Janine Nguyen ASA 115 Week 3 Readings

Janine Nguyen
ASA 115 001
Week 3 Reading Blog

This week, we are discussing "Criminals, Deviants, and Outcasts Passing as Privilege, Authenticity, and Tragedy". Since we haven't had class yet, the title of this week stood out to me. My interpretation of the title is that the labels set forth for mixed race people are meant to demean multiracial people and divide the community even further. Many multiracial people who are phenotypically white do not face as much hardship as those who appear darker-skinned; it also reminds me of Elizabeth Warren's case, in which she claimed Cherokee heritage and reaped a multitude of benefits despite having no actual linkage to the Cherokee nation...

In "Unsuitable Suitors: Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Naturalization Laws, and the Construction ofAsian Identities" by Deenesh Sohoni, Sohoni explains that whites have used legal systems to transform public concerns and anxieties regarding diverse ethnic minority groups into racial stratifications that grant rights and privileges to the "undiluted". With the rise of multiracial populations as a result of immigrants essentially "assimilating" into the society, anti-miscegenation laws were established in order to maintain "racial purity" of whites. There was a lot of general fear that ethnic men, particularly Black and Asian men, would taint white women; anti-miscegenation laws were only fortified when intermarriage had begun to involve whites... The motivations in many discriminatory laws stem from a fear of ethnic minority groups growing too much power and influence in society.

This reading was a review of what I had already learned in my ASA 1 and 2 classes; laws have been weaponized to discriminate against ethnic minorities and polarize the groups further. Personally, I felt disgust and bitter. The biases and blatant racism found in U.S. courts and history only dates a few decades ago. The last anti-miscegenation law was repealed in 1967... It makes me wonder: how can we challenge past laws and attitudes in modern-day America? How are these attitudes still indicative in certain demographics?

In "We Talk to Interracial Couples 50 Years After Loving v. Virginia (HBO)", the landmark case which overturned laws against interracial marriages all across the United States, Loving v. Virginia, is discussed; the profound impacts and turning point it had in history shows that progress is possible and that there is strength in numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RseBL4eC0ok