Marshall Markham
Issue Brief
Issue Brief: The First Amendment and Asian Americans
Description: With the Civil Rights Movement in full swing in the 1960’s, the U.S.,
particularly on the West Coast, saw young Asian Americans of varying backgrounds
bind together to begin the Asian American Movement. The following brief discusses
several groups within this Movement, their grievances, their goals, and their
methods, which undoubtedly resonate with the First Amendment.
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/aa_intro.htm
Key Words:
The First Amendment, The Asian American Movement, The Asian-American Political
Alliance (AAPA), The Red Guard Party
http://reappropriate.co/?p=3995
Key Points:
1. Asian Americans prior to the 1960’s had been relatively passive, and
therefore, their complaints went unheard.
2. A number of factors including housing, police brutality, economic disparities,
the Vietnam War, and other race based discriminations provoked action.
3. Primarily on the West Coast, many groups assembled, including the AsianAmerican Political Alliance and the Red Guard Party, creating a voice for
Asian Americans.
4. Using various techniques related to freedom of speech such as protests and
marches these groups sought to create a new respect for minorities and also
a consciousness of minorities.
http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005/2010/06/13/1090/
Issue Brief:
While the United States’ history is marred with discrimination and
inequalities based on race, the focus tends to revolve around African Americans,
however, Asian Americans history is in some ways very similar. The difference
between the two groups, historically speaking, is that African Americans have been
able to unite far more easily as the subgroups are not as different. For Asian
Americans, they had always identified with their country of origin or ancestry –
Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese being the most
prominent. At the same time, the individuals making up these subgroups had
generally been known to assimilate into the United States’ white culture, being more
tolerant of discrimination and inequality to not diminish their chances to succeed.
In the late 1960s, this all changed. With the Civil Rights Movement in full
swing and various events such as the eviction of the International Hotel in San
Francisco, which was home to many Filipino and Chinese workers, there was a
change in thought from younger Asian Americans. Rather than continuing the more
tolerant, more passive stances previous generations of Asian Americans had lived
by, the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans created an awakening of sorts
for Asian Americans. More specifically, African Americans publicly exposed various
forms of racial discrimination and Asian Americans reflected and realized they too
had faced similar discriminations, “The more we examined our collective histories,
the more… we became outraged at the depths of the economic, racial and gender
exploitation that had forced our families into roles as subservient cooks, servants or
coolies, garment workers and prostitutes”(Nittle). Specifically, court rulings and
laws such as The Alien Land Law of 1920, United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
(1923), Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), and Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) all
aimed at limiting Asian American’s rights in relation to naturalization, land
ownership, business, and justification for incarceration, had continued to restrict
Asian Americans while allowing whites to thrive. In this, the Civil Rights Movement
provoked the younger generation of Asian Americans to demand change rather than
sit back like their parents had.
Starting at Cal-Berkeley in 1968, the Asian-American Political Alliance
(AAPA) was formed. While the AAPA spread to many college campuses across the
nation, the issues each chapter sought to address remained consistent. They called
for universities to increase the amount of colored students and faculty, an end to
police brutality, an end to exploitation of colored workers, an end to the Vietnam
War, and an end to the term “Oriental” as an identifier for all Asian Americans. In
this, the AAPA took to the streets and universities with protests and marches and
also using film as a source of voice.
In 1969 in San Francisco, a far more radical group formed, the Red Guard
Party. Named after the People’s Republic of China’s army, the Red Guard Party was
heavily influenced by the Black Panther Party and particularly sought to achieve the
same media attention the Black Panther Party had captured. While it operated more
like a small militia, the Red Guard’s goals were similar to that of the AAPA’s in that
they too called for Asian Americans to be respected in society and also, end police
brutality that minorities faced when simply trying to voice their complaints. While
they were significantly more combative, the Red Guard Party promoted Chinese
nationalism and their agenda through marches, picketing, and petitions.
Not only did these two groups seek a voice and relevancy in society, but also,
both groups held education in the upmost importance. Not limited to their personal
education, but also to change curriculums to be more transparent about the United
States’ past as it relates to racial based discrimination and also, to make all
Americans more aware of the histories of all minorities. In this, the Asian American
Movement was more about all minorities and all oppressed peoples. It was about
creating a consciousness of all sorts of people for all United States citizens. Here lies
the key difference between Asian Americans objectives and those of other
minorities; they promote rights for all minorities rather than one particular group.
Since the Civil Rights Movement, Asian Americans can be seen asserting their First
Amendment right at any place where a minority group has been oppressed. From
beatings of Latino workers in the 80s to the Michael Brown slaying, since the Asian
American Movement, Asian Americans have constantly protested and marched
against all minority oppression.
https://sites.google.com/site/minoritygroupstruggle/home/asian-americans
Works Cited:
El Camino College Compton Center "Asian American Court Cases." PowerPoint. Web.
Nittle, Nadra. "History of the Asian-American Civil Rights Movement." About News. Web. 6
Apr. 2015.
<http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/RevisitingtheYellowPowerMovement.
htm>.
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Yellow Power: The Formation of Asian-American Nationalism in the Age of Black
Power. 2001. Web.
Taylor, Paul. "The Rise of Asian Americans." PewResearchCenter. 12 July 2012. Web. 6 Apr.
2015. <http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2012/06/SDT-The-Rise-of-Asian-Americans-FullReport.pdf>.
Relevant Websites:
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/red-guard.htm
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/aa_intro.htm
http://culturalpolitics.net/social_movements/asian_american