Week 3 Presentation: By Seira Narita, Ziyang Huang, Kaishan Wang, and Zhao Xu

For this week's presentation, we will be discussing the readings "Unsuitable Suitors: Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Naturalization Laws, and the Construction of Asia" by Deenesh Sohoni and "The Historical Problematization of ‘Mixed Race’ in Psychological and Human-Scientific Discourses" by Thomas Theo. We will also be analyzing the imagery of the two cards provided in the mixed race box (the 5 of clubs and the queen of hearts). We will then relate these back to the theme of "Criminals, Deviants, and Outcasts-Passing as Privilege, Authenticity, and Tragedy" by delving into topics such as anti-miscegenation laws, immigration, and misconceptions of mixed race peoples.

The categorization of Asian ethnic groups in the racial ethnic system between the Civil War and civil rights movement played a significant role in taking these racially and ethnically distinct groups and generalizing them into one social category labelled "Asians." This resulted from court rulings that connected immigration with naturalization regulations and anti-miscegenation laws that grouped together foreign-born and U.S.-born Asians. The authors of the articles argue that these categorizations justify the differential treatment of ethnic groups based upon distinctions between them, and ultimately contribute to the maintenance of the racial hierarchy developed in society. Anti-miscegenation laws were put into place to prevent racial mixing, which would in turn complicate and blur boundaries between racial and ethnic categories.

The history of science construing "hybridity" as a problem results from conducted experiments that depict "racial crossing" as an unnatural process that could lead to a cultural, intellectual, and personality decline. Books such as Race Mixture written by Harry L. Shapiro reject discourse of racism by claiming that science can overcome racism and prejudice. However, Thomas Theo argues that due to a history of science attempting to prove the inferiority of minority ethnic groups, science is the reason behind systematic racial constructs. Theo then emphasizes the importance of labelling this type of research as "epistemic violence" and viewing the notion of 'hybridity" as social, cultural, and historical rather than natural.