Racism and War An Asian American perspective BY P. HALL On Aug. 6, we gathered in Eugene to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to remember the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps during WWII. As many as 75 percent of them were U.S. citizens. As an Asian American, I was born and raised in the U.S. When I was 10, my family moved from an Asian district to a mostly white area in San Francisco. On the first day of school on the playground, a white girl asked me if I knew the Pledge of Allegiance. I can still remember my outrage. I became politicized on that day. This is an example of what is called the "perpetual foreigner" syndrome. People can say that they want immigrants to assimilate, but my Asian American ancestors have lived in the U.S. for five generations and we are still treated like foreigners. Many Americans today still cannot tell that I am an Asian American, that I was born in the U.S. — not in China. For decades, I have been asked "What country are you from?" "Are you from China?", "Where are you really from?" (if I answer "California"), or I have been told that I speak good English. Sometimes I weary of answering these questions. This ignorance fuels hate crimes and war. Most folks should know by now that for millions of us, this is our home. Howard University law professor Frank Wu, who wrote about the perpetual foreigner syndrome in his book Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, says that when he is asked "Where are you really from?", he feels as if he's been mistaken for a foreigner or is being told that he cannot be a real American. Asian Americans who have been misperceived as foreigners have been subjected to racism and bias crimes or incarcerated in concentration camps since our arrival to the U.S. in the 1800s. Historically, many acts of legislation were passed against the Chinese, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was not repealed until 1943. During the 1920s, Asian immigrants were labeled "the yellow peril," barred from owning land and considered aliens ineligible for citizenship. Under Jim Crow-like laws, they were refused service in stores. Although many Asian Americans have lived in the U.S. for more than a century, major disconnections and denials persist, fueling hate crimes and war. Some people still do not realize that an American can have an Asian face or a Latino face. But European Americans are rarely asked questions about their nationality. Dehumanizing the enemy (e.g. Japan, Korea, Iraq) makes it easier for some people to bomb or harm others. The relationship between North Korea and the U.S. has been tense. Last June, North Korea fired nuclear missiles aimed in the direction of the western coast of the U.S. Their tests failed, but many other nations want to build more nuclear missiles. We clearly do not need any more nuclear weapons. We need to end the war in Iraq — and not go to war with Iran or North Korea. I'd like to quote Ira Glasser, former director of the ACLU, from the book It's a Free Country: Personal Freedom in America after September 11th. Glasser called the concentration camps for people of Japanese ancestry "the single worst governmental act of racism in our history with the exception of slavery itself." I hope that history does not repeat itself and that we never again see internment camps for Asians, Asian Americans, Latinos, Middle Easterners, Muslims or others in this country. For the sake of future generations, it's imperative that we educate ourselves about diversity, become stronger allies and usher in a new global consciousness to save this planet from a nuclear war. As the Dalai Lama has said, "It is important to realize our sameness as human beings." This piece was adapted from an Aug. 6 speech given by the author at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration in Eugene. Hall co-authored a book on bias crimes with civil rights lawyer Victor Hwang and has worked with local activists on racism and privilege issues
		Table of Contents | News | Views | Calendar| Film | Music | Culture | Classifieds | Personals | Contact | EW Archive | Advertising Information | Current Issue |