Joshua Kim
Eunai Shrake
AAS 110
12/03/12
It's Time for Asian Americans to Take Action For decades Asian Americans have suffered from Anti-Asian racist violence. One primary example of Anti-Asian racist violence is the death of Vincent Chin who was a Chinese American that beaten to death by two caucasian men with a baseball bat in Detroit, Michigan in 1982. This and many other hate crime cases against Asian Americans sparked the idea to Asian Americans that they are seen as not fully citizens or "perpetual foreigners". This idea along with Rational Targeting have become reasons why Anti-Asian racist violence occurs. The state is also responsible for Anti-Asian racist violence, so Asian Americans should stop Anti-Asian racist violence by not relying on the state nor law enforcement agencies and turn inwards for strength as a community. The Vincent Chin case brought upon the idea that Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners or "otherized" and because of this idea that has existed for decades they have become targets of racial dominance. This kind of violence has been a means of maintaining dominant power relationships throughout the history of the United States. Several examples of this include the colonization of North America and genocide of the Native Americans, the slavery of African American, the conquest and annexation of Mexico and its people, and the exclusion of Asian Americans. (Terri Yuh-lin Chen 350) During the Vincent Chin murder one of the caucasian men who murdered him yelled, "You Japs are taking all our jobs". During this time period anti-Asian sentiment was intensely heightened especially against Japan because of the events that took place during World War 2. The men assumed Vincent Chin was a Japanese American even though he was Chinese American. This proves that they assumed that all Asian Americans are all just foreigners trying to take over their country, take their jobs, and do nothing but cause harm for "Americans" despite the fact that Asian Americans are also American. This mentality comes from the idea that the American national identity is a "white" one, so anyone who is not "white" automatically isn't American, but instead is an "other". (Terri Yuh-lin Chen 357) The "white" Americans see the Asian Americans as a threat, so they try to take advantage of them by gaining dominance over them. Asian Americans have also suffered from Anti-Asian racist violence because of Rational Targeting which is physically violent crimes driven by economic calculation. In this criminals pick targets who offer the highest benefit and lowest cost. Race is not the exact reason for the crime, but because of the stereotypes that come along in a people's race the criminals use them as info for which targets they choose. For Asian Americans these