Blog Post 7

Of all the pieces of literature we read over the course of Jan term, the excerpt from Clay Walls on page 170 of Bold Words affected me the most, especially in that it portrayed the unmistakable animosity Korean Americans felt for Japanese Americans, and how that affected the second generation of each ethnic group. This is all due to the Japanese annexation of Korea, which happened between 1910 and 1945, and caused high tensions between Japanese and Korean people – even in America. In particular, this can be observed when Faye’s mother warns Faye against making Japanese friends, even though Faye made a Japanese friend anyway. Jane, Faye’s Japanese friend, invited Faye over to her house for dinner one time, which Faye enjoyed up until Mrs. Nagano whispered a racist slur to Mr. Nagano, which Faye overheard. “Mrs. Nagano said something to Mr. Nagano. I recognized the word … and knew it was about me. I felt ill at ease.” (Bold Words 176) This is an example of cultural nationalism, because even though everyone in the story lives in America, there are still major cultural boundaries separating the Japanese Americans and Korean Americans.

Essentially, all of this has affected my outlook on racism and inter-ethnic relations within American society by really bringing to light all the significant historical and cultural differences each group of Asian Americans brought with them to America. Clay Walls especially had an impact because it was from the perspective of a second-generation Korean girl, trying to go through everyday life, but struggling to make friends, simply due to social boundaries put up in response to problems that were happening in her parents’ home country. It’s very unfortunate it had to be this way for Faye, and it also is important to note that a significant number of (if not all) second-generation Asian Americans have to deal with these cultural barriers on a daily basis.

Blog Post 7

The piece of literature that was most important to me in this class was John Okada’s No-No Boy. It demonstrated the depths of discrimination in the US at the time, and the contradictions that went along with it. Ichiro was put in a terrible position, either risk his life for the country that had discriminated against him and forced his family into an internment camp, or be sent to prison for being disloyal to the US. The worst part of the story in my mind was at the end it said “He walked quickly, guilty avoiding a chance recognition of himself by someone who remembered him” (Okada 169). Ichiro was ashamed of his decision. That blew my mind, mainly because I thought he did the right thing. Ichiro’s guilt is a perfect example of the pressure and unfair circumstances that so many Asian Americans experiences because of their appearance.

The historical event that affected me the most was Japanese internment. This may be because I presented on Japanese-Americans, but what I learned about that experience was terrible. I had a basic understanding of what went on prior to this class, but as I learned more about it, the more frustrated I got. This was only 70 years ago, not even one lifetime. It has always seemed distant to me; the US was always the hero of WWII. But this part of the war is not talked about as much, and I see why. The loyalty questionnaires in the camps are some of the most backwards, surreal things I’ve ever heard, it’s hard to believe that happened. I thought the letters Doug’s mom wrote were amazing, how she showed so much strength in that kind of situation. A CRT term that relates to this is cultural nationalism. The people of the US assumed that the Japanese-Americans were more loyal to Japan than they were the US. This is especially ironic because German-Americans were interned in way less numbers. It was just because the Japanese-Americans looked Japanese, rather than the “ideal” white person.

Both examples are important because they show the blatant discrimination of white America, so recently. The government even declared that internment was not necessary or effective, but so many people felt it was justified. The irrationality of this action was proved through the fact that they interned Germans and other whites in much smaller numbers. The decision to intern the Japanese was made from pure racism, and nothing else. All we can do is learn from this experience, and realize that internment is not an effective way of addressing hysteria. The US needs to act rationally in response to fears of certain races, and realize that the US itself is home to people of races all around the world, who are all Americans, not whatever part of the world you associate their skin tone with.

Namesake

I found Namesake to be a very enlightening film circling what many Indian-Americans experienced when they immigrated to the United States.  It also did a very good job showing the differences between generations for Asian Americans. Throughout the whole film, Gogol struggles to accept his name, which is kind of a metaphor for his culture and heritage.  Even though his name has nothing to do with the Indian culture, because it is actually Russian, it is foreign and unique.  This causes him to get teased in school.   It is very interesting how they portrayed Gogol’s struggle with his heritage.  At a young age, Gogol actually chooses to keep Gogol, which is his informal name.  This represents his still pure Indian culture, which he has received from his parents.  However, as he goes up he starts to reject his name, and even eventually changes it.  This shows the gap that commonly developed in Asian American families.  As he grew up in the United States he became assimilated and Americanized, and as a result he started to reject his Indian heritage.

This film is an example of the sixth CRT tenet, that each group has a unique story to tell.  In this case, Gogol’s struggle for his identity as a second-generation Asian American.  He is much more Americanized than his parents, which causes rifts in their relationships.  He pushes his culture away.  This is something that many second-generation Asian Americans did, including South Asian Americans.  However, once his father dies, be becomes much more connected with is culture again.  It is interesting to see his development as a parallel to Ashima, who is living in the United States, but still manages to stay connected to her culture.  They both tell an interesting story about how culture and heritage were challenged and how they changed for Asian Americans in the United States.

Final Blog Post

Learning about Asian-American literature helped me to expand my worldview past Eurocentrism. I had previously been sheltered from the racism of many white Americans in the past, and the historical readings illuminated this fact. A good example of this is the founding father's desire for a white America-something I had innocently not realized before taking this class. Thomas Jefferson advocated for a white America, and he "looked forward to distant times when the American continent would be covered with such a (white) people," (Takaki 16).

The literature that I connected the most with was the film Eat a Bowl of Tea. This was mainly because  it showed the struggles of assimilation into American culture. I used to believe that assimilation was natural and even easy. However, through films such as this one and other pieces of literature, I began to understand why American minority groups sometimes hold onto their customs and their languages.

Extra Credit Blog: The Namesake

In the film The Namesake, as Ashima and her husband Ashoke married and move to New York, she found herself lost in the new country and wants to go back to India. But then she gave birth to Gogol and her daughter, she decided to stay in New York for the future of her kids.

The film illustrates the process of adapting to a culture of both Ashima and Golgo. Ashima, who was born and raised in India, is very traditional, she wears sari everywhere she goes and just like any other Indian mother she wants Gogol “to marry an Indian girl” (Takaki 448), because to her only Indian girls can understand how important their customs are. Golgo is different from his mom in which he only wants to follow the American culture and not Indian culture. He wants to be an American boy so he changes his name to Nick, smokes with his friends, and dates a Caucasian girl. But the sudden death of Ashoke changed everything. Ashima thinks that she is too selfish because she didn’t go with her husband to take care of him so he passed away with a heart attack. The moment she opens the garage and runs away from home is when she decided to blend in with the American culture more, just like the moment when Mrs. Sen, who is also from India, “gave a signal and turned” (Lahiri 311). These women have done things that they never thought of before, they’re opening and adapting to the new culture they’re living in. After his dad passed away Golgo shaved off his hair and for the first he uses his parents’ native language to communicate with his mom. Golgo is no longer resisting the Indian traditions in his household where he was born and came from.  

Extended Culture of One -Jacob Butler

The piece of literature that affected me the most was the excerpt from A Cab Called Reliable.  Leading up to  Ahn Joo Cho’s speech, it appears that she has had a fairly typical life.  The story about her aunt however added an interesting and dark contrast.  Told in a fairly whimsical and matter of fact tone, she talks about how her aunt was “abused” (Kim 257). She is driven to “insanity” and “poisoned” her family and “burned” her house down (Kim 257).   It is an odd placement of a dark passage in this otherwise fairly positive passage.  It sets the scene for when Ahn Joo Cho gets first place and gets to read her work on stage.  It turns out to be “way too dark” (Kim 259).  I find it interesting how she was able to so calmly deliver that to the whole auditorium, and still keep her composure.  I believe the point of this work as a whole was to put forth efforts to dispel the Model Minority Myth.  It is effective because we get to see an inside look at some of the struggles that Asian Americans have to deal with directly.  It seems that she had entered a different work into the contest she won, and had read a different one to the auditorium.  Her breaking the rules is another form of counter storytelling that goes against the Model Minority Myth.

    I find the Tydings-Mcduffie Act unbelievable.  The Tydings-Mcduffie Act gave the Philippines their “independence” so that the United States would be able to deny Filipinos citizenship as they had when they were nationals (presentation 1/19/17).  I understood that many Americans did not like Asians in 1934, but at a time when America was seeing itself as an empire, to give away a colony for the sole purpose of exclusion was way more than I had ever expected.  This allowed for “fifty persons a year” to enter the US, a number that was extremely small compared to earlier numbers (Takaki 13).  The Filipinos, at the time, were very Americanized. They had been “colonized by Spain” so they had already known and been accustomed to “western culture” (presentation 1/19/17).  

In high school, we focused mainly on how the Civil Rights Movement affected African Americans and Native Americans, but rarely addressed Asian Americans.  This class opened my eyes to see how diverse America is.  I really enjoyed the new perspective on American history, and seeing the reasons why people came to America.  I had almost no experience with Asian American literature.  It was exciting to be able to read new types of work done by these authors.  Before this class, I had a fairly biracial world view.  I am now more aware of the backgrounds that make up this country.  This is much like the last Critical Race Theory tenant.   Every group has a unique story to tell, to contribute to US history.    

What Asian American history can teach us

My uncle Dan is Korean and was adopted before he was a year old. His wife Shin was born in Korea and continues to practice many Korean traditions. When I heard about this class, I realized that this would be a valuable opportunity to learn more about their culture. I also learned more about what Asian immigrants have had to face as they settled here in America, leading me to wonder if my aunt and uncle had any of the same experiences. Before taking this class, I did not put much thought into my aunt and uncle's Korean heritage because I have known them for my entire life and I wasn't curious about it. I have always seen them as American, but now I want to learn more about their personal traditions and ties to Korea.

The film Eat a Bowl of Tea had the greatest influence on me during this class because it is similar to what my uncle and aunt went through when they first met. Aunt Shin had previously been married and had two sons when she met my uncle. This is similar to what happened to Ben Loy when he married Mei Oi. Both of them had their own lives, habits and desires for life but they had to learn how to coexist with each other and change something to save their marriage. I haven't heard the full story about what early marriage life was like for uncle Dan and Aunt Shin, but I can guess that it wasn't easy for them since they had both built separate lives and had to learn how to merge them together.

The CRT term that stuck out to me the most was the term "double consciousness," or the idea that people of ethnicity are able to see racial events from their own perspective as well as the perspective of the majority group. This really stands out to me because minority groups, particularly when they are the focus of the media, are often portrayed as being single minded, ignorant of people around them and unwilling to change their views on things that they are bringing to light. This CRT term tries to erase that belief by stating that minorities are portrayed in that negative light by the majority group. The goal of this statement seems to be the removal of prejudice and creating an environment where both parties are willing to listen and adopt one another's ideas and beliefs.

The thing that I will carry from this class will be a change in my own attitude toward people of foreign ethnicity. I admit that I have less patience with Indian drivers and had an arrogant attitude towards Asian exchange students during high school in response to the different way that the students would act and talk. After reading stories about Asian students struggling to feel accepted or even tolerated in classrooms, I feel a deep regret over how I often ignored or was impatient with Asian students back in High School. While I was reading the story of Mrs. Sen being nervous to drive and how difficult it was for her to learn, I found a greater sense of patience and understanding for why some Indian drivers lack confidence on the road.

Another valuable lesson that this class taught me is that I am very blessed in life and should be grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me, and that I should be more considerate of and kinder to the people who have not had as many or as great of opportunities that I have had.