The Pan-Asian Invasion

New York is now roughly 13% Asian according to a recent New York Times article, but that’s not reflected in city services or positions of power:

social service organizations that focus on (Asian Americans) receive only 1.4 percent of the Council’s discretionary allocations, and less than a quarter of one percent of the money for city social-service contracts.

The story isn’t new, even though the article is. Asian Americans are ignored for a multitude of reasons– because we’re stereotyped as the model minority, because language barriers make it difficult for many of us to engage with American systems, because our populations are increasing faster than public policy can keep up with, because our communities have such diverse needs, because we often lack a unified political front.

In Asian American populations, especially ones with large numbers of immigrants, we often identify first with our ethnicities because we have (or at least think we have) more in common. We fight as Chinese Americans, or Cambodian Americans, or Pilipino Americans. It makes sense in a lot of ways.

But this is a reminder: Asian American is a political representation of diverse communities that despite our diverse needs and beef with each other, share common racializations and forms of discrimination. It was created by activists of different ethnic groups who believed that our communities would be stronger if we united under one banner. Maybe the term has become so commonplace that we’ve forgotten why we made it, but it’s time to make use of the moniker.

Blood Quantum and the Politics of Looking

In the realm of mixed race, what you look like matters a lot. No matter who you are on the inside, culturally or linguistically or politically, people treat you the way you look. This isn’t news, but it still matters. Generally I’m all for preserving culture and self identifying, and I know this sounds bad, but is there a point at which a person should stop trying to make their children Asian American?

The question goes back to the problem with defining Asian America. Asian America is a loose definition, originally designed to unite different ethnic groups into one powerful political group. That means that we can define who’s in and who’s out to preserve that political power and sense of community.

Does cultural identity fade as visible ethnic markers fade? There might not be a reliable formula for it, but I would say yes. If you have three white grandparents and one Asian grandparent, it goes to reason that the influence of the Asian grandparent might be less than the other three combined. Things get more complicated when the mixes get more complicated, and if you have a mixed race parent who strongly identifies with their Asian (American)ness. But I don’t think its an unreasonable expectation.

But should we consciously let go of cultural markers when our children stop looking Asian? If a woman who’s a quarter Asian has a child who’s an eighth Asian, should she let that child assimilate into white America?

No. I don’t think the kid should only identify as Asian American, that seems a bit disingenuous to his/her white heritage, but why let other peoples’ perceptions rob you of a unique cultural heritage?

In the defense of bottled blondes

Among “enlightened, progressive Asian Americans”, there’s a common pastime, which involves accusing other Asian women of self hate because they wear color contacts or lighten their hair to various shades of orange or yellow (I’m aware that I made some gross generalizations. Just go with it.). The reasoning is that these blond “self hating Asians sisters” are trying to look white instead of loving their own natural beauty.

While I do believe that there is something to be said about the pressures of conforming to Western Standards of Beauty, I think there’s something that needs to be pointed out. Having natural hair and eye color doesn’t mean that a woman is somehow more Asian American that their bleached counterparts. It’s not as if the only Asian Americans we see on TV are blond, blue-contacted, Asian Americans who look white. With the exception of Tila Tequila, the pattern is quite the opposite.

This season, two new shows feature Asian American women:

Maggie Q in the new Nikita

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and Grace Park in the new Hawaii Five-0

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Granted, I haven’t seen either show yet, but the previews both show slim, sexy Asian women who know how to fight. Let’s hope their more complicated that the average dragon lady.

Maybe the bleached/orange hair look is actually a uniquely Asian American look, a refusal to be stereotyped as an exotic, mysterious beauty. Maybe.