Desegregated Labor
June 8, 2000
While some of our ancestors jumped off of Spanish galleons and swam to shore, or came here in semi-indentured status to work in agriculture or railroad building, others may have come here as merchants, students or free (but poor) laborers. Asian American history continues with stories of how our ancestors made a few bucks, started a small business, and ended up doing well for themselves and their families.
In reality, though, the stories don’t always tell the tale of the “American Dream.” Labor segregation has also been a constant theme for Asian Americans. We are not genetically pre-disposed to hold a laundry iron or spend our days in sweltering, steamy kitchens, as some thought we were in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And neither are we all technological drones or number-crunching madmen chained to a computer in the back room of a large corporation, as current mythology would have one believe.
Having worked in the commercial, academic, political, and government sectors over the last 20 years, I have seen how the “model minority myth” has created opportunities for Asian Americans. On the other hand, some stereotypes have held us back, and, in the broader scheme of things, even model minority myth confines, by perpetuating a hierarchical system with whites on top, and by allowing us to unfairly benefit at the expense of others.
For the commercial sector, I remember conducting diversity training for Fortune 500 corporations in the mid-1980s. Asian American technical staffs often complained that they were passed over for promotions because of their accents or because they were not used to the U.S. system in which those who beat their own drums were rewarded, while those who trumpeted the accomplishments of the team remained anonymous. Moreover, said the workers, managers liked them to stay in secondary positions on their teams because they didn’t ask too many questions or cause problems. Indeed, many were known for working extra hours, and were usually pretty smart. (Selective immigration of top students from Asian countries had fueled this perception.)
I worked with these Asian American employees to help them learn the corporate culture. But I also got managers to realize that they had to adapt to a global economy where the majority of future customers, colleagues, and business partners would be from cultures that valued relationships as much as daily profit margins.
Today, as a manager myself in an Internet start-up, I see plenty of Asian American executives. I spent a few weeks at an office of Lucent Technologies, where the vast majority of technical people had Asian backgrounds. There, no one complained that they couldn’t understand the accent of the manager who is from Pakistan, and no one cared that many of the workers brought food in plastic containers and ate with chopsticks. Labor segregation, at least in that facility, was non-existent.
When I first started teaching undergraduate and law school classes in the early 1980s, it was a rarity to see an Asian American. I fondly recall Neil Gotanda, Mari Matsuda, Jan Ting, and the other pioneers in the legal academy, reaching out to help at conferences. Today, a thriving Asian American Law Professor Group has a listserv, and just had a conference hosted by Eric Yamamoto, a law professor at the University of Hawaii. And recently, Fred Yen at Boston College Law School was named the school’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs—he will now decide curriculum issues for all students, not just Asian Americans.
Historically, Asian Americans have gotten work in the government sector because, while the pay is lower than the corporate sector, there tends to be less discrimination. (Although before the 1970s, Asian Americans were excluded from some jobs because of their immigration or naturalization status). Today, there are several Asian American federal employee organizations in Washington, D.C., with Asian Americans in jobs from the top to bottom of governmental agencies.
Overall, Asian Americans have made a lot of strides in terms of workplace opportunity, through our own efforts and through the efforts of other people of good will. While more work remains, let’s savor the fact that an Asian American dressed in a tuxedo at a high-level reception isn’t necessarily assumed to be the waiter.
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