Hyphen Mag #1 Article: The Forgotten Revolution
Thirty-five years ago, young activists had to fight to become Asian American. Now, our radical heritage has been lost in the generation gap.
Rest of article
I'm at a weird point right now where I can access and understand a ton of English-language literature situating the Asian diaspora in North America and identify with Asian-Americanness, but I still sort of distance myself from it because I still think of myself as Malaysian-Chinese and continually try to map the racial politics there, only to find I don't really know enough, nor am I embedded enough, nor do I know enough people who're willing to talk about it, because the way we articulate race is either too academic for my liking, or just something I'm too ignorant about.
IN 2003, IT’S MAINSTREAM — some might even say blasé — to be Asian American. But just a few decades ago, things were entirely different. “Asian Americans” did not exist. We were not a category that was included in the United States Census (we were considered “Other”); “Asian American” was not a term that was ever heard on TV or read in the newspaper. If you were of Asian descent prior to the laet 1960’s, you were, at best, “Oriental.” Back then, you had to choose to be Asian American.
Around 1968 — a symbolic date for the beginning of the Asian American Movement — many of us decided to start calling ourselves “Asian American” because our worlds had been turned upside down. We had been deeply affected by the civil rights, black liberation, and anti-war struggles in the United States, as well as the struggles against colonialism and imperialism in Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
In that context, choosing to be Asian American was about deciding to be Asian and not white. It was about rejecting racial stratification and stereotypes of who Asian people were in the United States, and taking a stand on the side of oppressed peoples.
As the story goes, it was a grad student at UC Berkeley, Yuji Ichioka, who coined the term “Asian American.” This new identity arose out of our common experiences in America, the experience of being treated as if we were all the same and of an inferior race. As a result, the differences in our home countries became less important and we were able to find a common interest and identity with each other.
Rest of article
I'm at a weird point right now where I can access and understand a ton of English-language literature situating the Asian diaspora in North America and identify with Asian-Americanness, but I still sort of distance myself from it because I still think of myself as Malaysian-Chinese and continually try to map the racial politics there, only to find I don't really know enough, nor am I embedded enough, nor do I know enough people who're willing to talk about it, because the way we articulate race is either too academic for my liking, or just something I'm too ignorant about.