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Asian Americans

Vincent Parillo

CHAPTER 8

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Sociohistorical Perspective

• Chinese first immigrated in 1850– Japanese, Koreans, and Filipinos followed

• Sojourners

• Chinese encountered racial hostility almost as soon as they arrived

• Not allowed to compete with Whites economically, .. forbidden education, … to testify in court, … bared from citizenship

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

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Asian Cultural Attributes

• Great Social Distance, … set pattern of interaction

• Not a homogeneous group, varied cultures– Language, … religion, …

• Suffered from miscegenation laws

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Chinese Structural Conditions

• 1842 Stereotype, .. (before immigration)– Cold, … cunning, … distrustful, … covetous,

… deceitful, … quarrelsome, … vindictivce

• Ethnophaulisms, … dirty, … disease ridden, … (also those above)

• Societal reaction, … “Cries of restrictions”

• Legislative Actions, due to economic woes, and [White] labor agitation

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Legislative Action Cont.

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882– Action to limit Chinese from competing

economically– First time the government restricted a whole

race if individuals from immigrating

• In 1884, restrictions tightened further

• Violence against Chinese– Mob action, … murder, … driven from homes

• Rock Springs Wyoming

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Legislative Action Cont.

• Exclusion extended in 1892

• Extended indefinitely in 1902

• Organized labor created and instigated anti-Chinese legislation

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Avoidance and Separation

• Some returned to China

• Others sought redress in courts

• Were expelled from various trades and occupations

• Had to congregate in Chinatowns– Los Angeles, … [Bakersfield], …

• Intermarriage, … miscegenation laws– 14 States had antimiscegenation laws

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Current Patterns

• Since 1965 population has increased, Table 8.1

• Have expanded China towns or moved out– Los Angeles, … Monterey Park, CA

• China Towns, both tourist attractions and slum communities

• Increasing youth rebelliousness, crime and gang activity

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The Japanese

• Economic Competition, … conflict– Organized Labor, … vegetable growers, …

farmers, … unions

• 1913, California legislature passed the first alien landholding law– Can’t own land if ineligible for citizenship– U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790

• U.S. born children could own land– CA in 1920, prohibited aliens from being

guardians of a minor’s porperty

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National Policy

• 1906 San Francisco school board– Japanese children to Chinese schools– Japanese Government Pressure

• A compromise was reached, called the “Gentleman’s Agreement”– Japanese would restrict immigration– (Loophole) Permission for wives to enter U.S.

• Park’s statement, … p. 307

• Immigration Law of 1924, bared Japanese

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Expulsion and Imprisonment

• After Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941

• “Our worst wartime mistake”

• Many 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese Americans were placed in “relocation centers”– Had to sell all their property, … [example]

• Mass expulsion proved unnecessary for national security

• No mass evacuation in Hawaii

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Relocation Cont.

• Relocation Centers– More than 110,000 relocated– Manzanar, CA … Poston, AZ

• Forced to sell almost all of their possessions, … forty lbs. per person– Santa Anita

• Largely limited to the West Coast

• No mass evacuation in Hawaii

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Relocation Cont.

• Housing conditions, …

• Ted Nakashima’s description, … (p. 310)

• Some left to go East, … jobs, … school

• Some left to go into the Army, …

• Endo v. United States, … ended relocation

• 1988, … apology and reparation

• Education, … and Intermarriage

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Relocation Cont.• [Other examples], not in Parrillo, 2003

• Bakersfield: The Ono family

• Yakima Washington

• Non- Japanese internees

• The fisherman, Monterey California

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Recent Patterns

• U.S. occupation (WW II) and Japanese reconstruction

• Japanese War brides (WW II)

• Parents encouraged education– Above national norms, .. professional positions

• Cultural emphasis: … conformity, .. Aspiration, …competitiveness, … discipline

• Intermarriage: Yonsei exceeds 50%

• Population decline as an Asian proportion

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The Filipinos

• 1898, Philippines a U.S. possession

• U.S. nationals but not U.S. citizens

• Could not attain citizenship, ..not White

• Replaced Japanese labor after the “Gentlemen's Agreement”

• Due to Immigration Act of 1924, replaced Mexican labor, … farm and service labor

• Scarcity of women

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Koreans• 1903, recruited to replace Chinese labor

in Hawaii• Numbers increased after the Korean War• 2000 population, … 1.1 million• 40% of males operate their own business• Dominate certain businesses in different

cities, (p. 319)• Koreans use of the “kye”• Middleman minority, … see fig. 8.3

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Sociological Analysis

• The Functionalist View

• Conflict view