Julian Leus Week 6 Blog

McKibbin’s article “Current State of Multiracial Discourse” traces the evolution of multiracial academic and activist discussion from the nineteenth century to present. This author agrees with other scholars that the nineteenth and first half of the 20^th centuries viewed multiracialism in an “Age of Pathology”, in which many Western scientists tried to attribute multiracialism as some sort of social and biological disease. The explosion of multiracial discourse in the late-twentieth-century marks what many scholars call the “Age of Celebration,” when mixed-race individuals gain more visibility because of landmark court cases like Loving v. Virginia (1967) barred the prohibition of mixed-race marriages. Finally the current age in which we live is called the “Age of Critique”, in which many scholars focusing on multiracialism deal with questions of racial categorization and structure and multiracial agency.

This current age in multiracial scholarly discourse examines political institutions that fail to or are being reformed to include multiracial citizens in society, such as the choice for individuals to check off multiple boxes for racial identity in the U.S. Census (185). This idea of multiracial individuals to “choose” among their many races reveals deeper implications about race as a social construction that is now being dismantled in our post-colonial society. I find this movement very fascinating and can see how it will further the aims of racial minorities in the U.S. to achieve social justice and equality.

Julian Leus Week 4 Blog

Professor Valverde’s article “From Dust to Gold: The Vietnamese Amerasian Experience” contextualizes the struggles of mixed-race Vietnamese-Americans in the U.S. in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Many of these mixed-race individuals were not socially accepted in Vietnam because of a strict patriarchal culture, in which many native Vietnamese people shamed mixed-race children in schools for not knowing their fathers even if it was not their fault (147). This sentiment follows an old Vietnamese saying that “a child without a father is like a house without a roof”. I found it particularly interesting how phenotypically varying mixed-race Vietnamese were treated differently in Vietnamese society. For example, Black Amerasians were especially discriminated against because of the association of darker skin with the peasant class––ethnic discrimination. Another example includes a biracial woman who could phenotypically pass as full Vietnamese and therefore did not have as many problems with racial prejudice or discrimination. This distinction in social interaction amongst phenotypically different mixed-race Vietnamese people reveals the insidiousness of racial identity politics not only in the U.S., but also in Vietnam and other places affected by war.

While the article also delves into the consequences of legal action taken by both the U.S. and Vietnam once Amerasian children, I found the cultural influences of mixed-race Amerasians in Vietnam the most interesting facet of this article. I also found it interesting how the professor pointed out the political friction between Vietnam and the U.S. when trying to immigrate Amerasians to the U.S., such as the Vietnamese government not wanting ODP children to be identified as “refugees” (151). Overall, this article gave me a new perspective on the cultural history of post-war Vietnam and its focus on Amerasians felt like a fresh contribution to Ethnic Studies scholarship.

Paula Jung / Week 6 / ASA 115

This weeks topic dealt with “New Frontiers in Mixed Race Studies.” This week’s reading was from, “Emerging Paradigms in Critical Mixed Race Studies” by G. Reginald Daniel, Laura Kina, Wei Ming Dariotis, and Camilla Fojas. This paper deals with specifically critical mixed race studies in the past two decades, where many changes have been made. While America has had a long history of dismantling racist mixed race segregation laws since the 1950s, there is still much work that is currently happening. The paper focused on Barack Obama’s presidential election in the last decade and how the success of his campaign was in large part because of the progressiveness of mixed race rights. In the United States, mixed race people are more accepted, minorities are more accepted than before, and many racists laws have been dismantled. For example, Loving vs Virginia laws have almost been completely eradicated, Jim Crow laws, and these successes have actually allowed other minority groups such as the LGBTQ+ to also gain rights in their own movements in the United States. 

While this is an empowering and encouraging progress we have made, it is still upsetting we are still dealing with a few laws that still oppress and silence minorities. This is why critical studies of mixed race such as this paper, this class, and LGBTQ+ studies are highly important. I would like to see more of these types of classes offered in universities everywhere in America. A question I would have is, what kind of new challenges do mixed race people face in America? With the popularity of mixed race people being attractive, perhaps they feel their different cultures and heritages are being erased by the front of them being popular for surface level attention?

Attached is a photo of Glee star and actress, Naya Rivera, who is a quarter white, a quarter black, and half Puerto-Rican, who often speaks about being mixed race. She says she gets tired of people asking her "what she is" like she's a dog, and gets tired of the "exotic" narrative often applied to mixed race individuals.

Paula Jung / Week 5 / ASA 115

In this week’s reading, the theme is mixed race and Vietnamese American people fitting into society. In Professor Valverdes’ essay, “Doing the Mixed-Race Dance: Negotiating Social Spaces Within the Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology” she first shares her own personal experience of growing up Vietnamese-American and also mixed race. For the professor, she found her identity in being Vietnamese-American, but also felt a sense of otherness because of her mixed race heritage; her mother being Spanish-Vietnamese while her father being Vietnamese. She continues this essay by interviewing 30 people from the Bay Area mostly who identify as Vietnamese and engage in their personal experiences. 

Overall,  there are many types of people in the Vietnamese community in terms of age, sexuality, education level, class level. Professor Valverdes talks about how mixed race people are often seen as “inferior” to pure Vietnamese people. She describes it as a dance, the conversation between Vietnamese Americans and mixed race Vietnamese people because Vietnamese Americans take the lead in asking questions, while the mixed race people often follow the lead, with missteps, avoidance, and carefulness. These questions show the status of a mixed race person depending on various factors, and even so they will not be fully accepted as an equal but as accepted as a “different” or “novel.”

To me, this just shows the blatant racism and ignorance that still exists even today, even here in the modern Bay Area. A mixed race person is treated as inferior for no real reason and this infuriates me and needs to change. A question I might have is, how do we as a society bypass a person’s worth based on their ethnic backgrounds and accept them fully into a community regardless of class or race? Attached is a photo of the growing Vietnamese-American population in the United States. 

Paula Jung / Week 4 / ASA 115

In this week’s reading, we discovered more about the Amerasian experience especially of those of Vietnamese descent after the Vietnam War in 1975. Professor Valverdes talked extensively on this topic in class as well as the reading, which she wrote. The reading begins with the history of Amerasian people, how after the Vietnam War ended, there was a plethora of children from Vietnamese mothers and American fathers. Many of these children were abandoned, ostracized in their nations, and treated with racist, unjust treatment. Many children often felt unaccepted in both their heritages, both their nations, and felt overwhelmed by the two differing cultures and societies that they were apart of--but never fully accepted into. Many of these Amerasian children suffered from the hardships of life in Vietnam, while also suffering cultural differences in the United States afterwards faced with ignorant white Americans who often called them names, made racist laws against them, and failed to help them be included. 

A quote from Valverdes that stood out was, “The Vietnamese subjected Amerasians to racial abuse on a daily basis in the form of name-calling: con lai (half-breed), my lai (American mix), or my den (Black American). ‘I hear them calling me 'my lai' as I pass home from school every day, but I ignore it, keeping in mind that once home, I will be safe,’" commented an Amerasian woman. This woman was not only subjected to racist name-calling from her own country natives, but felt that she could not tell anyone about her pain and lived in pain alone, not even telling her own mother. 

It was upsetting to me to see that only a few decades ago there existed such racism, but this is our current reality and many mixed people still face discrimination today in different forms. I hope America continues to grow in a more accepting, and more educated manner and treat mixed race people with respect. My question is, how are mixed race people treated today compared to two decades ago? Mixed people are seen as popular now but in terms of their discrimination level, where do they stand compared to two decades ago?

This photo is an Amerasian child with a Vietnamese mother, and an American father.

Paula Jung / Week 3 / ASA 115

This week’s theme from the reading is policies and Anti-Miscegenation laws which deal with the history and policies that ruled from between the Civil War and the civil rights movement in the 1960s.   The reading from Deenesh Sohoni’s “Unsuitable Suitors: Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Naturalization Laws, and the Construction of Asian Identities,” specifically deals with Asian immigration during that time in America and how lawmakers and policymakers dealt, usually unfairly and in a discriminatory-like manner against incoming Asian immigrants and its history. The beginning of the reading talks about how Asian people were once seen as welcomed to the country, as they were a helpful force labor for building necessary items in the United States. However, affections toward them quickly turned hostile when white Americans were afraid Asian people would overtake their careers or receive equal pay to their white counterparts. 

During this time, there was still much segregation between white people and black people, and Asian people were not excluded. During the 1960s, not only was there conflict between white and black people, but in general a conflict between all white and non-white people. As more immigrants were coming into the United States, policymakers made racist laws prohibiting privileges against minorities for the sake of white superiority, white ‘purity,’ and even banned interracial marriages. 

For example, a case called The People v. George W. Hall (1854), the Supreme Court of California voted that, “a Chinese person could not testify against a white person because it violated state strictures in criminal proceedings that ‘No Black or Mulatto person, or Indian, shall be allowed to give evidence against a white man.’’’ This showed the apparent racist laws existing at the time to exclude all Asian and minority groups from white people, which infuriated me. It showed me there is still much to change and this racist history was only a century ago, and we still have much to progress in America. A question I have is: Are Asian people still considered a group welcomed into the United States, or rejected because of our immigrant/minority status today? 

Here is a video of one of the first Chinese-American marine officer, Lieutenant Chew-Een Lee who initially faced racist comments from his white soldiers. Yet he demanded respect and gained admiration from his colleagues. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjzAIKe1Ms