SOUTH ASIAN AMERICANS
ETHN 113 – Week 7 Session 2
Last Session
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Discuss argument structures for Thesis #1
Situate key terms from the history of the South Asian
American community into the broader history of US
imperialism and colonization.
Introduce Thesis #2
Today
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Discuss your community issue with peers.
Brainstorm in groups support for Thesis 2a
Small Group Discussion of StudentGenerated API Community Issues
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What is your topic? What is the problem?
Why are you interested in the topic?
What course and independent reading have you
done, and what have you learned?
How can you place the issue in context with regards
to power/resistance, culture, social structure, and
identity and your own community experience?
Next Wednesday: Meet up with one or two other
students based on similar issues or communities.
Mabalon, Ch 3. Making a Filipina/o
American World in Stockton
Mabalon characterizes the emergence of the Fil-Am
community in Stockton in this way:
“In Stockton’s Little Manila, Pinoys were engaged in
the creation of a homosocial, aggressively
masculine culture of fashion, gambling, boxing
matches, dance halls, dancing and sex with
prostitutes, and music in which Filipino sexuality and
purchasing power were on full display, a similar
cultural phenomenon to what Linda España-Maram
describes regarding Filipina/os in Los Angeles’s
Little Manila.” p. 3
5
2
Identity
11
How groups
Structure
1
and
Institutions 7 Power/Resistance 8
individuals
and patterns Overt and Covert control
see
of social
themselves
interaction
and are seen
by “others”
13
1
10
12
4
6
9
Culture
Bounded system of values
and traditions shared by a
group
3
Crosscutting Themes
Ch. 1: From the Provinces to the
Delta
Ch. 2: Toiling in the “Valley of
Opportunity”
Ch. 3: Making a Filipina/o American
World in Stockton
Immigrant
Populations
Pensionados
Unskilled laborers; Young men (prior
to 1940s)
Multiple regional/language groups
Settlement Patterns
Morro Bay
Hawaii, Pacific coast, Stockton
Stockton
Factors that
influenced
Immigration (PushPull)
Pensionados, Spanish-American
War
Economic and social changes in the
Philippines; Letters and Photos
Labor
Hawaii Sugar Plantation
Association
Unskilled labor
Country of Origin’s
Relationship with US
Government
US Imperialism , Philippine
American War
U.S. colony
Exclusion,
Surveillance, and
Discrimination
Redlining, labor discrimination
Community
Institutions
Cultural
representations of the
racialized “other”
Generations and
Acculturation
Field laborers
Universities
Letters and Photos
America is In the Heart
First generations: Pensionados and
Manongs/Manangs
From multiple regional/language groups
to one identity.
Thesis #2a
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API communities, like those of many non-dominant
groups, are shaped by both overt and covert forms
of discrimination.
Forms of Discrimination
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Overt – Direct, referential, obvious acts of bias.
Often acts committed by individuals.
Covert – Indirect, inferential, hidden, systemic,
subtle acts of bias. Often forms of protecting
privilege in organizations, institutions, and systems.
Suggested Reading: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
(1981). See Resources section of the course website.
Crosscutting Themes
Chinese Americans
Japanese Americans
Filipino Americans
South Asian Americans
Immigrant
Populations
Sojourner immigrants, Chinese
Women
Poor from rural areas and Ryokyu
Islands
Pensionados, agricultural workers,
young men (pre-1940s)
Sojourner immigrants, Punjabi,
Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Majority
men
Settlement Patterns
Pacific Coast: California
San Francisco
Pacific Coast, Hawaii, California
San Francisco
Morro Bay, Hawaii, Pacific coast,
Stockton
Mainly Western US but dispursed
Northern Sacramento Valley
Factors that
influenced
Immigration (PushPull)
Gold Rush, Fall of Saigon
Exclusion of Chinese, Agriculture,
Railroads, and domestic work
Pensionados, Spanish-American
War, Economic and social changes
in the Philippines; Letters and
Photos
1946 Act
Railroads
Immigration Act of 1965
Labor
Agriculture, WWII economy
Railroads
Domestic Services (Laundries)
Agriculture, Railroads, and
domestic work
Hawaii Sugar Plantation
Association
Gujuarato, Dalip Singh Saund,
Post-1965: skilled, technical,
management, highly educated
Country of Origin’s
Relationship with US
Government
Immigration Act of 1965, The
Good Earth, Arrival of Chinese
Women, Ping Pong Diplomacy
Gentlemen’s Agreement, Meiji
Revolution, Attack on Pearl
Harbor
US Imperialism , Philippine
American War
British Colonization, 9/11
Exclusion,
Surveillance, and
Discrimination
Foreign Miner’s Tax
Chinese Exclusion Act
Ordinances on Living and Labor
Conditions, Cold War, Hiram Fong,
FOB/ABC, Dr. Wen Ho Lee
San Francisco School Board
incident, Anti-miscegenation laws,
restrictive covenants, Alien Land
Act (1913 and 1920),
CWIRC/Exec Order 9066
Anti-miscegenation laws
Thind Case
Alien Land Act (1920)
Community
Institutions
Family Associations, Paper Sons
Six Companies
Native Sons of the Golden State,
levels of education
Japanese Association of America,
Japanese American Citizens
League (JACL)
Regional organizations
Indian League of America, Gadar
Movement
Cultural
representations of
the racialized
“other”
Yellow Peril, Model Minorities,
Tiananmen Square
The second generation Japanese
Problem, Yellow Peril, Scientific
racism/social Darwinism
Letters and Photos, America is In
the Heart
Terrorists—”Least Desirable Race”
Generations and
Acculturation
Native Sons of the Golden State,
FOBs ABCs
Issei, Nisei, Sanseil; redress
Immigration Act of 1965
Next Session
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Group Reading Discussion: Kwok, Ch. 9-11 (Note: 3
chapters not 2)
Online Session for Week 7: Placing the issue in
context – First Draft.
Blog: Mabalon, Ch. 4