Asian American History

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/10/2023
  

  What Anna May Wong's History Tells us About Oscar's Asian and Asian American Moment

  by Katie Gee Salisbury

  The first Asian-American film star got her break when a film company cast ethnic actors in a 1922 film made to test out the new Technicolor technology. But Hollywood's racial politics and commercial imperatives kept other Asian actors from stardom. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  3/7/2023
  

  Is Harvard Actually Discriminating Against Asian Applicants?

  by Julie J. Park

  The data supporting the charge that Harvard's affirmative action policies amount to discrimination against Asian American students isn't as clear-cut as has been reported, says an education researcher who's investigated the policies. Blaming race-based affirmative action conceals the preferences given to legacies, athletes, and donors' children. 

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• SOURCE: Tablet
  2/26/2023
  

  Parallels and Divergences in Jewish and Asian American History

  by Joel Kotkin

  "The fate of Asians and Jews in America is about more than two minority groups. It is about the efficacy of equal and fair treatment under the law, and a democratic system based on merit rather than ethnicity."

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  2/17/2023
  

  Creating the First Complete List of Names of Interned Japanese Americans

  Duncan Ryuken Williams of the University of Southern California led a research team for three years assembling a documentary record that could restore the individuality of 125,000 victims of internment. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  11/3/2022
  

  Some Asian American Activists Helped Build Affirmative Action; Today Some are Working to Dismantle It

  by Ellen Wu

  The midcentury rise of fascism and struggles for Black civil rights gave some Japanese American activists an opening to argue for principles of proportionality in ethnic representation in politics, education, employment, and other areas, key support for the group of policies that became affirmative action. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  11/1/2022
  

  Sociologist: Yes, Harvard Discriminated Against Jews. No, It's Not an Apt Metaphor for Affirmative Action

  by Jerome Karabel

  Despite the enthusiasm of the plaintiffs and the conservative justices for the comparison, Harvard's treatment of Asian American applicants today doesn't match its treatment of Jewish students in the 1920s. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  10/17/2022
  

  What American Dream did Asian Immigrants Find in the Southern California Suburbs?

  by James Zarsadiaz

  Asian-American suburbs grew east of Los Angeles in part because developers catered to a growing market and in part because Asian Americans embraced some of the anti-urban tropes common in postwar America. Today conflict still surrounds how much diversity the suburban ideal can accommodate.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  9/25/2022
  

  The Forgotten Violence of the US-Philippines Relationship

  by Adrian De Leon

  By declaring a relationship of "friends, partners, and allies" between the United States and the Philippines, and embracing the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the United States concealed its violent conquest of the islands and its ongoing support for authoritarian rule there. 

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• SOURCE: LAist
  9/23/2022
  

  Los Angeles Project Aims to Name Every Interned Japanese American

  The government's rosters of interned Japanese Americans are incomplete and error-ridden. A new project seeks a complete documentation of the missing names. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/14/2022
  

  Los Angeles to Memorialize 1871 Anti-Chinese Massacre

  Architect Annie Chu describes the task of using design and space to evoke an emotional connection to the victims of mass violence whose identities and stories have been largely lost. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  9/2/2022
  

  Legal Scholar: "Diversity" a Weak Substitute for Justice, Opened Door to SCOTUS Killing Affirmative Action

  by Richard Thompson Ford

  The cause of equality was dealt a fatal blow when courts and colleges shifted the focus of affirmative action from fighting racism to promoting diversity, argues legal scholar Richard Thompson Ford. 

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• 8/7/2022
  

  The COVID Era is the Latest Episode of Medical Scapegoating of Asian Immigrants

  by Catherine Ceniza Choy

  From smallpox to COVID, Asian Americans have been blamed and attacked for supposedly causing disease, while their contributions to American health have been ignored. This medical scapegoating and the violence that often follow it demonstrate the need to teach more Asian American history. 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  5/31/2022
  

  The Asian-Canadian Gay Pioneer Theorist of Sexuality

  by Laurie Marhoefer

  Li Shiu Tong, the partner of better-known German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, was an important theorist and activist whose once-lost writings anticipated today's politics of gay rights and liberation. 

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• 5/22/2022
  

  California Isn't a Liberal Sanctuary where Asian Americans are Concerned

  by Hao Huang

  Anti-Chinese racism and violence has always been part of the nightmare underside of the California dream. 

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• SOURCE: Mellon Foundation
  5/17/2022
  

  Mellon Foundation Event: Chinese American History, Asian American Experiences (May 19)

  Historians Erika Lee and Mae Ngai discuss the history of Chinese Americans in the context of Asian American history and American multiculturalism with Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander on May 19. 

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• 5/1/2022
  

  Recent Violence Shows the Need to Teach More Asian American History

  by Alan J. Singer

  The targeting of Asian Americans for violence and harassment shows the need to teach more of the history of Asian ethnic groups and acknowlege legacies of exclusion and discrimination. 

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• SOURCE: Religion News Services
  4/20/2022
  

  Penn Law Prof Amy Wax's Anti-Indian Rant Excludes Inconvenient History

  by Suhag Shukla

  Attributing Indian American criticism of racism to "resentment" of "the west" is rooted in ignorance of the colonial looting of the Indian subcontinent and the experiences of South Asians in general and Hindus in particular in the United States. 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  4/18/2022
  

  American Militarism is the Key to Understanding Today's Violence Against Asian Women

  Since the Philippine-American war in the 1890s, the sexual exploitation of Asian women has gone hand in hand with American militarism in the Pacific. It's foolish to pretend that this history has nothing to do with attacks on Asian American women today. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  3/17/2022
  

  Two Artists Unearth Hidden Histories of LA

  Devon Tsuno and Alan Nakagawa discuss the histories and daily life of the Japanese American community in Midtown Los Angeles, an area that has largely been erased from Angelenos' maps of their city. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/16/2022
  

  Don't Use Anti-Asian Violence to Throw More Money at Police

  by Crystal Jing Luo

  Business interests in Oakland have hijacked the safety concerns of Asian Americans to support arming police in service of real estate development that threatens low-income housing.