Tag: Asian American

PHOTOS: The Model Minority Reality, by Cynthia Trinh

“This photo essay portrays Asian Americans working in low-wage service jobs. Asian Americans are often stereotyped to be the “model minority” because they are viewed as highly educated and hold professional jobs. However, this is not true for many Asian Americans working as street vendors, nail salon workers, store clerks, cooks, and more. This photo essay aims to combat the stereotype that Asians are the “model minority” and also shows the tenacity, hard work, and struggle of an immigrant population to survive in a big city.”

Click here.

This photo series has been featured in popular media, including .Mic, The New York Daily News, and Angry Asian Man.

Remembering Legendary Detroit Activist Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015)

Longtime Detroit activist and philosopher Grace Lee Boggs died this morning at the age of 100.

“She left this life as she lived it: surrounded by books, politics, people and ideas,” said her friends and caretakers Shay Howell and Alice Jennings.

Grace Lee Boggs was involved with the civil rights, Black Power, labor, environmental justice, and feminist movements over the past seven decades. She was born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1915. In 1992, she co-founded the Detroit Summer youth program to rebuild and renew her city.

Here is a Democracy Now! video interview in which she talks about her work in the civil rights, Black Power, labor, environmental justice and feminist movements for seven decades.

Conversations on Philosophy and Race

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Click here to read an ongoing series of interviews with philosophers on race by George Yancy, philosophy professor at Emory University.

Ariana Miyamoto: the Black Miss Japan

In March 2015 Ariana Miyamoto became the first half-black Japanese woman to be named Miss Japan. This video feature by Al Jazeera America explores the varied reactions to a mixed-race woman, or what the Japanese refer to as a “hafu”,  being crowned Miss Japan.

“I don’t think the equivalent word for ‘hafu’ exists overseas; but in Japan, you need that word to explain who you are.” — Ariana Miyamoto

Furthermore, the video communicates to viewers the often misused and mislead power of assigning meaning to bodies and outward appearances as opposed to acknowledging individuals’ ethnicities or nationalities .

“My appearance isn’t Asian, but I believe I’m very much Japanese on the inside.” — Ariana Miyamoto

This piece connects well with our discussion of what it means to talk about race, how we use or misuse the term ‘race’ to assign meaning, and the significance of the language we use in race-talk.

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2015/9/miss-japan-challenges-the-norm.html

 

MAP: 37 maps that explain how America is a nation of immigrants

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“American politicians, and Americans themselves, love to call themselves “a nation of immigrants”: a place where everyone’s family has, at some point, chosen to come to seek freedom or a better life. America has managed to maintain that self-image through the forced migration of millions of African slaves, restrictive immigration laws based on fears of “inferior” races, and nativist movements that encouraged immigrants to assimilate or simply leave.

But while the reality of America’s immigrant heritage is more complicated than the myth, it’s still a fundamental truth of the country’s history. It’s impossible to understand the country today without knowing who’s been kept out, who’s been let in, and how they’ve been treated once they arrive.”

Click here.