Session 6 readings, 9/30 afternoon

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I found Prof. Kurashige's historical perspective on racism against Asians in America fascinating.  The story of American Anti-Asian discrimination documented in Prof. Kurashige's book was not only interesting, but he is  the first to research it.  It shows what Asian immigrants who came to America did once they arrived.  I enjoyed learning about Chester R. Rowell, William Seward, George F. Hoar, Samuel Gompers, and Theodore Roosevelt who called for Japanese immigrants to become U.S. citizens.  He did not want to exclude them.  Although Roosevelt was an advocate for this, Japanese and Asian immigrants were not granted the right to U.S. citizenship until 1952 after WW II. According to Prof. Kurashige, Japanese were given citizenship because the U.S. was in the fight against communism and needed Japan as an ally against China.  I also gained a unique perspective about the internment of Japanese Americans.  It is ironic that while Theodore Roosevelt advocated for U.S. citizenship for Japanese immigrants, in 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt relocated Japanese Americans to Internment Camps. While this was a dark chapter in U.S. history, Prof. Kurashige pointed out that the Japanese were treated (given the circumstances) decently and that they received daily rations of food which was a luxury during the war time for the general population.  Thank you to Prof. Kurashige's perspective and research and for showing us how prominent historical figures have reformed their attitudes and opinions about Asian American immigrants and their contributions to the U.S.

How would I implement this historical event in my classroom?  I would read a book about a little girl who was sent to an internment camp and have a discussion about what life might have been like?  Students would then write a paragraph in their journal pretending to be the little girl/boy in the camp and would describe their day.

[Eric Hoh]

This article is highly pertinent to the socio-political climate of the United States as of late. With the epicenter of this timeframe existing around Trump's presidency, it is clear that there has been a resurgance of racial rhetoric and divisiveness. Kurashige's addressal of "polite racism" that has largely been dealt towards East Asians can be paralleled to the micro-agressions and overt acts of racism during this time of Trump's presidency. 

 

Trump's opinions and influence served as a catalyst to increased ICE activity and stirring fears among much of the immigrant population in Los Angeles. During this time, LAUSD officials encouraged teachers to engage students in relevant and practical discussions about how to protect themselves from deportation and ICE raids. 

 

In light of this East Asian history, and this current history in motion, students could benefit from reflecting upon the racial oppression of Asian Americans as a means of finding comfort and inspiration in enduring through these extremely challenging times. 

[Cristina Hernandez]

Professor Kurashige's lecture on the topic of discrimination and segregation against Asians in America brings to mind the fact that history repeats inself and nowadays we are seeing the same type of discrimination against immigrants due mostly in part to the rhetoric of divisiveness addressed by high profile politicians.  My students (ELD) found very interesting the lesson where I shared with them some of the ideas that I gathered from Professor Kurashige's lecture.  Furthermore, while learning the strategy of KLW using this topic, they were able to make connections with their own lives and decided how history if forgotten tends to repeat itself. Cheers!

[Jane Shen]

Prfessor Kurashing's lecture in this section coverered some important historical facts which American repeats itself from the past and nowadays different types of norms of discriimination against immigrants.

In the history, US has been limits the Chinese immigrants consistantly, while with Japanese, there were ups and downs. In this section, professor Kurashing covered the discrimination US to Asians ( mainly Chinese) which even exist in nowadays expecially in some top Ivy League college admission process.

I can share this part of the history with my students who majority of them are immigrants from Lantin American. They considered that the present American presidents-Donald Trump's immigrants policy changes are targeting them, theycan resonate their experience while comparing with the Asian immigrants discrimiinated experiences.

[Sonia Arrayales]

In Session 6, Professor Lon Kurashige, presented us with information on Asians in America. He was discussing the anti-Asian sentiment and those going against the anti-Asian. He presented to us how Americans felt that about the Asians that were living in the United States. One of the persons that he spoke of was Chester H. Rowell. This person was the biggest anti-Asian supporter, but then regressed on his anti-Asian sentiments.  Rowell was not the only person that had these anti- Asian sentiments, Samuel Gompers, James Duval Phelan, and George R. Hoar. Professor Kurashige went on to discuss some of the laws that were implemented to keep Asians from becoming fully integrated into American culture.  These include the Chinese Exclusion of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the California Alien Land Law. Japanese interment was discussed as well. He discussed how the Japanese interment came to be about and what life was like for those living in the camps. I was shocked to have learned that Asians weren’t allowed to become citizens until 1952. I believe that this is among one of the dark periods of American history. Let us learn from our history, so that it may not be repeated again.

[Jasmine Wang]

I do agree with looking at the nuances in history, especially with this growth mindset, AND I think it's also important to not dismiss the effects of institutional racism and white supremacy as "Oh, well people change."  It is definitely different when folks who are constantly attempting to grow and change affect someone, and when someone has the power to put in the media who to follow and not follow, and what to believe and what not to believe.  People grow and learn from their mistakes, and people are still traumatized from the systematic racism that was fueled by this ideology.  It would be interesting to see students compare and contrast the profiles Kurashige writes about with comparing and contrasting people's perspectives today, ie. Trump pre and post presidency.  Does he say the same things? View immigrants the same way? 

[Jasmine Wang]

CAAM has an exhibit right now that discusses that! Maybe you can check it out or take your students.  That would be something I could do if I can get the forms out in time: look at the reasons why Chinese were allowed to come in and what that meant for the US and its growth. 

 

https://caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2017/circles-and-circuits-i-history-and-art-of-the-chinese-caribbean-diaspora

[Jasmine Wang]

Eric, I appreciae your post! I tend to look at US discrimination towards various ethnic groups as a rotation.  The US seems to discriminate certain groups at their convenience and on rotation, to a certain extent, almost a divide and conquer strategy.  Your post made me think about having students create a timeline of US racial oppression.  Students could visualize the overlaps in ethnic and racial discrimination and maybe compare why and who gets oppressed through what institutions... What an interesting way to see the US over time... 

[Jonathan Tam]

I really appreciated Kurashige's untold perspective from the view of politics because it really revealed the fickle nature of those in power in America as well as how many lives were affected. The narrative of Chester H. Rowell and his perception change during World War 1 of Asian Americans brought about a new wave of published materials that affected American citizens. This was seen further in Seward, Hoar, Gompers, Roosevelt and Phelan - who each held a very influential perspective on the policies that would go onto shape Asian American lives. There is a huge parallel to what is going on today with latino americans in our country and you can almost see the same wheels turning and the same publications creating their stories to decide the lives of these people.

[Matthew Wong]

Agree, agree, agree! 

The professor's lecture focused on a collection of voices concerning Asian Americans in the United States. The topic of Asian American history is not as thoroughly covered as it should. I am hopeful the new framework on history and the social sciences will prompt history teachers to consider including more diverse perspectives of the lives of Americans.

 

I feel like I can use the examples the professor included in his lecture to expand on my students' knowledge of modern US History. I may give students a person to research and then they could share out what they found out about that person's views. Has the person's viewed changed over time? If so, how did that affect US history?

[Matthew Wong]

Flor, we have so much to "cover" in US History. I was an Asian American Studies major in college. It was during that time when I began to learn about the history of Asian Americans in the United States. I always encourage my students to take an ethnic studies course when they go to college. When I took contemporary Asian American History at Davis, I felt like I could finally reconcile my identity and its place in US History. 

[Matthew Wong]

Thank you Professor Kurashige for the list of resources (Resources for Asian American and Transpacific Histories.pdf) you provided on Asian American History. I have read some of the books written about Asian American history while I majored in Asian American Studies at Davis. Last November, I purchased Erika Lee's The Making of Asian America: A History. I found the beginning chapters of the book quite interesting as it discussed the Asian diaspora in the Caribbean. I have not yet finished reading the book, but do plan to get into when I get a chance. 

[Cindy Nguyen]

In his book, Professor Kurashige wrote about the different types of racism that Asian have experienced through the years.  The two forms of racism is the public harassment/violence or the subtle comments.  The two stories that really peaked my interest was that of Vincent Chin and Wen Ho Lee.  It amazes me how as country we always preach of equality and tolerance to others yet in our own country we don't follow what we preach.  Vincent Chin was murdered because he represented an "Asian who stole my job" to the two Caucasian men who beat him to death.  Wen Ho Lee was wrongly accused of selling secret information to China and only later to be exonerated.  It boggles my mind how small minded people and ignorant people could be to each other.  The saddest part of racism is no one is safe from it.  It jumps around depending on what is going on in the country at that time.  I use certain excerpts to compare the experiences of Asian population to other groups who have been discriminated against in America.

[Matthew Wong]

Kurashige's Two Faces of Exclusion gives a different perspective of Asian American history, one as he himself acknowledges is not widely known or shared. While reading the excerpt, I appreciated how Kurashige discusses early Asian American history. Some themes included exclusion and citizenship (or lack thereof). I appreciated how Kurashige argues and defines exclusionist and egalitarian, providing Asian American scholars another aspect of history to examine. 

This excerpt would be great to use in an ethnic studies course. It is an easy read. Students who have previously studied aspects of Asian American history will understand the people, terms, and events Kurashige refers to in his Preface and Introduction. 

[Nira Sun]

I think bringing the history of Asian American, especially the racism against Asian Amerians, to a language class is a great idea. Even though it seems to be unrelated to the language learning, however, finding the connection between the targeting culture and students' own culture has always been helpful for students to relate to the language they are learning. I have 99% of Hispanic students in my classes who are always on top of the racism against the "brown people". If I was able to apply this part of the history to my class, it would help students to understand that racism exists in againsting all minorities.

I have always tried to help students to find the similarity between the Asian culture and Hispanic culture. However, this would be a great addition to my resources that would benefit students' learning and understanding of Asian history and its connection to their history.

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