All Star

Reflecting back on the reading, “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans” by Claire Jean Kim, one particular quote stood out to me. This quote is: “Before the civil rights era, racial triangulation occurred open, in cultural-racial terms; during the post-civil rights era, racial triangulation has occurred in a coded fashion, in cultural terms decoupled from overtly racial claims.” Looking at this quote, before the Civil Rights Era, Americas openly participated in racial triangulation. There was no need to hide it and deny that it was happening. This is because of all the other acceptable racial ideas that occurred at the time. Ultimately, it was acceptable for people to be racist and discriminate against other racial or ethnic groups. As time moved forward, these behaviors and thought processes were no longer acceptable. This is due to the new normal that came to be in our nation. No longer was it acceptable to deny Blacks the use of a water fountain or subject them to sitting on the back of the bus. Therefore, it prevented racial triangulation from occurring openly. Just because racial triangulation did not occur openly, it does not mean that it went away completely. Instead, during the post- Civil Rights Era the racial triangulation occurred in a “coded fashion”. You had to really look closely to see if racial triangulation was taking place because people tried to hide it since it was no longer aligning with the norms of the time. Similarly, people were no longer overtly racist due to the changes that occurred over time. 

This particular post stands out to me because it is very relevant to what is going on in society today. Racism is all around us, but sometimes it can be difficult to see. In my blog post, I mentioned that in the post-Civil Rights Era people have to examine events closely to see if racial triangulation is taking place. Reflecting on this post, something I did here that I liked was incorporating a quote that had meaning to me. This allowed me to develop my own personal perspective on the article. This post related to large course themes around inclusivity of all voices in a given conversation. A voice was given to minorities who are often shut out. It shows how minorities are silenced and told that racism does not exist or that people are colorblind. In reality, there is still covert and overt racism.