Power and Peril:
“ASIAN AMERICANS KIND OF SERVE AS THIS BUFFER GROUP BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE... IN PARTICULAR, THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH KIND OF COMES
Anti-Blackness in Asian American Cultures
OUT OF EAST ASIAN CULTURES, SO CHINESE, JAPANESE, [AND] KOREAN. THOSE ASIAN GROUPS IN PARTICULAR HAVE ACHIEVED STATUS PARITY WITH
Asian American identity has historically been constructed in the United States as a driving wedge between “model minorities” and other oppressed ethnic minority groups. Although the model minority myth is now understood as fiction, the manifestations of internalized racism still troubles Asian American communities today.
WHITES AND SOMETIMES DOING BETTER THAN WHITES IN TERMS OF EDUCATION AND INCOME,” --DR. COX
BY Nica Angelica Ramirez
Seeing the World in Black and Yellow: A Theoretical Explanation
A
Photography/Paola Chinchilla DESIGN/ Ebone Grayson
nti-Blackness is known as a global system that marginalizes Black people and people of African ancestry. This system is clear in instances such as the adoption of Jim Crow in postwar Japan, the multi-billion skin whitening industry in Asia, and the exclusion that Polynesian cultures feel today. Although blatant forms of racism and institutional oppression are easy to denounce, the microaggressions we face in our lives are harder to combat. Before addressing race relations between minority groups, there is a need to understand the history of antiblackness. Dr. Jonathan Cox, a professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF), teaches classes on Race and Ethnicity. He presents the idea that anti-blackness is woven into the history of the United States. “Anti-blackness is kind of a key tenant of our, the United States’, racial ideology,” Dr. Cox said, “The country and the ideology of the country were built on anti-blackness and the positioning of Blacks as less than human and inferior to the Whites who were coming in and colonizing the land.” Racial stratification could be changing with the introduction of large racial groups outside of Black and White, however. “We’re starting to see more people give more attention to various racial categories, so some scholars are suggesting that we’re moving from a biracial system to a different type of racial system, as we often see Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans get removed or excluded from the picture,” Dr. Cox said. The model minority
myth is generally thought of as something to be taken for granted, but it may stem from a social need for a buffer group as well. Dr. Cox explained the cultural background that could lead to the emergence of the “model minority.”
the local policy and mobilized protests in their neighborhoods at this time. Many Korean stores in these neighborhoods received property damage, causing racial tensions between Korean and Black Americans.
“Asian Americans kind of serve as this buffer group between Black and White... in particular, the model minority myth kind of comes out of East Asian cultures, so Chinese, Japanese, [and] Korean. Those Asian groups in particular have achieved status parity with Whites and sometimes doing better than Whites in terms of Education and income,” Dr. Cox said. The myth is harmful in part to other minority groups who are not entering the country with the same education level, although it is usually viewed through an Asian American lens.
“If you look at how Asian Americans tend to think about Blacks, it gives us a clue about this event. Korean Americans, based on some of the research, seem to have the most negative views of Blacks out of all the Asian American groups. Korean Americans tend to have businesses and shops that are in predominantly Black areas and are interacting with Blacks in a different way than other Asian Americans are,” Dr. Cox said.
“It is easy to position Asian Americans as “models,” kind of being the model that other racial minorities should strive to. In particular, Blacks are expected to meet this ‘if they’re doing this and they’re doing well, Blacks should do it as well,’ kind of mindset,” Dr. Cox said.
Dr. Cox explains the negative views that Korean Americans tend to have of Black Americans and the reasons for the so-called riots. “Korean shops that were in these neighborhoods were collateral damage of the uprising of the people in response to Rodney King being beaten by the police... since people were doing some property damage, some of the Korean shops that were in the neighborhoods were destroyed and torn down,” Dr. Cox said.
The Rodney King or Los Angeles Riots of 1992 highlight a breaking point in race relations in the United States, involving Korean Americans in Black communities. Rodney King was a victim of police brutality, and videos surfaced of four Los Angeles Police officers beating him during his arrest in 1991. King did not die in custody, however, three officers involved received acquittals and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the fourth. This series of events caused a public outcry and lower-income African American communities rose against
Because of the American media, Asian Americans often fail to understand the unique experiences that cause Black communities to express their discontent. Asian Americans are not unique in their anti-Blackness. Dr. Cox also expressed that the emergence of the police state in areas like Baltimore are often used to contain protests within a community rather than stop them. Just as the L.A. Riots of 1992 created strife between Korean Americans and Black Americans at the time, recent events such as the shooting of Akai Gurley by Peter