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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