Claire Jean Kim’s piece “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans” resonated deeply with me. This was especially true when Kim wrote, “By using Asian Americans as proxy Whites or spokesmen for White views, the author can indirectly convey a denigrating image of Blacks… while avoiding charges of racism.”
Growing up as a first generation immigrant, my parents and relatives held a deep tie and patriotism to not the American flag, but their homeland. As such, I’ve always kept an open mind about not believing everything my parents said. This wasn’t because my parents didn’t have any nifty advice, but because there is a deeply ingrained xenophobia in many Asian countries. To many Asians Americans like my parents, we (Chinese) are the best at everything. No one else can compare to our achievements and success, especially the Blacks. To them, the Blacks are deemed as lazy and dangerous; just as how the Japanese American in the article described them to be. Yet, at the same time, they also understand the existence of racism and often complain about it. They understand that they will be discriminated against because of the color of their skin, they understand they will have to work twice as hard to achieve what a White man can do with half the effort, they understand they will be taken lightly of because they’re seen as submissive. But they still inflict the same intolerance and prejudice against other groups of minorities.
This is the problem Kim is getting at in her paper. By “valorizing Asian Americans relative to Blacks via the model minority myth” they’re (Whites) pitting Asian Americans against the African American community. They (Whites) suggest that Asian Americans are on a higher standing than African Americans, because Asian Americans value diligence, respect for authority, and being apolitical. On the other hand, they attribute the “small” progress the African Americans have made due to the fact that they’re fighting for equal rights. It then becomes a never ending cycle of prejudice that has hinder advancement on the civil rights front.
I love how you said “they understand they will have to work twice as hard to achieve what a White man can do with half the effort”. I believe that each group feels that their people is superior to others in many ways, which leads to racism against each other. I think that these ideas form due to stereotypes.
First of all, the title of your blog post immediately sends such a strong message about what the article is trying to achieve. When you said, “To them, the Blacks are deemed as lazy and dangerous… Yet, at the same time, they also understand the existence of racism and often complain about it.” I think the double-edged sword of the whole situation is shown internally. Asian-Americans are so conditioned to casual racism that they act in it themselves, yet they see their harm in doing so when looking at themselves and their experience.
I complete agree with you, that Whites were pitting Asian Americans against the African American community. They use Asian Americans as a disguise to get their messages out there without being deemed as a racist. I also love your title. It pretty much sums up how Whites are using and valorizing Asian Americans.