Claire Kim’s essay on Racial Triangulation highlights the fringe experience of non-black minorities in relation to an ever present, yet highly malleable framework of white-superiority. Triangulation is a method of racial categorization, where non-black cultures in the U.S, primarily of foreign origin, are used as intermediaries and actors between white supremacy and black inferiority, with the indented consequence of ostracizing both African Americans and non-white agents from civic engagement. However, these examples of agency work on both ends of the “y” axis in Kim’s triangle, where Asian Americans move in the negative direction during the genesis of their immigration, and move towards the positive direction as they emerge as “model minorities”. With this in mind I would like to reimagine the fixed position of Asian Americans on Kim’s triangle, as a point on a sliding scale along the y axis, thus distorting the geometric shape. I personally find that this would be a better, and more accurate representation of Asian-American agency in relation to white society.
Personally, Kim’s essay struck a nerve, as figuring out the relative positioning of Asian-Americans and other non-black minority groups in America has been a constant source of mental anguish for me. Kim’s piece has been highly insightful in quelling such an anguish, and has helped me mentally connect with times in which I experienced confusion over the agency she now describes. I can distinctly remember when the city was concerned over the lack of minorities in specialized high schools. Conservative news outlets and republican politicians alike, made the case that specialized high schools were already diverse enough as is due to the high success of Asian American students. But what are the implied intentions? Using Kim’s method of understanding agency, we can immediately infer that Asian Americans, now positioned as “model citizens”, are utilized as the deafening chants in a cry of reverse racism. Kim herself states that “Valorizing Asian-Americans helps to deflect Black demands for racial reform”, proving that by reframing Asian-American’s as “model minorities”, white power structures can subdue the need for reform within other marginalized cultures, thus killing off two problems with a single bullet.
This was a VERY interesting read and I hope we get assigned similar material in the future!
Your example of the SHSAT controversy is an excellent point on how setting marginalized groups against one another deflects the underlying issues in the system. For the Asian Americans who have put in countless hours preparing for the exam, giving up what they’ve worked so hard for over the years is a brutal setback. For the African American and Latinx American communities, the removal of the tests gives them more opportunities to further their academic career. Yet, the problem still persists as the lack of resources for minority groups is still not addressed by this reform that supposedly aims to level the playing field.