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Asian Americans were as discriminated against as African Americans under Jim Crow. The fact is that we have forgotten the rampant bigotry against Asian American

Asian Americans were as discriminated against as African Americans under Jim Crow. The fact is that we have forgotten the rampant bigotry against Asian Americans because us Asian Americans now basically own the United States of America. Asian Americans had to put up with (among other things): * Being ineligible to become citizens of the United States well after the passage of the 13th Amendment. There was a time in this country when both the white and black man could enjoy citizenship and voting but neither the brown nor yellow man could. * A good portion of Asian Americans (the Japanese) who were American citizens were enslaved by the government for three years, after having all their land and businesses taken away. This was in the 1940s. * Being victims of hate crimes. There was an entire gang in New Jersey in the 80s dedicated to beating up and murdering Indians (dotbusters). This is not a new phenomenon. The labor movement in Seattle also organized a mob to rid Washington state of cheap Indian labor in the early 1900s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingham_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingham_riots) * The stereotype that Asians prevent 'real American' people from achieving their wealth goals is oddly persistent. It is highly reminiscent of the blame that Hitler laid upon the Jews as preventing real Germans from achieving their potential. The Asiatic Exclusion League in the United States had its first meeting in 1907. * Moreso than black people, Asian Americans are constantly cast as being perpetual foreigners. Americans whose families have been in this country decades are still treated as Asians, rather than 'full' Americans. I think it is especially telling that the organizations in favor of affirmative action are also the ones that started the Asian exclusion leagues. The labor movement in this country spearheaded affirmative action. Affirmative action discriminates against asians. This continues a long line of labor movement participation in Asian Exclusion Leagues, and it needs to end now.

cloverich 7y ago
Clearly all racial and ethnic sub-groups were discriminated against to various degrees in the US (and elsewhere). I distinctly remember being taught this (including about several of your bullet points) in the Texas suburb I grew up in. But its not comparable in scope or legacy to that of Black Americans, and by your own admission if Asian American's "basically own the United States" -- do they actually need help? Its not just about being fair, its about fixing the legacy of segregation in the US. There's an obvious gap between blacks and whites -- not so much between asians and whites.
- tathougies 7y ago
  > not so much between asians and whites. What are you even talking about? https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=aalj https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?art... Basically all post-slavery discrimination against blacks happened to Asians. Can you please cite anything that can support the opposite claim? It's typically better to argue with facts than making shit up, or worse, misrepresenting the facts due to a systematic removal of history from history books. > your own admission if Asian American's "basically own the United States" -- do they actually need help? Yes. Asians owned a significant portion of the Western United States before they were put in internment too. Simply having ownership of various assets means nothing if the government is not representative of the population -- after all, it is the threat of government force that maintains every individual's property rights. The fact is that Asians may have money, but have little political power.
  - cloverich 7y ago
    I should have said "as much". My implication is that the gap between asian's and whites is both smaller and closing more rapidly than that between black's and whites, based on what I've read and experienced. It doesn't mean there isn't discrimination (etc). > Basically all post-slavery discrimination against blacks happened to Asians. Can you please cite anything that can support the opposite claim? I'm not arguing that point. I'm saying that the thing you are excluding from your argument -- hundreds of years of slavery -- has a legacy that goes beyond the discriminatory practices you highlight and likely requires a larger corrective action to fix.
    - tathougies 7y ago
      Underlying your position, is the belief that the main reason that African Americans face poorer outcomes than Asian Americans in aggregate is because they have faced more discrimination against them. You are unwilling to compromise in this belief. You are using Asian's relative success against African Americans to argue that they must therefore not have experienced discrimination. This reasoning is backwards. You ought to first quantify the discrimination (you'll have to figure how to do that yourself) and then see if there's a correlation. Otherwise, you're arguing a fallacy -- a form of affirming the consequent. If we were to accept your explanation, then we would be forced to conclude that other groups (such as the Hmong or Bangladeshi) who are doing as bad (or perhaps worse) than African Americans must have faced even worse discrimination in America in the past, which I think you'd agree is not true.

cloverich 7y ago

Clearly all racial and ethnic sub-groups were discriminated against to various degrees in the US (and elsewhere). I distinctly remember being taught this (including about several of your bullet points) in the Texas suburb I grew up in. But its not comparable in scope or legacy to that of Black Americans, and by your own admission if Asian American's "basically own the United States" -- do they actually need help? Its not just about being fair, its about fixing the legacy of segregation in the US. There's an obvious gap between blacks and whites -- not so much between asians and whites.

tathougies 7y ago
> not so much between asians and whites. What are you even talking about? https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=aalj https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?art... Basically all post-slavery discrimination against blacks happened to Asians. Can you please cite anything that can support the opposite claim? It's typically better to argue with facts than making shit up, or worse, misrepresenting the facts due to a systematic removal of history from history books. > your own admission if Asian American's "basically own the United States" -- do they actually need help? Yes. Asians owned a significant portion of the Western United States before they were put in internment too. Simply having ownership of various assets means nothing if the government is not representative of the population -- after all, it is the threat of government force that maintains every individual's property rights. The fact is that Asians may have money, but have little political power.
- cloverich 7y ago
  I should have said "as much". My implication is that the gap between asian's and whites is both smaller and closing more rapidly than that between black's and whites, based on what I've read and experienced. It doesn't mean there isn't discrimination (etc). > Basically all post-slavery discrimination against blacks happened to Asians. Can you please cite anything that can support the opposite claim? I'm not arguing that point. I'm saying that the thing you are excluding from your argument -- hundreds of years of slavery -- has a legacy that goes beyond the discriminatory practices you highlight and likely requires a larger corrective action to fix.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    Underlying your position, is the belief that the main reason that African Americans face poorer outcomes than Asian Americans in aggregate is because they have faced more discrimination against them. You are unwilling to compromise in this belief. You are using Asian's relative success against African Americans to argue that they must therefore not have experienced discrimination. This reasoning is backwards. You ought to first quantify the discrimination (you'll have to figure how to do that yourself) and then see if there's a correlation. Otherwise, you're arguing a fallacy -- a form of affirming the consequent. If we were to accept your explanation, then we would be forced to conclude that other groups (such as the Hmong or Bangladeshi) who are doing as bad (or perhaps worse) than African Americans must have faced even worse discrimination in America in the past, which I think you'd agree is not true.