Lecture Notes on "Yellow"

Given that this is the last week of classes of this semester, and one of those classes will be taken up with Interview presentations (tomorrow, 12/6), that does not leave me much time to talk about "Yellow" in class. So, below are lecture notes on Chapters 1 & 3, and I may also post some notes on Chapter 7. In any case, remember that you should be reading those three chapters in "Yellow," and the families need to be working on some questions for the final exam.

CHAPTER 1: EAST IS EAST, EAST IS WEST: ASIANS IN AMERICA

Last Tuesday (11/29), I got as far as "Literal Yellow, Figurative Gray." (p. 18) So, let me pick up there with these notes:

D. "Literal Yellow, Figurative Gray" -- race is more than black and white, literally and figuratively. Wu and Asian Americans are LITERALLY "yellow" but FIGURATIVELY "gray" in that they occupy a space between black and white, and they do not automatically side with one or the other, although in most cases (and perhaps surprisingly) Wu contends they have been in the same boat as blacks.

1. In law for a long time, Asians were not considered white (as we saw in the Ozawa and Thind cases, which Wu discusses later (p. 94); they were segregated in education, could not own land or testify against a white person in court, etc. -- like blacks in many ways.

2. Wu notes how Asian Americans are regarded as neither "American" (associated with white) nor "minority" (associated with black) -- again, gray. Wu feels that Asian Americans should be included in BOTH categories for the sake of truthfulness.

E. Wu, then, brings some of the astute observations of black intellectual, W.E.B. DuBois, to bear on the issue of how we need to look at race in general (as I also brought out earlier in the course). See bottom of p. 27, beginning with: "Following DuBois's lead, we must be conscious of black and white to transcend black and white. We can acquire such a consciousness by raising Asian Americans out of the background. Asian American perspectives modify the overall picture by supplementing other perspectives and not replacing them...." (see rest of p. 27, down to the middle of p. 28).

1. At the same time, he recognizes, yet decries, the use of Asian Americans as a wedge for purposes of invidious comparison with blacks (which is a major point he argues in exposing the "model minority myth" in Chapter 2).


CHAPTER 3: THE PERPETUAL FOREIGNER: YELLOW PERIL IN THE PACIFIC CENTURY

A. Wu opens this chapter with a "pet peeve" of his, as well as many Asian Americans (something you would do well to take note of in interacting with Asian Americans) -- that is, the question, "where are you from?" which he does not mind answering (in his case, Cleveland), but it is usually followed by, "but where are you REALLY from? which he REALLY hates to answer. (Helen Zia makes a similar point in the Xerox handout).

1. Other similar questions or observations: how long have you been in this country? or, "My, you speak English so well!" Such questions and observations clearly reflect a focus on race, based on the assumption that you are not a "real" American. This is what is meant Asian Americans being considered "perpetual foreigners."

B. Federal immigration policy reflects this perpetual foreigner assumption (as well as aspects of the model minority myth). See bottom paragraph, p. 91 to middle of p. 92. (And, again, over on p. 94, Wu discusses the Ozawa and Thind cases that were covered in our video, "Race: the power of an illusion.")

C. A contemporary example of this anti-Asian prejudice can be found in the story of Maya Lin, who won the contest to design the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. She was called a "gook". H. Ross Perot, a major promoter and benefactor of the project, called her an "eggroll." He hated that she was Asian (even if she was born in Ohio). (There is a nice documentary on this in our library. Let me add, that she also was asked to do the civil rights memorial outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Canter in Montgomery, Alabama.)

D. In the rest of the chapter, Wu discusses "...how the perpetual foreigner syndrome works to deprive Asian Americans of civil rights and transform us into a racial threat. Two episodes in Asian-American history -- the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the 1996 campaign finance scandal -- and recurring anxieties about Asian dominance of Americans, exemplify the syndrome." p. 95
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That's all for now. I will be posting more notes over the next few days, so be looking for them.