Blacks and Asians in America: Coping Strategies in a Hostile Environment

Blacks and Asians in the United States are an underclass cheated of resources such as housing, health care and upper level positions in the workplace. The response to this discrimination is quite different between the groups. Asians reach America through kinship networks that often include extended family. This provides a certain amount of security not only in shelter but in culture as well. The family structure of Blacks has shifted dramatically since the former half of the century from nuclear family to single parent households. This weak family structure has been theorized to evolve from the relatively stable jobs that black females were able to procure after the civil war versus the transitory fleets black males joined. As dispensable workers, black men were always on the go, ready to take on the next low-paying project. Black women tended to work as domestic helpers in the South; in the north, secretarial work was common, both lending a strong home base.

Although eager to take the blight of slavery away from national politics, whites were reluctant to relinquish privileges based on skin color. As slaves, blacks were stripped of humanity and utilized as cheap labor, none of which they reaped benefits from. Even after Emancipation, blacks had nowhere to turn but to employers who exploited their practically refuge status of destitution and desperation. A system of rent-to-work replaced slavery, allowing landowners to retain 80% of crop profits. "Separate but equal" are the laudable claims of a government well versed in utilitarian values for white males. Take one look at urban ghettos and dilapidated schools where students are mostly ethnic minorities and there will be no question as to the parity of distribution. Teachers, some with the best of intentions, channel students into dead end vocational jobs such as nursing or dental assistance. Somehow this inequality surfaces even in life span, with whites living on average a decade longer.

Because immigration laws made it difficult for Asians without resources to make it to America, they either had to rely on the support of family or already have capital. At first each Asian head was taxed $50. Then immigration was curtailed to merchants in the late 1800's with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Those who immigrated were a select class of mostly Chinese who were restricted in job opportunities. Spurned by housing authorities and general hospitals, they gathered in enclaves now known as Chinatowns that sported their own health and recreational facilities. Beauty and culture flourished in these niches, stimulating tourism an increasing their economic prowess.

As expected, their ability to thrive was resented by whites and other subgroups alike, culminating in sabotage through fire and rioting not unlike the 1992 riots of Los Angeles. Immigration and business regulations reflected nativist sentiments. "Heathen Chinee" were portrayed as dirty and dangerous, and Asian medicine was banned between 1930 and 1950 (Harte 3). Stripped of this major line of income, they enter other fields not coveted by whites. One of these enterprises was laundering clothes. Yet again, when these businesses achieved a certain level of success, whites responded with resentment.

This apprehension is comparable to the reaction blacks encounter when actions are taken to redress past discrimination. Affirmative Action, a superficial step at equalizing color differences in universities, was protested and overturned after less than a year. Even those who have attained high levels of education reach a glass ceiling due to prevailing beliefs about their personhood. These reactions come from a sense of threat that blacks are taking seats away from whites.

Both in farming and industry, the hiring of Asians spiked. Reports on their high productivity were tinged with Darwinist attribution to their physicality as it was "well-suited to stoop-work" coupled with smaller, more nimble hands to pick lettuce (Hing 47). As thousands of Asians started working as railroad workers for dollars a day, this threat became real. Hoping to reduce the rate of settlement, Congress enacted laws prohibiting intermarriage and Asian women from immigrating. This is a two-front approach of restricting Asian mobility so that their labor can be extracted without getting their hands dirty. Unfortunately it would be other minority groups such as recently immigrated southern Europeans who would. Asian and black workers were excluded from unions. Anti-Filipino riots in Watsonville, CA involved disgruntled whites and Mexicans who wanted to stop carousing Filipino youth.

Southern Horrorswritten by Ida B. Wells, and public reaction to Jack Johnson's relationships contend with the myth of white women being coerced to associate with dark skinned men. Mass hysteria was common during this time period, as evidenced by the panic caused from a radio airing of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds." If something as fantastic as a Mars invasion sparked evacuations, imagine the reaction of communities to movies such as The Birth of a Nation. Movies, art, and fiction during this time depicted black men as brutes let loose -- with the discipline and guidance of slavery gone, black men would assume positions of power and abuse it with glee at the expense of refined white women.

When looking at prejudices, blacks and Asians are labeled at opposite extremes. An easy example is how the media depicts each group. Blacks are seen as violent criminals in movies, cartoons, even on the news. Whenever an Asian male appears onscreen, a flurry of laughter erupts oftentimes at his perceived awkwardness. In Police Academy, a dorky Asian male wobbles around for comedic relief. The safe zone for Asian males is one of ineptitude and emasculation. Blacks are seen as gang-bangers, and Asians are feeble dweebs.

Asian women fare no better. From their humble beginnings as prostitute-immigrants, they have evolved into femme fatales of the Lucie Liu variety. Minority women have to surmount two levels of prejudice. Both are ridiculous stereotypes that take away from individual differences in stature and orientation, causing audiences to lump all Asians as one, and all blacks as one. As long as blacks and Asians are portrayed through such narrow confines, they will be regarded as inherently different and inassimilable.

Finally the strategic positioning of Asians as the model minority only scapegoats them as usurpers of resources while the real people in control remain undetected. Because many Asians own businesses, they interact with various groups and serve as the middle men. Restaurants and small businesses are always a risky venture. To champion this middle class isn't the solution for other ethnic minorities. The answer should be to level the playing field so that all groups can access their own paths to success. A good start would be in education. For all the money that flows to the military, surely a small percentage could bolster faculty resources. When the government is motivated, as seen by the New Deal and social security, resources can be redistributed.

Harte, Bret "Plain Language from Truthful James." Overland Monthly.
Hing, Bill "The Immigrant as Criminal: Punishing Dreamers." MigrationNews.