Tag: Perpetual Foreigner
The Illusion of the Asian American Dream
Asian Americans are often lauded as a "model minority" that has achieved complete acceptance into American society. But silent and pervasive racism has shown that American identity was never meant to include people who look like me.
By Guest Contributor: Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director, NAPAWF
Throughout Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), I have reflected on the stories I've heard about the deeply frustrating lack of visibility of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). While many Asian Americans are often referred to as "model minorities" whose stereotyped high achievements provide them a proxy to whiteness and American identity, this couldn't be farther from the truth. We continue to suffer from microaggressions, are still seen as perpetual foreigners, and have repeatedly been denied the ability to shine beyond the stereotypes of our communities — which were shaped by decades of American history and foreign policy. So on the last day of APAHM, I'm still thinking about why we are still striving to figure out where and how we fit into the fabric of this country. Because oftentimes, we have to fight just to be seen as American.
Continue reading "The Illusion of the Asian American Dream"
Categories Categories Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, Guest Contributors
Tags Tags "China People", American Dream, Don Blankeship, Elaine Chao, Guest Contributors, Michael Luo, Mitch McConnell, Model Minority Myth, NAPAWF, Perpetual Foreigner, Sung Yeon Choimorrow
New York Times Editor Thinks American-Born Mirai Nagasu Is An Immigrant
US Figure Skater Mirai Nagasu
Perpetual Foreigner stereotype alert: shortly after US figure skater Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel in an Olympic competition, New York Times Opinion section editor Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) tweeted "Immigrants: they get the job done," a line from Hamilton.
The implication from Weiss' tweet was obvious: Nagasu should be celebrated as an American immigrant. One problem, though: Nagasu was born in Montebello, California. And yet, for Weiss, the place of Nagasu's birth doesn't seem to matter: instead, the colour of her skin appears to have marked Nagasu as foreign.
Why is it that American media personalities commenting on the Winter Olympcs can never seem to remember that Asian Americans are American, too? Let's not forget the infamous headline: in 1998, MSNBC published a headline declaring that "American Beats Out Kwan," implying that US figure skater Michelle Kwan wasn't an American. Now again, a mainstream media commentator can't seem to figure out that Mirai Nagasu isn't an immigrant. Continue reading "New York Times Editor Thinks American-Born Mirai Nagasu Is An Immigrant"
Categories Categories Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders
Tags Tags Bari Weiss, Mirai Nagasu, Perpetual Foreigner, US Figure Skating
Race is No Just Cause: The US Government's Racist Profiling of Asian Americans
Photo credit: Mark Makela/The New York Times
Earlier this week, I gave a standing-room only talk at Yale about the Asian American Model Minority Myth, wherein I talked about the Myth's anti-Black underpinnings and its dehumanizing obfuscation of the struggles (and very real racism) faced by the diverse people who belong to the AANHPI community. Afterwards, a young Chinese American woman came up to me and introduced herself: her name was Joyce. Earlier this year, her father (Temple University physics professor and former department chairman, Xiaoxing Xi) had been arrested by the Justice Department and wrongly accused of espionage. In 2002, Xi had worked at a company that had invented something called a pocket heater, which is now a restricted technology used in superconductor research. Later, Xi purchased limited access to the technology for one year to continue his research on it.
In an emotional and heartfelt op-ed published this past week, Joyce recounts how in May of this year, the US Justice Department raided the Xi family home. Twelve FBI agents broke into the house in the early morning hours and pointed guns at a bewildered and terrified Xi, his wife, and their children. The agents dragged Xi away in handcuffs, and accused him of sharing the pocket heater schematics with Chinese scientists in 2010, in a series of emails. They implicated Xi — a US citizen who naturalized in 1989 — as a Chinese spy. In addition to facing federal charges of espionage, Xi became informally black-listed: before even having a chance to defend himself in a court of law, Xi found himself demoted from his departmental chairmanship by Temple University.
One inconvenient problem: Xi appears to be completely innocent.
Continue reading "Race is No Just Cause: The US Government's Racist Profiling of Asian Americans"
Categories Categories Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, Racism
Tags Tags China, Espionage, Espionage Act, Model Minority Myth, Perpetual Foreigner, Sherry Chen, State Department, Stephen Kim, Structural Racism, Wen Ho Lee, Xiaoxing Xi, Yellow Peril
Stereotypes and the State Department: Why aren't we rallying behind Stephen Kim?
Stephen Kim, a former State Department contractor who was charged with espionage in 2010. (Photo Credit: Cliff Owens / AP)
Most of us know the name of Edward Snowden, the computer programmer who leaked so much classified government data that journalists are still sifting through it. Snowden, who has been hailed simultaneously as an American hero and an American traitor, is currently living in exile in an undisclosed location in Moscow as he faces charges under the Espionage Act for revealing classified information pertaining to (among other things) America's overseas unmanned drone program and the NSA's expansive metadata and phone surveillance programs.
Most of us also know the name of Chelsea Manning, who prior to taking her new identity as Chelsea served as Bradley Manning in the US Army where she leaked the largest package of classified information to the public via Wikileaks, including documents pertaining to US airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning was prosecuted under the Espionage Act and is currently serving 35 years in prison.
Few of us know the name of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a Korean American former mid-level contracted analyst who worked in the Pentagon's prestigious Office of Net Assessment think-tank and then later in the State Department's Bureau of Verification, Compliance and Implementation. In 2010, Kim became one of a handful of analysts and journalists targeted by the FBI; these investigations were a manifestation of the Obama Administration's sudden and unprecedented crackdown on internal leaks in the wake of the Manning case.
Continue reading "Stereotypes and the State Department: Why aren't we rallying behind Stephen Kim?"
Tags Tags Espionate Act, James Rosen, Obama Administration, Perpetual Foreigner, President Obama, State Department, Stephen Kim
KY Democratic operative launches torrent of racist anti-Asian tweets against Elaine Chao
Former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao.
Although these days, Former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is predominantly seen stumping with husband Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell, Chao has built an impressive history as a public servant in her own right, breaking through a number of barriers to Asian Americans in Washington.
Her career in politics began in the Reagan Administration when Chao, a Republican, worked as Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation. She went on to serve as Deputy Secretary of Transportation and later as Director of the Peace Corps under President George H.W. Bush. Eventually, she was appointed as the 24th Labor Secretary under the junior Bush, and became the only Cabinet member of George W. Bush's administration to serve out his full two terms. Chao is the first Asian American woman to be appointed to any of these positions, including as a Cabinet Secretary — the nation's highest appointed office.
A staunch conservative, Chao has politics that are very nearly the polar opposite to my own. There's very little I agree with when it comes to Chao's philosophy (less that I agree with when it comes to her husband Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell), but no one can or should deny Chao's accomplishments as a forthright and powerful Asian American woman in politics.
That's why, in my mind, there is absolutely no justification for the racist, anti-Asian tirade of Kathy Groob, a Kentucky-based Democrat and founder of the Elect Women PAC, earlier this week.
Continue reading "KY Democratic operative launches torrent of racist anti-Asian tweets against Elaine Chao"
Categories Categories Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, Feminism, Local, Politics
Tags Tags Elaine Chao, Kathy Groob, Kentucky, Misogylinity, Mitch McConnell, Perpetual Foreigner, This Shit is Racist