Gibbs
5/28/01

For years Asian Americans have been viewed as model citizens. But now all that is changing quite rapidly. This may be the result of China's emergence from years of backwardness into a military and economic power to be reckoned with. It could be that the cold war's end has brought about a need to find new enemies, and China seems like the ideal new enemy. Whatever the cause, there is a surge in American hostility toward Asian Americans.

From the model Americans stereotype to a return of the sinister, untrustworthy, and spy-in-our-midst stereotypes, Asian Americans are beginning to be fettered again with old pejorative labels. And with those labels come harassment.

This resurgence of prejudice is peculiar, considering the fact that Asian American females have the highest rate of marriage to Whites of all other racial groups. Hence, one would think that after this heavy crossover of marriage, there would be a moderation in the old stereotypes. But there is a strangeness that is America.

The Associated Press reported that Congressman David Wu, a Chinese American from Oregon, was initially denied entry into the Department of Energy and asked if he were a US citizen by security at the headquarters in Washington, DC. Congressman Wu was very upset, and he expressed that feeling to the Department. He felt that this incident was only the tip of an iceberg of hatred and discrimination against Asians.

Americans will remember that just a few months ago, Dr. Wen Ho Lee was released from federal prison on accusations of passing US secrets to China. He was never brought to trial for any of the charges, and the federal judge who heard the case for Dr. Lee's release said that the case was a disgrace and released Lee after nine months of incarceration.

But few Americans even remember the horrible treatment of Chinese who were used to build our railroads, the Los Angeles massacre of Chinese, or the killing of a Chinese man in Detroit simply because he looked Japanese,when America was experiencing vigorous competition with Japan's auto industry. The number of White Americans out of work in the auto industry attributed their unemployment to Asians.

Discrimination against Asians is not new--we all know of the internment camps that Japanese Americans were placed in during World War II. 

A few days ago on a plane to Los Angeles, an Asian American male and I sat together and talked. He told me of having visited Pearl Harbor some years ago, and there a White female found her way to him and asked if he understood the significance of this place. He was outraged because he is a Vietnam veteran with a Masters degree and he is a distinguished looking American, with mannerisms that are peculiar to Americans. If the woman would have looked closer, she could have seen those mannerisms. But she was in a chastising and teaching the foreigner mode. 

We talked about the current surge in anti Asian sentiment sweeping the nation. He too felt that this woman who confronted him was only the tip of the iceberg. And as America moves closer to confrontation with China, which is a certainty, Asian Americans will feel a racial backlash that such a confrontation will surely bring. Gary Gray addresses this idea in his column on Pearl Harbor. 

America needs a villain at home and abroad to keep us energized. And Chinese make some of the best villains at home and abroad: there are Chinese American citizens in sizable numbers in this nation, they have large numbers immigrating to this country, they are physically and culturally different, they don't scream discrimination like the Blacks and Browns do, and their language is different and difficult to understand--they make the best villains at home. Abroad, China has atomic bombs (not too many and that is ideal), they pose a menacing opposition because of their strong cultural difference, their physical appearance, their different way of seeing the world, and their system of government is communist--a built in asset because Americans have 50 years of hating commies. 

So we have found the perfect whipping boy. We can marry their pretty little daughters, which they seemingly give freely; we can de-sex their sons--have you seen a sex symbol Asian male? Remember, Bruce Lee is dead; and we can whip them without their saying a word. 

And abroad, we can vanquish the Chinese with our super military and threaten to cut off favored nation trade status if we don't like what they are doing at any time (and in any place in the world, which we control).

But, before we rejoice too much, here is the bad news: Congressman David Wu did not go quietly into that good Asian stereotype night. He, as other Asian Americans are beginning to do, raised holy hell about his treatment by the DOE.[]