Struggles: An Analysis of the Asian American Male Identity

 This is an essay I wrote for my American History course and I believe it correlates to all the struggles we Asian brothers encounter on a daily basis.

From the dawn of their arrival in America working mining in the Gold Rush in the 1850s to the discriminations that they face in Hollywood and many other aspects of life, Asian American Racism has been bled as an unfortunate result of the historical events that happened within the last 170 years. In today’s society, Asian Americans face affirmative action in the workplace and college admissions. An OkCupid study indicates that Asian-American women are more likely to be fetishized, and Asian American men are consistently rated less attractive than black men, Latino men, and white men. These are examples of the stereotypical negativity towards Asian-Americans that has permeated over American soil since their arrival. The historical story of Asian Americans and their interactions with other races since their arrival in the 1850s has encouraged recurring racist ideas and caused difficult immersion to the United States that occur even to this day.

Several Racial Microaggressions have occurred in the past that have made the Asian American’s transition to society difficult, especially for the immigrants. As Derald Wing Sue asserts in her essay, “research supports the contention that racism has evolved into more subtle, ambiguous, and unintentional manifestations”. Many Americans unintentionally hold beliefs that are detrimental to people of color. Despite many historical accounts of Asian-American racism, there has been a lack of attention and awareness of the discrimination against them through microaggressions. A clear example of a microaggression is illustrated by the verbal statement, “You speak such good English” or “Where are you really from?”

Research also shows that many forms of racial discrimination. 2 of these discussed in Wing Sue’s essay are microinsults and microaggression. There were interviews conducted on various Asian-Americans, having them describe all of the microaggressions that they have experienced in a question-answer type format, using qualitative research to come to a consensus. Both individual and group interviews were conducted. At the end of the interview, multiple incidents of microaggressions were presented including being an alien in the country (“No, where are you born?”), being ascribed with intelligence/nerdiness (“You’re Asian, so you’re good at math”). These subtle but apparent forms of racism have affected the transition of Asian-Americans to society, especially after World War II.

The Vietnam War has influenced the United States to view the Asians on a very bad note, and it was arguably detrimental to all the young American soldiers who participated in the conflict. In a 1969 article, Peter Arnet describes the military brilliance and maliciousness of the Asian military by referencing Northern Vietnamese General Lo Nguyen Giap. Giap’s intellect comes in the realization that he did not need to defeat the Americans but simply frustrate them to the point where they withdrew their army. His control over the public opinion helped to reinforce Northern Vietnam’s loyalty. When the US Army withdrew its troops in 1973, North Vietnam proceeded to raid and dominate over the South, and communism became widespread in the country. The Vietnam War furthered hatred towards Asians in general, as tens of thousands of American soldiers were killed by the Northern Vietnamese and the Chinese soldiers who assisted in the VietCong’s spread of communism. Ethnic slurs such as “chink” became commonplace. Asians were viewed as brilliant, ruthless military tacticians and an inherent evil who tries to spread communism to the world, further overcomplicating the lives of the American-Born Asians.

Asians also tend to experience untold prejudices in the workplace, the college admissions process, the entertainment industry, and the community. According to Lynn Smith and Bill Billiter, Asian Americans are known as very studious and tend to make earn higher marks in academic settings, even though many of them immigrated to the US without knowing a word of English. They make the highest median income out of all races in the United States. With this realization came the advent of affirmative action, an effort to improve employment and educational groups for women: except for East-Asian Americans. According to my mother, most Asian Americans who immigrated to the United States were distinguished scientists and researchers who came from a Confucianism belief, where educators were one of the highest respected position in society and education was viewed as the central piece to all student’s future. As a result, Asian American’s performance in academic pursuits was on average higher than the performances of all other ethnicities, and prestigious colleges started to have higher standards for East Asian prospective students in order not to “oversaturate racial diversity.” Asian’s high performance in school has also encouraged stereotypes. Many Caucasians attributed Asian Americans as solely being “good at math and technical matters, and nothing else”, a belief and overgeneralization that has been made even more prevalent by popular media and the Hollywood Scene.

Speaking of Hollywood, Asian Americans have a hard time finding equal representation in film. According to a New York Times article by Alexis Soloski, Asian-Americans consist of approximately 6% of the US population, but less than 2% of famous Hollywood actors and actresses, and much less “heartthrobs”. Asian American actress Mia Katigbak has described her difficulty that embodies something other than the Korean Grocer or extremely difficult. As a result, she has attempted to shun the prejudice by creating her support group consisting of Asians to “enrich the American experience” and help Asians network and find more representation in mainstream roles versus limiting them to a certain niche. Fortunately, there has been progressed lately in the entertainment industry, although there has been a constant heap of racial barriers that impede Asian American progress. I believe ideal Hollywood representation will foster Asian Americans injecting their diverse culture, but not being stereotyped and being given the same opportunities as actors of other races. This ideal representation is being steadfastly coming into fruition, as evidenced by the movie Yellow, which describes a group of Asian American college-bound teens in a mystery film who struggles with their identities in a realistic, riveting manner.

All the racism that Asian Americans experience has taken a negative toll on their mental health. According to the article by Derek Kenji and Matthew M. Miller, several researchers conducted interviews and gave questionnaires to Asian-American volunteers to collect statistics on racial identity by asking them to confirm statements such as “whites are more attractive” and “In a social setting, I prefer to be around Asians than whites. They are given number scores, in the areas of conformity, dissonance, immersion, introspection, and internalization. It turns out that the Asians with less of a sense of racial identity tend to be more depressed, have suicidal ideations, and much greater chances of possessing mental illnesses. This is strong because they internalized all the prejudiced all of the negative feedback given by other ethnicities in society, making them feel inferior to other people.

In conclusion, the negative feedback that Asian Americans experience to this day has been a culmination of the interactions between Asians and other races ever since they immigrated to California during the Gold Rush in the 1950s. This is significant because as the country becomes more diversified over the years, the issues of racism must be addressed. Racism is also rampant during the events of police brutality, the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, and George Floyd’s inhumane death. When we as a collective nation find a way to reduce our racist nature, our country will be significantly more stable and prosperous with way less hatred, bigotry, and chaos.

As a son of first-generation Chinese immigrants, my family, the North Carolina Asian community, and I have experienced prejudice and share the same sentiments as most Asians in America do. For example, my mom was walking the dog in the evening hours, and people have been yelling expletives at her: “You m************ c***k! Move your ass back to China!” It has been a dangerous time for all American citizens but especially for minority groups, which are often targeted for problems. So, what can Asian-Americans do about this? I think the main answer is to be assertive, defend the culture, and breaking stereotypes. Asians should first pursue manners other than academics. It’s respectable to get a technical degree in a high-paying field, but I strongly believe that Asian-American males should assert their masculinity, breaking the nerdy stereotype by lifting weights, dramatically improving social skills, and standing up for other members of their race. Soon, American society will take notice, Hollywood will cast more Asian Americans into romantic and action roles, and racist notions that have been present for nearly a century now will be dramatically reduced. If progress is made in the right direction, America will function as a more integrated society as a whole and the diverse melting point will be a friendly environment for all. Let’s all push to end racial discrimination. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, judge people not by the “color of their skin but by the content of their character.