Final Preparation

1. Final Preparation ETHN 100 – Wednesday, December 5th

2. Last Session’s Goals and Activities • Discussed the final • Examined key terms among Asian Americans • Analyzed video on the significance of Vincent Chin

3. Today’s Goals and Activities • Continue our conversation on Vincent Chin and Asian Americans; highlight different conditions and experiences among immigrants and refugees from Asia. • Prepare for final exam • Course evaluations

4. Emergence of “Asian American” • The term “Asian,” like the term “Black,” means different things in different places around the world. • In the United States, “Asian American” is primarily a political term that reflects a panethnic experience. • Many Asian Americans identify themselves first with the the nation of ancestry. Some do not identify with the term Asian American.

5. Vincent Chin Incident: Some Take-Aways • Reflects the economic and political nature of racial and ethnic experiences. • Reinforces the notion that experiences, both individual and collective, are shaped by social, political, and economic contexts. • 1980s Michigan – Economic recession; emergence of Japanese presence in the auto industry. • Intense social class, racial and ethnic tension.

6. Pre- and Post-1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act • Significant changes to the socioeconomic make-up of APIs. • Prior to 1965: agricultural and domestic workers. • Legal status was defined largely by native country’s relationship with the US and the need for cheap labor • API groups have been invited and excluded; invited and excluded… • After the 1965 Act – Immigrant populations were more educated and often came with higher socioeconomic class status (wealth and status)

8. Southeast Asian Americans • The war in Southeast Asia (the “Vietnam War” in the United States) pushed populations out of native lands. • Refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. • Hmong Americans – ties to US government via the CIA. Served as operatives and soldiers allied with the US. • Faced intense violence and genocide after the US left the region. • Thousands lived for months and years in refugee processing centers.

9. Resettlement Programs • Goal was to distribute refugees across the country to encourage assimilation. • SEA refugees gravitated to areas such as Fresno, CA and Minneapolis, MN became hubs. • Limited access to jobs and severe cultural and linguistic differences required significant resources. • Exhausted local municipalities and organizations. • Led to intense conflicts between established ethnic groups and newly arrived refugees. • SEA families and communities underwent rapid social and cultural transformations, particularly with regards to family member/generational and gender roles.

10. Final Exam Prep • Why does social inequality among ethnic groups persist? • Assignment 2b – Within group • Assignment 2c – Across groups • Final Essay – Develop a thesis/theory

11. Looking Within and Across to Explore a Thesis about Racial and Ethnic Inequality Native Americans African Americans Chicano/as Asian Americans Cross Cutting Themes Inventory of Key Terms Developing a Thesis Citing Evidence Theoretical Framework Claims/Thesis

12. Power and Resistance • Key Value in Ethnic Studies: Where there is power there is resistance. • Steven Lukes • Sociologist (NYU). British born. Early work focused on Emile Durkheim. • Develops a synthesis of various theoretical treatments of “power.” • Critical of the “A -> B” notion of power. • Posits a view on power on three dimensions.

13. Social Structure • The term “social structure” refers to the arrangements of institutions and the human interactions they engender. • Associated vocab: organization, rituals, statuses, roles, configurations, division of labor. • Key Questions: • How are patterns in human interaction related to the way space and time are configured? • How is social inequality reinforced? How is inequality among racialized groups reinforced?

14. Defining Culture • Culture is talked about in a variety of ways in numerous disciplines. For the sake of our course, we will adopt this definition (Nieto, 2012): • Culture is ever-changing. Culture is: • represented by values, traditions, social and political relationships, worldview; • shared by a group of people; • and bounded by a combination of common history, geographic location, language, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and other dimensions.

15. Identity (Some “take-aways” from Hall) • Identity is fluid and is shaped by social and political contexts. • Identity is imposed and selected. It is both how we see ourselves and how others see us. • Identities are often articulated in terms of race and ethnicity, class (socioeconomic status), gender, and sexual orientation. He positions ethnicity as a key focal point for understanding differences in how groups are positioned in society. • Though not discussed by Hall, we will focus on the “intersections” of these collective identities.

16. Final Exam Procedures • Evaluate the within-group and across-groups analyses you conducted in Assignments 2b and 2c according to the three thesis statements provided. • These statements represent theories are derived from the key concepts we studied in Part I of our course. • Select the thesis that best relates to your arguments in Assignment 2b and 2c. • Write a brief essay (roughly three pages/750 words) that • (1) interprets the thesis in your own words, • (2) explains how this thesis relates to the arguments you made in Assignments 2b and 2c, and • (3) provides citations of materials from our course.

17. Key Question • Why do patterns of social inequality persist among racial and ethnic groups?

18. Three Theories/Thesis Statements (1) Dominant cultural status is established and reinforced by both structural and cultural means. Institutions maintain systems of power and privilege by promoting one group’s worldview, rituals, and values to appear neutral, natural, and objective. (2) Inequality is produced and maintained by ideologies that represent the racial or ethnic “other” as culturally uncivilized and socially deviant. Collective identities of non-dominant groups often evolve in response to these representations and to the unfair treatment these stereotypes serve to justify. (3) The growth of industrialization—characterized by mechanized and mass production of goods for global markets—requires natural resources, cheap labor, and complex belief systems that favor property rights over human rights.

19. Thesis 1 • Dominant cultural status is established and reinforced by both structural and cultural means. Institutions maintain systems of power and privilege by promoting one group’s worldview, rituals, and values to appear neutral, natural, and objective.

20. Theoretical Framework Social Inequality

23. Thesis 2 • Inequality is produced and maintained by ideologies that represent the racial or ethnic “other” as culturally uncivilized and socially deviant. Collective identities of non-dominant groups often evolve in response to these representations and to the unfair treatment these stereotypes serve to justify.

24. Theoretical Framework Social Inequality

27. Thesis 3 • The growth of industrialization—characterized by mechanized and mass production of goods for global markets—requires natural resources, cheap labor, and complex belief systems that favor property rights over human rights.

28. Theoretical Framework Social Inequality