“ASIAN-AMERICAN MONTH”
On January 20,
2009, Caroline and I sat in the cold but wonderful weather near the Capitol as
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United
States. Four musicians played during
that celebration, and one of them was cellist Yo-Yo Ma, an American of Chinese
descent, who was born in Paris. He came
to the States when he was 7 years old. In
the toxic air of the current Trump administration, I’m thinking about that day,
as I consider Asian-American Month. This
celebration of Asian-American heritage began officially in May, 1979 as a week
and has now expanded to a month. Dr.
Ronald Takaki’s book “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America”
is an excellent resource for this and for many other groups considered ”other”
in the USA.
The first
large Asian group who came to the USA were Chinese in 1849 as part of the push
to build the first transcontinental railroad in the world. They were not slaves, but rather they came
voluntarily as free labor. And, of
course, they were paid much less than those workers classified as “white.” Yet, because of their work ethic, by the time
the railroad was complete, 90% of the work force was Chinese. As Takaki puts it: “the construction of the
Central Pacific Railroad line was a Chinese achievement. “ They also built the
agricultural industry of California.
They became farmers and miners, and later on, when they were forced out of
many of these occupations, they became laundrypeople. There were, of course, many acts of violence
and racism and prejudice against them.
The white phobia became so great that in 1882 Congress passed the
Chinese Exclusion Act, virtually ending Chinese migration to the States for a
long while.
Japanese
workers came to Hawaii in the 1890’s to work in the fields there. By the 1920’s they were 40 per cent of the
population. They soon made it to the
mainland in California and the West Coast.
Although they had felt the sting of racism in Hawaii, when they arrived
on the mainland, they were slapped in the face with it. Like those immigrants from China, they helped
to build the agricultural giant that California became. Their hard work and success gave them hope
that they might become American citizens someday, but that hope was dashed in
1922 when the US Supreme Court ruled that Takao Azawa was not entitled to
naturalized citizenship because he “clearly” was not “Caucasian,” as specified
by the 1790 Naturalization Law. And, of course, their “otherness” would be
forever etched in disgraceful American history, with the internment of Japanese
American citizens during World War II.
Korean
workers came to Hawaii on January 13, 1903, and it is remembered annually as
Korean-American Day. They were imported
here to be a buffer between the Chinese and Japanese workers. The racism was so great, however, that the
Korean government forbade Korean emigration to the States in 1905. Before that, people of Korean descent had
begun to come to the mainland, along the West Coast. Their migration in larger numbers would wait
until after 1952 and 1965. For us
Presbyterians, people of Korean descent are the most populous of the people of
Asian descent in our denomination.
Indeed, there are more Presbyterians in Korea than there are in the
USA.
This is a
very brief intro to the group called “Asian-Americans.” Their stories are varied and rich and full of
accomplishment and endurance in the midst of the oppression of the American
system of race. There are many other
groups, including Pacific Islanders, Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Laotians,
Thai and others. Please take time this
month to remember this history and to add to it. Here are two folk to add to Yo-Yo Ma in your
thoughts about Asian-American month. Dalip
Singh Saund was the first Asian-American elected to Congress, serving in
1957-1962. He was an Indian and a Sikh,
and this distinction points out the labyrinthian complexity and foolishness of
the American system of race. Are people
from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka “Asian?”
They are from the same continent, but they are often called “South
Asian” in the American race system.
A third
person is the first woman of color elected to Congress. I thought that this was Shirley Chisholm, who
was elected in 1968, but Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink was elected from Hawaii in
1965 and served 12 terms. She was a
third generation Japanese (Sansei), and was a strong anti-war candidate. She also was one of the primary authors of the
Women’s Education Equity Act, known as Title IX, a revolutionary law in
American history.
Let us keep
these folk and so many others before us in this first part of the 21st
century. Let us keep this history in our
thoughts and hearts. Though the old white
men are roaring, the arc of history seems to be bending towards a multicultural
society. Given the continuing power of
race in American history, I may be too optimistic here, but I’m hoping, hoping,
hoping……
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