In our last meeting, we discussed the first two sections of Erika Lee’s book, The Making of Asian America by investigating the role history has in creating perceptions of Asian Americans. Specifically, we examine how the ‘model minority’ had an integral role in mystifying the oppression that Asian Americans have gone through in history. As a stereotype, the ‘model minority’ created a picturesque facade that portrays how Asian Americans have, in their roles in STEM, law, and medicine, succeeded in achieving the American dream. In doing so, their role as citizens was legitimized and they could be treated as exceptional or normal like everyone else; they could be well assimilated and settle into American society and culture.
However, as suggested within the histories discussed in Lee’s introduction of her book and Edward Said’s idea of the Orient (as seen in his book Orientalism, which Lee briefly mentions), that perceived reality is far from settled. With histories of America and, at large, Western civilization having either excluded Asian bodies or used Asian bodies as slaves (e.g., the Chinese coolies) or objects of study, Asian Americans have always been seen as Other, especially in American culture. The ‘model minority’ myth then has been a cultural cover-up to the ever-present discrimination that Asian Americans have been facing. Even when Asian Americans are proclaimed to have settled, they aren’t; their state of legitimization is constantly being tested by the ramifications of white supremacy.
After our discussion of Lee’s work, we looked at one of Lee’s lectures and drew from other resources and examples in our lives of how these stereotypes have manifested in our lives. One example was the feature of the transcontinental racial railroad, in Lee’s lecture. As the Center for the Humanities and the Arts ran a panel between Julia Lee, a scholar at UC Irvine, and Paisley Rekdal, a writer/poet and professor at the University of Utah, to talk about the transcontinental railroad. The professors discussed the railroads as a point of polyvocality, where Indigenous, Black, and Asian American artists, like Rekdal’s work, can use the railroads as way to disrupt the American mythology/dream of exceptionalism. Specifically, the artists use the elegy as a work of mourning to not only grieve for the excluded but also reimagine the Americas as a place that has been settled by marginalized groups. In other words, the transcontinental railroad represents the settler-colonial dynamics with not only whiteness, but also with other racialized groups. Although this was a bit beyond the scope of the meeting’s topic, its relevance to Lee’s lecture in the exclusion of marginalized groups, namely Asian Americans, still remains.
Another thing that came to mind in the meeting was what being Asian American meant, and why even among various ethnic groups of Asian Americans, the term lends itself to being associated with Eastern and Southeast Asians. We were able to discern that although being Asian American encapsulates the wide experiences of many individuals, the prevalence of Easter/Southeastern culture within America drowns out other experiences in being recognized.
If anyone is interested in the what was mentioned, there will be links provided to those resources below.
After fall break, we will be having one more meeting this semester to discuss plans for AALA this upcoming semester. Hope everyone is holding well with everything that has been going on, and stay safe and caring.
P.S. Here the resources that were used in this recap. Enjoy and I hope everyone is enjoying their fall break.
Resources:
Erika Lee's website - http://www.erikalee.org/
Erika Lee's lecture - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgYmAvRJTmw
Center for Humanities and the Arts panel - https://www.colorado.edu/cha/raceandtherailroad Center for Humanities and the Arts panel video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kKVLSWtQuo&t=4s&ab_channel=CenterforHumanities%26theArts
Julia Lee's The Racial Railroad - https://nyupress.org/9781479812776/the-racial-railroad/ Paisley Rekdal's project, West: A Translation - https://westtrain.org/
An overview of Edward Said's Orientalism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book) More brief info about the transcontinental railroad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroad
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