Asian Pacific American Identity

Doing Better Than Everyone Else?
Asians and Pacific Islanders in Our Schools
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
Seattle Girls’ School
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

About Seattle Girls’ School

Food for thought

Identity Development:
Marginalized Identities
 Innocence and Self Esteem
 Encounter and Self Doubt
 Assimilation to the Majority
 Immersion into Identity
 Emersion
 Integration

Identity Development:
Privileged Identities
 Innocence and Self Esteem
 Encounter and Confusion
 Attempt to Reintegrate
 Re-Encounter and Guilt
 Acceptance and Action
 Immersion and Emersion
 Integration

Effect of Varying Identifications

Orientations Toward Ethnic Identity

Identity and Cultural Inclusion
 Identity Frames
 Intractability
 Positive and Negative Encounters
 Identity Socialization
 Co-Authorship of Identity

Discussion

What Does Asian Pacific American Mean, Anyway?

An Artificial Construct

The Story of Asian Pacific America

History of Conflict

Asian Pacific American History
 1763 Filipinos settle Saint Malo
 1778 Chinese sailors land in Hawaii
 1820s Chinese immigration begins in earnest
 1865 The Central Pacific Railroad Co. recruits
Chinese workers for the transcontinental railroad
 1878 Chinese are ruled ineligible for naturalized
citizenship
 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act is passed

Takao Ozawa vs United States

 1941 Japan air force attacked Pearl Harbor; FBI arrests
pro-Japanese community leaders
 1941-45 Filipino resistance movement, working closely
with U.S. Army, fights the Japanese invaders
 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive
Order 9066 on February 19, uprooting 100,000 people
of Japanese descent on the west coast to be sent to
Internment camps.
 1943-1945 Japanese Americans volunteer for the US
Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and becomes
the highest decorated military unit in US history
 1946, the Luce–Celler Act of 1946 grants naturalization
opportunities to Filipino Americans and Indian Americans
(which included present-day Pakistanis and Bangladeshis)

 1956 Dalip Singh Saund is the first Asian (Sikh) to be elected for
Congress
 1962 Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaiʻi elected for the US Senate
 1965 Patsy T. Mink of Hawaiʻi becomes the first woman of color in
Congress.
 1965 Luck Wing serves four terms as the Mayor of Sledge
Mississippi, population 600
 1968 Term “Asian American” is coined as a part of the Asian
American Movement, a radical movement for social justice (Red
Guard)
 1971, Norman Y. Mineta elected mayor of San Jose, California;
Herbert Choy nominated supreme court justice.
 1974, George R. Ariyoshi elected governor of Hawaiʻi
 1975 More than 130,000 refugees enter the U.S. from Vietnam,
Kampuchea, and Laos as Communist governments are
established there following the end of the Indochina War.

Black Panthers and The Red Guard

Asian American History
 1976 Samuel Ichiye (S. I.) Hayakawa of California and
Spark Matsunaga of Hawaiʻi elected as US Senators
 1978 Ellison S. Onizuka becomes the first Asian American
astronaut
 1982 Vincent Chin is accused of being a Japanese
(being blamed for loss of jobs) and beaten to death.
 1987 First formal signing of the Proclamation of Asian
Pacific American Heritage Week by the White House
 1988 U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties
Act of 1988 apologizing for Japanese American
internment and provide reparations of $20,000 to each
victim
 1992 Korean businesses are looted and burned during the
LA Riots

Asian American History
 1992 Eugene Chung is football offensive lineman in the NFL
 1992, Hae Jong Kim elected Bishop of United Methodist Church
 1996 Gary Locke is elected as the first Chinese American governor
 1999 Gen. Eric Shinseki becomes the first Asian American U.S.
military chief of staff
 2000 Norman Y. Mineta becomes the first Asian American appointed
to the U.S. Cabinet
 2002 Yao Ming is the number one draft pick in the 2002 NBA draft
 2003 Ignatius C. Wang becomes a bishop of the Roman Catholic
Church
 2008 Tim Lincecum (half Filipino) a starting pitcher for the San
Francisco Giants, is selected as an All Star for the Major League All
Star Game

Emergent Themes
 The Perpetual Immigrant
 The Worker Not Owner
 Black or White or Neither?
 Weak as a Socio-Political Group
 Ethnically Separated

Myth of the Model Minority
 Overly Hard Working and Tireless
 Will Work Under Extreme Circumstances
 Quiet and Cooperative
 Serene, Smart, Resilient
 Doesn’t Seek the Limelight

Legacy of the Myth
 Outsourcing of Cheap Labor
 Orientalism in Health Care
 Tokenism and Minimalization
 Stress of Achievement
 Funneling into STEM Fields
 Where Are You From?

What Kind of API Are You?

Young Man, Promising Career, Lovely Wife

Young Family

Three daughters

Coming to America

Mrs. Connors

Mr. Hawley

MASP Counselor

Ted Allen

My Story: A New Path

What Kind of API Are You?
 East Asian
 Southeast Asian
 South Asian
 Pacific Islander
 Multiracial
 Transracially Adopted
 International Student
 3rd Generation or Later
 Recent Immigrant

Going Forward

Presenter Information
6th Faculty and
Professional Outreach
Seattle Girls’ School
2706 S Jackson Street
Seattle WA 98144
(206) 805-6562
rlee@seattlegirlsschool.org
http://tiny.cc/rosettalee

Asian Pacific American Identity

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Editor's Notes