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study guide?
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10/10 9:30 to 10:30am
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Conflict, Complicity, & Coalition
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Economic cycle of boom & bust blamed on radical
movements of 1960s; lower profits blamed on:
 Increased protections & wages for workers
 Too much democracy for Americans versus decrease in
corporate power
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“The ensuing corporate campaign was a ‘one-sided
class war’: plant closures in U.S. industries and transfer
of production overseas, massive layoffs in remaining
industries, shifts of capital investment from one region
of the country to other regions and other parts of the
globe, and demands by corporations for concessions in
wages and benefits from workers in nearly every sector
of the economy” (Omatsu 66)
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Deregulation of industries & increased
outsourcing  deindustrialization & loss of blue
collar, middle class jobs
Austerity measures & “Trickle down theory of
wealth” – cuts to taxes of higher incomes and
cuts to social welfare programs that had helped
poorest in society
“By 1990, nearly half of all African American
children grew up in poverty” (Omatsu 67)
Poverty & social unrest blamed solely on
“cultural” failings & lack of “strong” families
 Ex: Moynihan report
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Waning of radical, workingclass nature of AA
movement:
 Grassroots organizations
survive “one-sided class war” –
cushion AA community while
African American counterparts
are targeted (Omatsu 70)
 Influx of professionals (1965
Immigration Act) – increased
class mobility in Asian America
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Many new AA immigrants dominate small businesses:
 “White flight” and black impoverishment
 Occupational downgrading and language barriers
 Informal economic support – clan, village, & community
financing
 Labor of family members and newly immigrated
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AA occupies contradictory position in US racial projects as
both model minority & racial threat
 “The Asian immigrant becomes a symbol of wealth – and also
greed; a symbol of hard work – and also materialism; a symbol
of intelligence – and also arrogance; a symbol of self-reliance –
and also selfishness and lack of community concern” (Omatsu
84).
3/16/1991- Soon Ja Du shoots
Latasha Harlins
 4/29/1992 – acquittal of 4
LAPD officers in beating of
Rodney King
 LA Riots last 6 days:
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 54 lives lost; 2,383 injured;
12,111 arrested
 7,001 fires; 1,400 structures
destroyed; 3,100 businesses
looted
 Estimated damage of $1 billion
– half in Koreatown
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Interethnic conflicts can affirm racial projects that are
grounded in white supremacy
 White supremacy – systematic ideology that governs
recognition of rights, distribution of resources, and even
possibilities for life and death (Bedi 184)
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“’When a Vietnamese family is driven out of its home
in a project by African American youth, that is white
supremacy. When a Korean storeowner shoots an
African American youth, that is white supremacy.
When 33 percent of Latinos agreed with the
statement, “Even given a chance, African Americans
aren’t capable of getting ahead,” that too is white
supremacy’” (Bedi 183, FN 10)
Bedi suggests necessity of crossethnic coalition to combat interethnic
conflict & white supremacy
 Political coalition versus survival
strategy of silence
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 “Should Asian Americans downplay race
to stay in the ‘safe’ shadows of the
white establishment? Or should they
step out of the shadows and cast their
lot with the more vulnerable position of
minorities seeking civil rights? Was
there a third, Asian American way that
would take sides with neither?” (Zia 70)
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But will silence protect?
And, ultimately, isn’t
silence complicity?
If we reject silence,
then how does one build
lasting coalition?
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Why does Bedi argue that “law constructs
race, and race shapes the criminal justice
system”?
What are postracial politics? How are they
potentially complicit in white supremacy?
Did coalitional politics fail in the Occupy
Oakland movement? Why or why not?