethnicity Useful?

Personally, panethnicity is not a useful or appropriate response to racial lumping and discrimination. Espiritu mentions in her book that the two most common ethnicities people associate Asian-Americans with are either Chinese or Japanese. It isn’t fair for other Asian ethnicities and cultures to be grouped together with these two cultures, label it “panethnicity” and call it a day because that term is “politically correct.” In my experience, when people assume that I’m either Chinese or Japanese, I get upset. Instead of asking me what ethnicity I am, they decide to lump me into a certain nationality.

As we talked about in class, many Asian Americans are under represented in movies, TV shows, and media in general. And if they are in movies or TV shows, Asian Americans are characterized as just by their race, not their ethnicity. They are just labeled as “Asian” instead of “Filipino,” “Vietnamese,” or “Cambodian.”

The following clip (starting from 1:35 to 1:50) is from the show Glee, when the two Asian students are called up by "Asian" and "other Asian." [I understand it's supposed to be funny, not going to lie, I laughed myself, but it suited the topic of discussion]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoo94KjK3LI

Panethnicity and Racial Lumping

I think that panethnicity is an appropriate response to racial lumping and discrimination because it gives Asian Americans a sense of cultural identity and importance in the United States.  I think it is beneficial because a lot of times minorities are not well represented in the United States.  With panethnicity it allows a large numbers of Asian Americans to be represented and have a voice in society and politics.

I do think that there is still some problems with the concept of panethnicity.  I think that if you step back and take a larger look at the idea, it can be taken as a form of lumping or racism.  I think it depends on what person you are asking.  To me, a caucasian male, panethnicity seems to be like a good idea because it gives Asian Americans a voice and representation.  But, to an Asian American or another minority it may be seen as another form of racism and discrimination against minorities in the United States.

Panethnicity or Stereotyping?

In my opinion, panethnicity is not an appropriate response to racial lumping and discrimination.  To me, panethnicity seems like a milder form of racism and stereotyping. In Asian American Panethnicity, Espiritu states that "Asian American primarily meant Chinese or Japanese American" (pg. 50).  Because Chinese and Japanese Americans are the two most recognizable groups due to both the size of their population and there relative history in the United States, the political issues and values that they raise are often misrepresented as the political views of the whole Asian American panethnic group, which includes several smaller nationalities such as Korean and Filipino. For example, Korean and Filipino women were very under represented during the Asian American women's movement, as the needs of Chinese and Japanese women were primarily attended to (Espiritu pg. 51). 

However, this kind of misrepresentation did not end with political issues. Chinese and Japanese Americans were primarily hired for jobs that required Asian American insight such as ethnic studies teachers for example (Espiritu pg. 51).  Panethnicity also became a problem during several of the wars fought throughout the 20th century.  Because of WW2, Korean, and Vietnam all being fought against nationalities that fell under the "Asian American" panethnic group, members of the group that were not of the enemy nationality struggled to convince Americans that they were not the enemy.  Racial slurs such as "gook" were used to demean all members of the panethnic group rather than just that of the enemy nationality.

Panethnicity

I think that panethnicity is a useful response to discrimination and racial lumping. It could help make people feel less hated because they wouldn't be picked on. However, I do think that panethnicity is still a problem. Like we talked about in class, certain ethnic groups may feel left out when being placed within other ethnicities. For a person to feel wanted and good about themselves they should be able to identify with whatever ethnicity they so choose. There are a lot of ethnicities that people mix up, like most Asian cultures. Because people can't tell the difference most of the time, they assume that they are all the same. If people were to gain the knowledge of different ethnicities I think this would solve the problem of racial lumping and panethnicity. However, I think that there will still be discrimination whether panethnicity or racial lumping is used. People are going to hate based on how they view others.