An Inconvenient Minority by Kenny Xu

Author:Kenny Xu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2021-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

The Possibility and Peril of an Asian American Renaissance

Cultural capital can be attained—and Asian Americans are approaching a window to attaining it, at the time of this writing. A more diverse society has created a renewed demand for multiethnic culture. Although the novel coronavirus has possibly inflamed anti-Chinese sentiment, there is actually opportunity in adversity; Asian and especially Chinese Americans can cast themselves as fully aligned with the American proposition of freedom and liberty, rather than the autocratic Chinese Communist Party’s sensibility for control. As 2020 Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang wrote in the Washington Post:

“We Asian Americans need to embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before. We need to step up, help our neighbors, donate gear, vote, wear red white and blue, volunteer, fund aid organizations, and do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis. We should show without a shadow of a doubt that we are Americans who will do our part for our country in this time of need.”27

Yang does not write this because he believes that America is a perfect country and that everyone should conform to it—hardly so. In fact, much of the first half of his opinion piece laments the anti-Asian racism occurring in the streets during the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic—racism that continues to occur in 2021 on the streets of Oakland, where an elderly Chinese man was pushed down by a city delinquent, and other areas of the country. But Yang understands that the solution to anti-Asian racism and stereotyping must come from Asian Americans themselves. There is no use crouching and whining for what you yourself cannot cultivate and create.

When you look at the Left’s responses to Andrew Yang’s editorial, however, you can’t help but be depressed. One particularly nasty editorial came from Canwen Xu, a Columbia University senior (where else but the guilt-ridden Ivy League?) and TED Talk speaker, who accused Yang of being a “white-people pleaser.” In her mind, Yang perpetuates the “decades-old myth of the model minority: that Asian Americans are the obedient people of color, the ones who are willing to uphold a system that is rigged against us by submissively working within.”28

The crux of Xu’s argument is this statistic: 33,000 Japanese Americans served in World War II, while 120,000 were interned in internment camps. Xu frames this as obvious proof that demonstrations of “Americanness” don’t stop white people from suppressing and discriminating. But Xu also misses a critical part of the story: After the war, those 33,000 Japanese Americans who served greatly assisted in helping America normalize its relations with Japan, turning the former bitter contest into a pivotal friendship that reaped major benefits during the Cold War. And America signaled its gratitude towards these Japanese Americans by awarding approximately $38,000 (adjusted for inflation) in reparation payments per capita to interned Japanese Americans in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Those American soldiers of Japanese descent did not change stereotypes immediately—but their demonstrated love for their country paved the path for Japanese Americans to contribute at the highest level to America .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.