Throughout much of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the influx of immigrants into America has created uneasiness amongst Americans. Such uneasiness has led to the discrimination against immigrants, specifically, Asian immigrants. As portrayed in novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird, the discrimination is often based on skin color difference. In recent times, such discrimination still exists; however, the motivation behind has progressed from skin color difference to more complicated factors, ranging from economy to education. Economically, a remarkable portion of Asian immigrants are better off than their average American counterparts. Such difference in financial power prompted some Americans, usually the unemployed, to retaliate. Education-wise, Asian immigrants are also generally acknowledged to perform better than the average Americans. Worried that this trend might displace other Americans educationally, some schools actually place a quota on the admission of Asian Americans, who are usually first or second generation immigrants. Discrimination by ethnicity or race still exists, and this is especially heightened up following the September 11 incident. A Sikh man was killed because of the similarity of his appearance to Middle Eastern people. To motivate my argument, I will first provide the background knowledge on the aforementioned factors, and then elucidate how it leads to discrimination against immigrants. Finally, I will also demonstrate examples of such discrimination to buttress my argument.
Economically, the Asian immigrants are largely more successful than the Americans. While this at first does not seem to be a problem to the immigrants, the disparity has nevertheless led to backlash from the Americans. Many of the Asian immigrants come from poor countries; as such, they are more willing to work harder and to grab any job opportunities they can get, including lowly jobs. “These jobs represent a tremendous opportunity for workers from abroad who want to work and to fulfill their duties as a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter," (CNN.com) Even though the immigrants and the Americans are on a level playing field, the immigrants are more motivated. They are willing to work more for less. To put themselves in better positions, the Asian immigrants involve themselves in technology jobs. “They are pigeonholed in technology jobs, and are not deemed to have many non-technical abilities.” (O’Connor, T.) Such qualities are what the mass producing industries demand, hence their preference for Asian workers. Unemployed Americans claim that job opportunities are dwindling due to the influx of Asian immigrants. (Blank, R.) This may be disputable, as President Bush aptly put: “…some of the jobs being generated in America’s growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling.” Thus, the discrimination against immigrants Asians are largely baseless, and in fact, the immigrants are helping the American economy.
At any rate, such sentiments against Asian immigrants are shared by many unemployed Americans; and it may build up to an unfavorable climax. In 1982, a Chinese American was beaten to death for a reason he was not responsible for. Vincent Chin, a 27 year old industrial draftsman, was having his bachelor party when a white autoworker, Ronald Ebens instigated him by declaring that “It’s because of you [people] that we’re out of work.” Ebens was referring to the lost of US automobile manufacturing jobs to Japan. A fight ensued and ended with Ebens brutally bludgeoning his head with a baseball bat, killing him soon after. The discrimination did not stop there; when Ebens and his step-son, Michael Nitz (who was also involved in the murder) were charged in the court, they were only sentenced to fines and probation. (Wikipedia) Judge Charles Kaufman, who convicted them, justified his sentence by saying that his responsibility does not just fit the punishment to the crime, but also to the perpetrators. (Le, C.) One of the witnesses, Morris Cotton said, “Ebens was holding the bat as if he was trying to hit a home run.” (Ho, C.) It was evident that Ebens did it intentionally, yet the Judge gave only light sentences, which was unfair in view of the seriousness of the crime. Such incidents should not have happened, considering how much the United States had progressed in the treatment of the minorities and also in the revamp of immigrant policies over the past few decades.
Education-wise, it is thought that Asian immigrants on average perform better than the average Americans. (Le, C.) This may stem from the widespread Confucius values amongst Asians, which places great importance on filial piety. (Wikipedia) Immigrants carry the heavy responsibility of providing for their families, and also not to let them down. Young Asian immigrants are conditioned to think that failing in studies brings embarrassment to the family. This is one of the primary reasons why Asians do better than the Americans. Nevertheless, this tips the balance for the Americans. The Asian immigrants’ better performance raises the bar for what it means to be excellent. As a result, many Americans find it hard to compete against the Asian immigrants, especially in admission to colleges. This has prompted several schools to employ a quota system on admissions. Notable schools that are accused of doing so include Princeton University, Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley (UCB), and University of California at Los Angeles. (Le, C) In 1989, an Asian American woman who applied to UCB received a letter stating that she was on the Asian waiting list. After running an internal investigation, Chancellor Heyman of UCB admitted “it is clear that decisions made in the admissions process indisputably had a disproportionate impact on Asians.” (Heldman, Dan C.) In other words, the University admitted to have discriminated Asians. Through an internal memo, the Director of Admissions at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) had also expressed their intentions of curbing the decline in admitted Caucasians by limiting the number of admitted Asian American students. (Johnson, H.) She received a letter from UCB informing her that she was on the Asian waiting list. (Johnson, H.) Arresting the decline of one particular group is a different matter than imposing quota on the number of another group. Being denied admission because of one’s greater drive for excellence is a step back from the freedom of social mobility which so many Americans enjoy.
In 2006, Jian Li, an immigrant from China, had filed a federal civil rights complaint against Princeton University for racial discrimination in considering applications for admission. (Kimberly, C. and Wang, J.) He claimed that his application was rejected by the University because he is Asian. Even though the civil rights agency is using only Jian Li’s SAT score and GPA grade as evidence (Jian Li obtained 2400 on SAT and 2390 on SAT II), Jian Li based his case on “a study of admission processes published by three Princeton researchers in 2004.” According to the study, “…while elite universities gave African-American applicants an advantage equivalent to 230 extra SAT points and Hispanic applicants 185 points while making admissions decisions, the schools placed Asian-Americans at a disadvantage equal to a loss of 50 SAT points.” (Kimberly, C. and Wang, J.) This is obviously a discrimination against Asians. Nevertheless, such discrimination is motivated more by the stereotypical image of Asians being smart than by ethnicity. The researchers had also conducted a study on “disaffirmative action”, and found out that if the factor of race was taken out, admissions of Asians to elite schools would increase significantly. This indicates that race is a factor in admission consideration. This is an ironic situation, as the Asians are disadvantaged because of their better performance than the others. In Jian Li’s case, he did not ask for compensation (Kimberly, C. and Wang, J.), but he filed the complaint with the intention of bringing to light the issue of discrimination (Kate, C.), which the universities deny so adamantly.
Asian immigrants also suffer discrimination due to their ethnicity and race. Ethnicity is defined as a cultural group who distinguish themselves as a whole based on “genetics, language, or other cultural manifestations.” (Answers.com) Race, on the other hand, describes groups of people based on physical characteristics and common ancestries. (Wikipedia) However, these traits set the immigrants apart from the majority of Americans, which are white Caucasians. Throughout history, there has been much violence where such differences are the prime motivating factor. The Yellow Peril in the late 19th and mid 20th century is one exemplifying example. The Chinese and Japanese who immigrated to the United States were discriminated against due to their skin color and also the belief that their mass immigration presents a threat to the whites (hence the term Yellow Peril). (Wikipedia) Another example is the Chinese Massacre of 1871. On October 24 of that year, Los Angeles’ Chinatown saw a massacre of Chinese by a mob of over 500 Caucasians. The event was triggered by the killing of a Caucasian man in a gang war. (Thomison, D.) In this ruthless massacre, the Chinese were singled out. This incident shows how earlier Asian immigrants lived a risky life for no other reason than the fact that they were Asians.
Despite the fact that Asian immigrants originate from many different places and that each one possesses classifiable physical traits, Americans are generally oblivious to such differences (O’Connor, T.); and view all Asians as a single humongous ethnic group. Thus, their sentiments, good or bad, are generally directed to all Asians as a whole. On September 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh immigrant from India, was shot to death outside his convenience store in Mesa, Arizona. The perpetrator, Frank Roque, apparently did it in response to the September 11 attack, which was attributed to Middle Eastern extremists. However, the only connection Balbir had with the attack, if any, was that his appearance (his clothes, his turban, and his beard) resembled a person of Middle Eastern ethnicity. (Wikipedia) The September 11 attack had unpleasant repercussions, as Sikhs, Muslims and Arab Americans face regular discrimination. They were always stared at in the airport and in grocery stores. (Martin, N.) The case of Vincent Chin, quoted earlier in this paper, is also an example of indiscriminating violence against all Asians. Ronald Ebens was frustrated by the lost of the jobs to Japan, but vented his anger at Vincent Chin instead, a Chinese. In fact, Vincent Chin’s murder can be seen as a continuation of the Yellow Peril sentiment of the mid twentieth century. From these cases, we can see clearly that the perpetrators picked their victims based on race and ethnicity.
Although at present the situation is much better than decades ago, Asian immigrants still have a reason to feel worried about their rights and security. To date, discrimination against Asians is still very real, as is evident in the relatively recent discrimination cases quoted above. We may have the means to cross the barrier imposed by national borders and cultural differences; however, if we are not prepared mentally to deal with the rich diversity in our own global community, discrimination will always happen. It may take a while before diversity is recognized as a quality of humanity, not differences therein.
References:
1. Wikipedia. “Filial Piety” (May, 2007) Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety
2. Heldman, Dan C. “Ending College Admission Quotas Against Asian-Americans” (1989, June) Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/EM240.cfm
3. CNN.com “Bush Calls for changes on illegal workers.” (2004, January) Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/bush.immigration/
4. Kimberly, C. and Wang, J. “Anti-Asian bias Alleged.” (2006, November) Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/18978?badlink=1
5. Kate, C. “Rejected applicant alleges bias against Asians” (2006) DailyPrincetonian.com. Princeton University. Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/11/13/news/16544.shtml
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9. Blank, R. “Declining Wages, Not Lack of Jobs, Plague Low-Skilled Workers in the U.S.” Smart Library on Urban Poverty. Retrieved May 13, 2007 from http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:O5XyF0WX_mAJ:www.poverty.smartlibrary.org/NewInterface/
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12. Wikipedia. “Vincent Chin” (2007) Retrieved May 13, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Chin
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14. Wikipedia. “Race” (May, 2007) Retrieved May 13, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race
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16. Thomison, D. “Chinese Massacre of 1871” (June, 2002) USC Archives. Retrieved May 13, 2007 from http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/scandals/chinese_riots.html
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18. Martin, N. “Sikhs still living in shadow of Sept. 11” (September, 2005) East Valley Tribune. Retrieved May 13, 2007 from http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/48149