Contemporary Asian American Activism

In the struggles for prison abolition, global anti-imperialism, immigrant rights, affordable housing, environmental justice, fair labor, and more, twenty-first-century Asian American activists are speaking out and standing up to systems of oppression. Creating emancipatory futures requires collective action and reciprocal relationships that are nurtured over time and forged through cross-racial solidarity and intergenerational connections, leading to a range of on-the-ground experiences. Bringing together grassroots organizers and scholar-activists, Contemporary Asian American Activism presents lived experiences of the fight for transformative justice and offers lessons to ensure the longevity and sustainability of organizing. In the face of imperialism, white supremacy, racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, and more, the contributors celebrate victories and assess failures, reflect on the trials of activist life, critically examine long-term movement building, and inspire continued mobilization for coming generations.

'Every essay in the State of Asian America brings the reader to a new plateau of understanding....All the essays are thought-provoking, disturbing, and enlightening. Every writer is worth the read.' Korean QuarterlyThis is a series of essays that give voice to contemporary Asian-American activism, offering thoughtful, radical analyses on a range of pressing issues, including: the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, the protest against the Broadway musical Miss Saigon, anti-Asian and domestic violence, feminism, neo-conservatism, art and politics, the social construction of race, and the politics of Asian American Studies.

Largely unexamined until recently, the Asian American Movement has been active for more than two decades. William Wei traces to the late 1960s the initial genesis of an Asian American identity, culture, and activism through which members of this pan-Asian group could assert their right to belong to and be respected as responsible members of this society. Although its antecedents were the civil rights and Black Power movements, the Asian American Movement actually resulted from the protests against the Vietnam War and the emergence of a generation of college-aged Chinese and Japanese Americans. In this definitive study of the Asian American Movement, Wei fills an important gap in our knowledge of ethnic social movements and the struggle to achieve American cultural democracy. Lacking a nationally known leader but confronted by many shared issues and concerns, the Asian American Movement was essentially a middle-class reform effort to achieve racial equality, social justice, and political empowerment. It focused on ethnic solidarity and self-empowerment through political activism, educational and community development, and cultural expressions. While the Movement was most visible on the West Coast, notably at the Third World Strike at San Francisco State College in 1968, it became a vital force simultaneously on campuses and in Asian American communities throughout the country. Wei evaluates the Movement's effort to develop a unique but cohesive ethnic identity and the internal struggles between reformist and revolutionary approaches to social change. He analyzes the Asian American women's movement, the alternative press, Asian American studies programs, community-based organizations, andMaoist sects. His study concludes with an examination of Asian American involvement in electoral politics and the quest for political empowerment. Interviews with many of the key participants in the Movement and photographs of Asian American demonstrations and events enhance Wei's portrayal of the development and breadth of the Movement and the conflicts within it. Exploring regional differences; issues of ethnicity, class, and gender; and the transition from radical to electoral politics, Wei's comprehensive study is the first book to examine systematically the coming-to-consciousness and mobilization of Asian Americans.

Choice Top 25 Academic Title How activists and minority communities use media to facilitate social change and achieve cultural citizenship. Among the most well-known YouTubers are a cadre of talented Asian American performers, including comedian Ryan Higa and makeup artist Michelle Phan. Yet beneath the sheen of these online success stories lies a problem—Asian Americans remain sorely underrepresented in mainstream film and television. When they do appear on screen, they are often relegated to demeaning stereotypes such as the comical foreigner, the sexy girlfriend, or the martial arts villain. The story that remains untold is that as long as these inequities have existed, Asian Americans have been fighting back—joining together to protest offensive imagery, support Asian American actors and industry workers, and make their voices heard. Providing a cultural history and ethnography, Asian American Media Activism assesses everything from grassroots collectives in the 1970s up to contemporary engagements by fan groups, advertising agencies, and users on YouTube and Twitter. In linking these different forms of activism, Lori Kido Lopez investigates how Asian American media activism takes place and evaluates what kinds of interventions are most effective. Ultimately, Lopez finds that activists must be understood as fighting for cultural citizenship, a deeper sense of belonging and acceptance within a nation that has long rejected them.

Who are Asian Americans? Moving beyond popular stereotypes of the “model minority” or “forever foreigner,” most Americans know surprisingly little of the nation’s fastest growing minority population. Since the 1960s, when different Asian immigrant groups came together under the “Asian American” umbrella, they have tirelessly carved out their presence in the labor market, education, politics, and pop culture. Many times, they have done so in the face of racism, discrimination, sexism, homophobia, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Today, contemporary Asian America has emerged as an incredibly diverse population, with each segment of the community facing its unique challenges. When Contemporary Asian America was first published in 2000, it exposed its readers to the formation and development of Asian American studies as an academic field of study, from its inception as part of the ethnic consciousness movement of the 1960s to the systematic inquiry into more contemporary theoretical and practical issues facing Asian America at the century’s end. It was the first volume to integrate a broad range of interdisciplinary research and approaches from a social science perspective to assess the effects of immigration, community development, and socialization on Asian American communities. This updated third edition discusses the impact of September 11 on Asian American identity and citizenship; the continued influence of globalization on past and present waves of immigration; and the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class on the experiences of Asian immigrants and their children. The volume also provides study questions and recommended supplementary readings and documentary films. This critical text offers a broad overview of Asian American studies and the current state of Asian America.

When Contemporary Asian America was first published, it exposed its readers to developments within the discipline, from its inception as part of the ethnic consciousness movement of the 1960s to the more contemporary theoretical and practical issues facing Asian America at the century’s end. This new edition features a number of fresh entries and updated material. It covers such topics as Asian American activism, immigration, community formation, family relations, gender roles, sexuality, identity, struggle for social justice, interethnic conflict/coalition, and political participation. As in the first edition, Contemporary Asian America provides an expansive introduction to the central readings in Asian American Studies, presenting a grounded theoretical orientation to the discipline and framing key historical, cultural, economic, and social themes with a social science focus. This critical text offers a broad overview of Asian American studies and the current state of Asian America.

This text reinterprets a misunderstood and overlooked epoch of the Asian American experience, the Asian American Movement (AAM). The authors argue that, contrary to the common view of the movement as a passing phase limited to college youth, the Asian American Movement spanned diverse political viewpoints and became increasingly sophisticated and effective. Asian Americans were active participants and played unique roles in the social movements that convulsed the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in protestsagainst the Vietnam War. The book traces the history of the AAM from its roots in the 1930s to the present day and its impact on diverse areas of the Asian American community. Most importantly, it looks at the societal and community dynamics that led tothe movement's trajectory. Using the lens of social movement theory, it analyzes the AAM's rise and ebb and possible resurgence. The authors argue that the AAM constituted a distinct, identifiable, and relatively stable social movement that dramaticallyimpacted the direction of Asian American political and social activity.

Chronicles Asian Americans' fight for equality and political inclusion in the United States during the late twentieth century, exploring how the movement brought about surprising social change in ethnic neighborhoods across the country and how it influenced Asian American art, literature, and culture.