Asian-American Struggles for Equality in the Late 20th Century
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Platos philosophy towards citizenship, in simplest terms, is an implicit decision between state and resident to obey all institutions inherent in a society. “Decisively did you choose us and agree to be a citizen under us.” And such is the way that Asian Pacific Americans, a term coined not more than forty years ago, choose to tackle prejudice, ignorance, and greed throughout their four hundred year history. Citizenship is defined as broadly as: “Democracy” by Manuel Buaken, “loyalty” per Mike Masaoka, and “equality” according to Amy Uyematsu. Asian Americans always resort to accepted means within American society to pursue favorable ends. Despite a stacked deck, Alien Land laws prohibited alien ownership of land, the Immigration Act of 1924 all but cut off the flow of Asian immigration, cases like the 1854 trial of The People v. Hall which prohibited Asian testimony in court, and blatant racism, Asian Americans in the mid-20th century to the present persist, using techniques employed by their predecessors: public interest and education, organization, and the legal system, to challenge inequality in an attempt to balance the scale and reclaim what is rightfully theirs Ð- the right to equal citizenship.
Organization, whether forced into “racial enclaves” or into labor alliances, movement in numbers is a force used to combat inequality. Labor organizations have been a mainstay method of shifting inequality. During the 30s, labor leaders such as Carlos Bulosan worked organized parties such as the Filipino Workers Association that organized successful strikes such as the Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1933; it was “something powerful growing inside me. IT was a new heroism: a feeling of growing with a huge life.” Other labor leaders such as Karl Yoneda from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee of Southern California “signed over a thousand workers among Mexican, Filipino and Japanese strawberry, tomato and bean pickers and conducted strikes for 25 to 35 cents pay and union recognition” creating a consolidated power base. Labor unions like these served to solidify Asian American rights, as citizens, to equal wages and working conditions. By organizing and creating leverage through numbers and consolidation, Asian Americans greatly increased their bargaining power. Taishi Matsumoto mourns his situation in 1937. He feels trapped in his current employ as a carrot washer with no chance of upward mobility. There are “no inspired Messias, no strong organizations to whom I can appeal not only for myself, but for others like me.” As an individual he merely remains stagnant. Organization and the coming together of individuals create a strong voice, which he lacks, and therefore is unable to combat inequality or to instill change. Whereas labor unions improved wages, working conditions, and hours, the single effort of Matsumoto changes nothing. Therefore, labor organization is a key factor in Asian American history in attempting to assert the rights of citizenship.
Other organizations, social organizations, such as the Chinese Six Companies (also known as the CCBA) or the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA), provided a familiar environment while consolidating capabilities as well. Whether it be a supporting causes in China, bringing Chinese news, or creating public opinions and a fundraising base, social organizations such as these were instrumental in providing a solid constituency for overcoming obstacles. During the early stages of the Cold War when China became Communist, the Chinese Six Companies set up an Anti-Communist League to influence American popular opinion. “The primary aim of the league was to let the American people know that the Chinese are not communists” (Liu). Indeed, the Six Companies had enough influence to not only create but also to support the League. The League was created to combat a negative stereotype. This stereotype was the root of many racially motivated policies, such as the push for deportation of Chinese immigrants, federal harassment, and the Confession Program. The fear of Communism lead to rather stringent enforcement of the Confession Program, deporting many paper sons and daughters, if one person was caught, “his whole family will be affected because probably they didnt have the proper papers either. So theyll go from you, to the uncle who brought you in, his wife, and it goes on and on.” (Woo). The INS used strong-arm tactics such as court charges to solicit and drive away Chinese Americans. The CCBA worked with other organizations and the CACA throughout this period, 1957-1966, to lobby Congress and to vote and write Congressional representatives and instigate legislative reform (Zhao). Because of the lobbying effort lead by social organizations created a reevaluation of the Confession Program and reformed the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, which created a quota system based on nationally, into the 1965 Immigration Act, which was far more equal. The efforts of the social organizations not only mobilized a segment of the Asian American population, but also produced sweeping changes in immigration policy, evening out the playing field with other immigrants. This resulted in a more equal opportunity for all immigrants to come to America. Furthermore, this was one big leap for it created a just chance to gain citizenship for all. The Third World Liberation Front, a social organization formed during the 1960s, inspired by the Black, Chicano, Native American Power movements lead Asian Americans to stop focusing on assimilation and more on taking pride in your community (Shah). Taking and improving on their predecessors legal and political course, they also began to look at all dispossessed people including elderly and other minorities. It transcended the need to fit into what was considered American to be a citizen and became a realization that Asian American were already, in a large part, citizens and just as much a part of what America is as any other ethnicity found there. This was not so much a landmark in the legal or political sense, but that of the Asian American mentality and awareness in America. Therefore social organizations possessed enough power to unite Asian Americans to create social change towards equality. Organization within the Asian community, whether social or labor oriented, have effected great changes towards creating an equal and just base for Asian immigrants, aliens, and citizens.
Public sentiment and education have long been an instrument in the toolbox of Asian American public image and treatment, extending long roots from turn of the century Chinese foreign minster Wu Tingfang who was quite active in his pursuit to turn the negative tide American sentiment and policy against Chinese immigrants (Wong) to