Hello! For my history class final, we were assigned to a certain civil rights movement, and I chose Asian American activism. This post will include parts of what I shared in my presentation. I interviewed my aunt, Jean Choi, who works in business immigration law, so the presentation leans eastward.
How has your personal life been impacted by Asian American activism?
When I participate in or see Asian American activism, I feel visible and empowered. As a result, I have chosen to help lobby Congress with national legal groups against an exemption for Ward’s Cove Asian cannery workers from a protection in a civil rights bill. Sadly, the bill passed and those workers never had a fair chance in their fight against discrimination. Also, I decided to help out with workshops explaining the definition of hate crimes and the additional penalties when convicted of a hate crime in the Chinatown neighborhood at a time when it was expanding its borders geographically and there was much pushback from the surrounding neighbors. Those workshops helped me to understand that our family members were on the receiving end of hate crimes and I also saw that the law can be used as a powerful tool to deter racist criminal actions.
My presentation began with this clip demonstrating a call to action:
As portrayed in this video, Asians in history are not seen as activists. This is why I wanted to present on how Asian American activism has been prominent in history since the 1800s and underlies a wide range of social movements.
I continued with the foundations of the Asian American activist movement. Fight for East Asian rights is the intersection of Chinese railroad workers, internment of Japanese Americans, and the murder of Vincent Chin. But all Asian American activism is marked by significant cultural events, extending from Vincent Chin to post 9/11 racism.
2. What do you is think the foundation and story for Asian American activism?
The story of my Asian American activism began when my family immigrated to the US from Korea in 1970, just five years after the 1965 Immigration Act, which replaced exclusionary rules of the 1924 Act and permanently changed Asian American demographics. After decades of excluding Asian immigration into the US, our dad’s employment as a medical technologist was sponsored by a local hospital and our Korean family of four moved to the northwest side of Chicago, a primarily working-class white neighborhood. Reactions to our move were on the whole negative. We found the questions — such as, "do you know how to use a fork and why are your eyes so slanted" — stupid [but] bearable. The meaner and less welcoming actions extended to endless broken windows, as kids threw rocks and taunted us with racial epithets. I still remember the fear and tension in our family as we [endured] those evenings. The police, when we finally called them, told us there was nothing we could do and besides, didn’t we understand that those kids were just being kids? The governmental indifference to our continual harassment galvanized my sister and me to advocate change for Asian Americans.
Here is a general overview of movements Asian Americans have taken part of, and I think the vastness and intersectionality of movements is unique.
Immigration
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
Ibrahim Chowdry
Bhagat Singh Thind v. Supreme Court
Labor/Work/Unions
May Chen and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union
Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes and Alaska Cannery Workers’ Association
Larry Itlion strike against Delano grape growers
Ai-Jen Poo
Jung Sai Garment Workers Strike
Philip Vera Cruz and the Agricultural Worker Organizing Committee
Little India Wages Dispute
Housing
I-Hotel Eviction protests
Anti-War, Draft Resistance, Internment Camps
Frank Emi
Fred Korematsu v United States
Kiyoshi Kuromiya
Social and Racial Justice, Human and Civil Rights
Yuri Kochiyama
Corky Lee
Martha and Berda Lum
Patsy Mink
Rinku Sen and Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation
Roland Takaki
Ngo Vinh Long
Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Merle Woo
Helen Zia
Police Brutality
Peter Yew
Chaudhry, et al v. City of Los Angeles
COVID and Asian Hate
Murder of Vincent Chin → American Citizens for Justice
As shown, activism regards immigration, labor, housing, anti-war, social justice, civil rights, police brutality, education, women’s rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and of course more. All of these movements are centered around community, which I think needs to be recognized more, since Asian heritage is so extensive and thus, inherently dividing.
Moving onto what can and is being done for Asian American activists; organizations advance the rights of Asian Americans and help Asian communities in cases of violence. Additionally, acts such as Teaching Equitable Asian American Act law for public schools passed in 2023 allows for the Asian narrative to be heard. Finally, community engagement is vital for effecting change, such as in preventing violence towards certain Asian groups.
Lastly, I discussed the legacy of Asian American activism. Asian Americans will no longer be shielded by the epithet of silence and quiet work, but instead be known as a network of communities fighting for justice that always will exist in America’s history.
3. What do you believe is the legacy of the fight for Asian American rights?
Awareness and education of Asian American history is the best legacy we can provide to fuel further activism. While my story began with my family’s immigration, the history of Asian immigration to the US began as early as 1830 and the plight of Asians in the US, their unjust treatment by others as well as the government, is a complex and painful story. This painful story includes the Anti-Exclusion Acts, despicable internment of Japanese during World War II, the shameful affirmation by the Supreme Court to detain US citizens of Japanese ancestry in Korematsu vs. US. For me, learning about Asian history in the US helped me to better understand why our family was treated with such contempt and to place it within a larger historical context. When Illinois passed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Act law in 2023, I felt Equitable, I felt that a silenced narrative was now opened up to a new generation of school kids.
Thank you!
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