Author: Yvenson

Race is a social construction  because it is a way to differentiate people. In the first video, it states “Race is biologically real(its an idea)…[They] categorize each race by who is more superior at that specific thing like sports, and body types, or the environment they were raised in.” Also, “For 200 years, scientists poked and prodded, measured and mapped the human body searching for biological basis to race.” in addition they said that physical aspects of many native Africans gives a decidedly beastly look. Also they categorize people because of their skin complexion, as people with lighter skin tones have more privileges. Social construction: race has a lot to do with where somebody will live, what schools they will go to, what jobs they will get, whether or not they will have health insurance.

Short video: “Real Americans was a white American, everybody else had to be qualified.” Over the phone experiences : “I can tell you’re Korean over the phone… No one should be able to tell you’re Korean on the phone.” This baffles me because since when was  it a problem being on the phone with someone who is Korean is there a way they should sound?

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1c-8F4iyDrfRHGTBr6zTTLMJTm4ynzxptHdLbc-Em9c0/edit?usp=sharing

Phis’ point about Asian-Americans relationship to police and police violence is that in the police “community/force” and in general Asians aren’t treated nicely. In the police force, for example they would help you throw the rocks and hide their hands and let you take the blame for it, they would turn a blind eye. Another example is the Death of Akai Gurley where this Asian police officer shot Akai and in Peters case he though the police force would somewhat help him walk away from his crime as other (white) police officers with the same crimes get to keep their jobs and Peter Liang does his time. Also, according to Phi he stated “Duy was shocked to find that the police force he was so loyal to quickly turned on him.” He also mentioned ” The white officer who shot him with an illegal firearm was put on paid leave for three days- no criminal charges were filed against that officer and didn’t find any policy or procedural violation.” and the goal of this is to show that no matter who white people will always come first and play their privilege card.

What i learned about “Chinese conservatism” is that The police aren’t good to Asians, they themselves have often encountered situations where they are treated poorly by the police because they don’t speak English fluently, and Chinese Immigrants genuinely feel like they are the victim of criminal activity and a lot of their struggles do not align with mainstream liberal concerns- according to Zen.

The goal for this BLM letter is to reach out to the Asian community specially the elders and bring awareness that the black community is suffering TOO and that even though other POC communities are facing some kind of racism and discrimination, we must stand together and not create conflict with one another.

According to the readings and the video, what i learned about refugee ”resettlement”, criminalization is that people from Cambodia fled there because they were being executed, forced to work(labor), starved, and mostly because of communist tyranny. Also in 1996 congress changed the immigration law to crack down on terrorism and illegal immigration. ICE would even deport you for a crime you did  7 years ago even if you did the time in jail already just because congress passed that law, for legal permanent residents sentenced to a year or more for “aggravated felonies” deportation is now mandatory. Also the ” Permanent Resident” status given to refugees when they arrived in the U.S did not give them all the rights and protections of citizenship, which means no translator to answer the 100 questions to become a citizen, the video stated that they didn’t know what to answer when they were taking the test. lastly currently 1,500 Cambodian-Americans await deportation.

Any questions i have is : Why welcome Immigrants with open arms then turn your back on them for something simple or a crime they did years ago?

Thoughts and feelings: It’s sad to see people go through so much just to have a better life outside of their countries and this reminded me of the kids who were (still in cages) and  separated from their parents who were deported to Mexico and the when Trump sent ICE on a rampage to detain immigrants and deport them.

 

The model minority myth started ins the U.S. the U.s were looking for skilled immigrants in Asian countries and portraying them as successful immigrants and saying the opposite for other minorities such as Hispanic and African-Americans. According to Prashad he stated “In the 1860’s there was a given suggestion made to flood the U.S south with south and east Asian workers to shift the blacks from the land and to undermine their power as newly free people.” So basically they allowed Asian to come to America to try to stop African-Americans from using their right and succeed.

• What I learned from the video and readings about the criteria for citizenship is that if you are a race other than European white, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been living in the U.S it will be difficult to become a citizen because POC don’t have power/privilege’s of their own to defend them. Europeans whites and Asians who were recruited to fight in the war were basically allowed to be citizen or belong to the U.S. According to Lopez it states ” Japanese immigrants shared much in common with their European counterparts, yet every European immigrant group regardless of national origin, had the right of naturalization and precisely because they possessed it no matter how beleaguered they were”. Europeans had more privilege’s to becoming citizens, and Asians had to fill out the loyalty questionnaire to show their loyalty to the U.S.
• Today what i think defines citizenship is when you live, work, and spend your money here in the U.S makes you a citizen because the government is still taking money(tax) from you since money is what it’s all about. People in the military serving the U.S and people who bring money and goods would be considered to be part of the U.S because they’re benefitting the U.S and some of them are not really thinking about the real ones who have to face the fear of their own countries

Hey guys, this class has been going good and easy, things with me could be better, and as for my classmates I hope that I can get in touch with some you guys( I’m in introvert and have anxieties, so that kinda suck), and Dr Munshi I like how understandable she is. I wouldn’t change anything at the moment and something that I really like and is really helpful is the fact that open lab send you notifications about the DBs and who made a post, it’s like a reminder that who have work that’s done.

One song that I would like to share is Childish Gambino- Feels like summer I don’t know everytime I listen to this song I sing along it’s really smooth and calm if you listen to it and I also heard that this song is about climate change.

• Some explanations or reasons I hear people migrate to other countries and the U.S in particular is because they want a better life away from turmoil back in  their countries. For example strict governments/ corrupt government, persecution, economic hardships, political turmoil, and natural disasters. As I mentioned before Asians migrate to other countries or come to the U.S because the government over there don’t give them as much freedom that they are originally born with, according Yeonmi Park she escaped North Korea in search of freedom saying “There’s no internet, they are not allowed to sing, wear, or think what they want.” Also that “North Korea is the only country in the world that execute people for making unauthorized international phone calls.” Beyond Asian migrants, there are Haitian migrants that were forced into exile, speaking of someone in my family that was forced to leave as a punishment, then had to leave the next country because of economic distress and political disorder. I would say that these explanations are like confirmations to the theories that Yung put forth.
• Other ‘clusters of factors” that would add to Yung’s theories about why Asians are migrating could because of their religions some are being kept in detention camps for example Muslims in China’s detention centers. Also people migrate because of their sexualities, some countries forbids same-sex marriage, these could be reasons why people leave for a better life.

 

 

What I learned was that most migrants migrate because they want(ed) to contribute and make the U.S wealthy (according to the video) and that’s something that people tend to overlook that, and what still surprises me is the Boston Tea Party and how millions of pounds of tea in the Boston harbor to protest British control, and instead of paying Europeans wanted to exchange goods with with china. Also the British was so desperate to they started trading opium with China. But didn’t China already have problems with drugs before? why smuggle opium?. Also, trading, settling, and because of wealthier countries conquering Asia motivated some Asians to leave, people from China, Japan, the Philippines ,etc. and settled in places like Mexico, Cuba, and Peru. What I also noticed is that Afong Moy was being treated like she was some type of object for entertainment, they alienated her for her bound feet and I say “alienate” because the chapter says that “European travelers describe the bizarre creatures, alien plants and strange customs of the “East”… “other world”” so China and Chinese were exotic and different.

These stories about immigration back then differs drastically than what we hear about today’s immigration because back then people could come and settle without any problem, but now once the Government and ICE finds out about any undocumented people or people who overstayed, they throw them in caged and separate them from love ones without proper court hearings. The reasons I think that these conditions changed is because of selfishness and the U.S don’t want to deal with other people “steal their jobs”.