As Stacy Lee points out in her book, Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype, the race issue in the United States is mostly limited to the argument of "black versus white". All that's really talked about in our history books are the issues of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Movement, all of which pertain to African-Americans. We rarely hear about the hardships that Asian-Americans have faced in the United States, such as being placed in internment camps during World War II. Lee attempts to shift the public discourse from "black versus white" to include the plight of Asian-Americans.
One of the things that really surprised me after reading Lee's book is the number of subcategories that Asian-Americans identify themselves as. Lee mentions four major groups: Asian, Asian-American, Korean, and Asian new wave. I'm sure there are other categories that Asian-Americans can classify themselves as (i.e. Japanese-Americans), but these four are the ones that Lee focuses on. I've never really considered that Asian-Americans would group themselves into smaller categories. I categorize them as Asian-Americans, which is extremely ignorant on my part. Perhaps that's because I only consider myself to be white. Or maybe it's because I was born in the United States. I only talk about my heritage when I'm asked about it (such as when we did the ice-breaker in class a few weeks ago). I don't consider myself Irish-American. I don't consider myself Italian-American. I consider myself to be a white citizen of the United States. Maybe from now on I'll start talking about my heritage spontaneously instead of being prompted to do so.
The most surprising thing to me after reading the book was how Korean-identified students viewed themselves compared to other Asian-Americans. Lee said that Korean students were different from other Asian students in a variety of ways: their socioeconomic status, their ability to speak the English language, and even where they lived. What was even more surprising was that many Korean-identified students seemed to think of themselves as "superior" to other students of Asian descent. One Korean student said "other Asians all seem to dress, act, and look alike" and that she couldn't tell the difference between them. One even went as far as to say that she finds other Asian students "hideous" and that she doesn't enjoy talking or interacting with them. It shocked me to hear that there was a superiority complex with some Korean students. I would have thought that those who have gone through the immigration process would have something in common with other Asian students. It appears that this isn't the case and that there is some internal racism within the Asian-American community.
John -- I was also struck by the subcategories of the Asian American population in the book, particularly that of the Korean group thinking themselves "superior" because they were able to adopt "American" culture. You don't really think about people of the same race being racist towards each other, and though they do have different cultural heritages, I agree with your point that their histories as immigrant families would bring them together in shared experience. I guess this is not always the case!
ReplyDeleteSomething else you mentioned is that you don't think of yourself as Irish or Italian American... I'm the same way. Perhaps because our families have been here for so many generations, a lot of our culture has been lost along the way. I don't know too much about my own family history, as I realized in class last week. It's really too bad -- just another reason we need to help our future students value their own cultures and the experiences they bring to our classroom!