> > > > https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/opinion/asian-american-AAPI-decolonization.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage > > The Beautiful, Flawed Fiction of ‘Asian American’ > May 31, 2021 > By Viet Thanh Nguyen > > Mr. Nguyen is the author of the novels “The Sympathizer” and its sequel, > “The Committed.” He is a professor of English, American studies and > comparative literature at the University of Southern California. > > One is not born an Asian American. It’s an identity that is inherently > political, and must be chosen. Before college, I had never even heard of > the term, but I vividly remember the moment that I became Asian American. > > I had been raised in multicultural San Jose, Calif., during the late 1970s > and 1980s, among Mexican Americans and working-class white people. My > family and I were refugees from Vietnam and the war fought there, but all I > knew of the history that had brought us and many of our neighbors to the > United States was what Hollywood told me. It confused me and shamed me to > see people who looked like my parents being reduced to wordless masses, > condemned to be killed, raped, rescued or silenced. > > When my parents talked about Americans, they meant other people, not us, > but I felt American, as well as Vietnamese. My parents could use “Oriental” > without self-consciousness, but I could not. Something struck me as wrong > about that word, but I didn’t know what it was until I studied Asian > American history and literature at the University of California, Berkeley. > There I learned about the Chinese Exclusion Act, the internment of Japanese > Americans, the colonization of the Philippines, the annexation of Hawaii, > the often forgotten presence of Korean and Indian immigrants in the early > 20th century, the signs that said “No Dogs or Filipinos Allowed,” and the > experiences of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Hmong people during and > after the Indochina wars. > > That’s when I became Asian American. And the overwhelming emotion that I > felt on learning this history was rage. Muhammad Ali said that “writing is > fighting” — and I wanted to write and fight, especially after I discovered > that Asian Americans had been writing and fighting in English since the > late 19th century: the sisters Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna, Carlos > Bulosan, John Okada, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston and many more. > > I hadn’t learned about them before because racism isolates us, disempowers > us, and erases our history. One solution is to find others and discover > strength in our stories and our numbers. In high school, my Asian friends > and I jokingly called ourselves “the Asian invasion” because that was all > the language we had. In college, I joined the Asian American Political > Alliance. There I learned that the term “Asian American” > <https://time.com/5837805/asian-american-history/> had been invented in > California by Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee when they formed the group in 1968. > > “Asian American” was a creation — and those who say that there are no > “Asians” in Asia > <https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/rethinking-early-east-asian-history/#> > are right. But neither is there an “Orient” or “Orientals” — those > fantastic figments of the Western imagination, as Edward Said argued. > Against this racist and sexist fiction of the Oriental, we built the > anti-racist, anti-sexist fiction of the Asian American. We willed ourselves > into being, but as with every other act of American self-conjuring, we > became marked by a contradiction between American aspiration and American > reality. > > On the one hand, Asian Americans have long insisted that we are patriotic > and productive Americans. This self-defense often leans upon the “model > minority” myth, and the idea that Asian Americans have succeeded in fields > such as medicine and technology because we immigrated with educational > credentials, and we raise our children to work hard. But Asian Americans > are also haunting reminders of wars that killed millions and generated many > refugees. And Asian Americans have come to satisfy the American need for > cheap, exploitable labor — from working on railroads to giving pedicures. > We were and are perceived to be competitors in a capitalist economy > fractured by divisions of race, gender and class, and the ever-widening gap > of inequality that affects all Americans. > > These roles that we play, and the contradictions they represent, aren’t > going anywhere. So long as the United States remains committed to > aggressive capitalism domestically and aggressive militarism > internationally, Asians and Asian Americans will continue to be scapegoats > who embody threat and aspiration, an inhuman “yellow peril,” and a > superhuman model minority. > > No claim to American belonging will end the vulnerability of Asian > Americans to racism and cyclical convulsions of violence. And what does it > even mean to claim belonging in the United States? If we belong to this > country, then this country belongs to us, every part of it, including its > systemic anti-Black racism and its colonization of Indigenous peoples and > land. Like wave after wave of newcomers to this country before, Asian > immigrants and refugees learned that absorbing and repeating > <https://www.vox.com/22321234/black-asian-american-tensions-solidarity-history> > anti-Black racism helps in the assimilation process. And like the European > settlers, Asian immigrants and refugees aspire to the American dream, whose > narrative of self-reliance, success and property accumulation is built upon > the theft of land from Indigenous peoples. > > “Asian American” has now morphed into a newer fiction: the “Asian American > and Pacific Islander” community, or A.A.P.I. But again, there are > contradictions inherent to this identity. Pacific Islanders — Hawaiians, > Samoans, the Chamorro of Guam — have been and remain colonized by the > United States, with Hawaii and Guam serving as major American military > bases that project power in the Pacific and Asia. “A.A.P.I.” is a staple of > the lofty rhetoric and pragmatic corporate language of diversity and > inclusion, but it also tends to gloss over the United States’ long history > of violence and conquest. It’s not only railroads and internment that are > central to A.A.P.I. experience; so is the colonization of Hawaii, masked by > the tourist fantasy of an island paradise. > > Now we applaud the success stories of Asian American billionaires, > politicians, movie stars, and “influencers,” and the popularity of our > cultural commodities, from boba > <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/dining/us-boba-company-bay-area.html> > to BTS > <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/arts/music/bts-map-of-the-soul-7-review.html>. > We raise each other up through networking — in the hope that embracing > global capitalism, the idea of meritocracy and corporate culture will make > us belong in the United States. But belonging will only get us so far, for > belonging always involves exclusion. > > We should look to other ideals: solidarity, unity and decolonization. > Colonization and racism divide and conquer, telling the subjugated that > they have nothing in common. That’s why unity is crucial, and a broader > unity can grow from the solidarity we have expressed with one another as > Asian Americans, the force that pulled together such disparate peoples and > experiences. That will to find kinship can be the basis for further > solidarities — with everyone else shaped by colonization’s global impact, > its genocide and slavery, racism and capitalism, patriarchy and > heteronormativity. > > This is the only way that an Asian American-Pacific Islander coalition > makes sense — pointing the way toward alliances with other groups, from > Black Americans to Muslims, Latinos to L.G.B.T.Q. people. Asian Americans > are one political identity among the many that must come together for > decolonization. > > Viet Thanh Nguyen is a contributing opinion writer and the author of > "Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War." @viet_t_nguyen > <https://twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen> > >
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