Structural Racism Towards Asians in America

Structural racism towards Asians in the US is an issue that has transformed itself innumerable times in America and continues to do so today. Although racism has been defeated at many levels and is not as blatantly existent as it was in the past, it is anything but history. Asian Americans continue to face structural forms of racism on a daily basis, though it is no longer quite the simple racism that it once was. Structural racism is an ineludible strand in the fabric of a nation that it can never truly be completely resolved nor dissolved, as demonstrated by he narrative conclusions of Milton Murayama's All I Asking for is My Body and Hisaye Yamamoto's "Fire in Fontana." Kiyoshi shows the hopelessness of the prison of structural racism in which even unfeasible magical solutions bring no true resolution while the narrator of "Fire in Fontana" illustrates how structural racism has developed to engulf even its victims into silent committers, furthering the notion of the inescapable nature of structural racism in the US and its growing complexity with time.

Living a life that he cannot control and in a time that he cannot change, Kiyoshi is a captive of the hopeless conditions of his situation. The debt and poverty that burdens Kiyoshi and makes survival so difficult for his family is not just an economic issue but one that is unique to them as Japanese Americans living in Hawaii during the 1930's and 40's, when the US government failed to recognize the poor conditions of Asians suppressed under a system of feudal plantations. Structural racism was present in the political, economic, and social pillars of the government and it was ingrained in the minds of the people to the extent that they willingly accepted the status quo and turned to magic and luck for hope. Toshi attempted to get out of the tragic cycle of suffering through his own means by training and competing in the island boxing events but, in the end, was married and expecting a child, fitting perfectly into the next generation of struggle and misery, showing the hopelessness with which the youth face and leading to Kiyoshi's joining the army.

There was no other choice or path to a better life for Kiyoshi, thus reflecting the idea that the only way to a better life is to commit to the government and to give into the force of structural racism. Even then, it is not more than a way of survival and going on, and Kiyoshi must rely on "manufacturing luck" (103) through gambling, a form of escape in itself. Selling his morals and principles, Kiyoshi sacrifices who he is in order to bail out of "this prison of filial piety and family unity," and the dire situation that his country has put him in. Not only is the ending to All I Asking for is My Body near impossible, it is only a momentary answer. After the money is spent to pay off the family debt, only more debts will occur and soon the past will reenact itself. Kiyoshi's resolution is simply surreal, reflecting the issue of structural racism and its permanence. Structural racism also has no quick answer and, furthermore, is so intricate impossible to solve that it seems as though it can only be defeated through magical means. The permanence of structural racism against Asians is so entrenched and unshakable in both the race and the nation that there is no conceivable way out of the past and no answer for the future.

The narrative ending of "A Fire in Fontana" is somewhat ironic and eerily forceful. The narrator is an Asian woman living within the structural racism of America as one of it victims and silent supporters. She portrays herself comfortably going about daily household chores, with the "automatic washer" and the "ironing," as she watches the Watts riot unfold on television, illustrating her distance from the incident and its results. She is married to a "pale" husband and is settled in a neighborhood where "panic would be the order of the day if a Black family should happen to move in," (157) giving her the facility to feels distant and safe from all that is going on, though somewhere inside of her she shrinking away but gratified with the events. All this illustrates the power of the structural racism that faced Asian Americans and its barely conceivable effects on its victims. As a Japanese American who lived through the internment camps, all that she can do is be thankful to be accepted back into her own society and is unable to actively stand against racism against other races. Although she is appalled by the riots, she feels it to be gratifying because something is being done, people are standing up and fighting against structural racism, almost as if making up for her silence in the incident of the Black family in Fontana. She had faced the betrayal of her own government and country through internment, one of the most extreme crime of structural racism, and it can be said that it had taken all her faith in possible change.

The narrative endings of Milton Murayama's All I Asking for is My Body and Hisaye Yamamoto's "Fire in Fontana" both serve to comment on the solidity and power of structural racism against Asians. While Kiyoshi attempts to escape by servicing the government and trading his integrity for freedom, the narrator of "Fire in Fontana" demonstrates how structural racism has phased her faith and made her docile and obedient just like the Kiyoshi's Japanese community. She does not rise against the force of racism that she sees being committed against another race, but keeps silent for her own career and benefit. In both works the narrative endings reflected upon the inescapable nature of structural racism; Kiyoshi never did find a true answer or way out of his troubles and the female narrator of "Fire in Fontana" is revisited in the end by the fire that had occurred years ago and while she remains silent and inactive, she is able to find a sense of relief and exultation from knowing that someone, if not her, is battling the evils of structural racism. In the end, neither protagonist seem to completely comprehend the effects of structural racism and, as a result, neither learn any kind of lesson nor take any steps to, furthering commenting on the silent passiveness that is character of Asians facing structural forms of racism in the US.

Rooted in economic and political inequality, structural racism facing Asians in America has been rather uncapped from past to present time. As shown by the narrative endings of All I Asking For is My Body and "Fire in Fontana," there is no way to completely get away from the constraints of racism. However, these works also show no sense of Asian community efforts to challenge the core problems of racism or addressing the dysfunctional relationships between citizens and their communities, the governed, and the governors rooted in structural racism. The end narratives of these two literary pieces present an image of a structural racism that has caused a fragmented, disjointed community of Asians who have lost faith and hope in their country and find life and justice only in dreamlike realms of reality and through the battles of other victimized races that have chosen to fight against their conditions.