Black-Asian Unity
February 29, 2008
An Asian American celebration of Black History Month
Throughout my life as a Filipino American, I have recalled my social and political unity with African Americans. And February, national Black History Month, has always served to reinforce such recollection.
Earlier, I found it by becoming involved in political rallies during my undergrad years at the University of Maryland–College Park in the mid 1970s, advocating liberation in Zimbabwe, justice for The Wilmington 10 and freedom for political prisoners like Angela Davis, among others. While my attendance at many of these rallies was encouraged by my black friends, including black women I dated, I also felt a political and social camaraderie with blacks that my parents reinforced while I was in grade school. For instance, my late father, a cabdriver, once pointed out, while I rode with him in his cab in the upper northwest section of Washington, that he attended a certain school in that area because it was the only school that “colored” people could attend in D.C. at the time — and that “colored” meant blacks as well as Filipinos and other Asians. I remembered that story well and often mentioned it to black people at many of the rallies for black causes I attended when asked why I was there.
I have continued to discover many historical connections between blacks and Asians that my academic courses never covered, including:
• Chinese Americans in San Francisco successfully sued in the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a racially based laundry ordinance in the 1886 case known as Yick Wo v. Hopkins — a case often cited by civil rights lawyers advocating for justice and equality for women and people of color.
• The term “Asian American” was coined in the context of black protest. In 1968, a group of Asian American students at U.C. Berkeley, who had joined a protest in support of Black Panther Huey Newton, created their own banner that read “Asian Americans for Justice.”
• In February of 1942, internationally acclaimed scholar Paul Robeson, an African American, appeared before the California Legislative Committee on Defense Migration as part of a blue-ribbon panel of non-Asians, who would testify to the loyalty of Japanese Americans in an attempt to avert their eventual imprisonment in internment camps during World War II.
Knowing these and other common histories of blacks and Asians has helped me balance the mistrust and other antagonisms between these two communities, the existence of which was confirmed by a recent New America Media poll. But there is a commitment to bridge that mistrust. Let us all keep building that bridge by learning and embracing our common history.
Sam Cacas is the author of the recent book BlAsian Exchanges, a Novel. For more information: blasianexchangesanovel.blogspot.com.
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19 Responses to “Black-Asian Unity”
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wow, that was very interesting, I had no idea that there was ever a court case invloving blacks and asians. I never even knew we had so much history in common, so if I meet an asian guy or girl that says ” I don’t see how it would work, we have no history to relate to”
I can say ” on the contrar!”
this is very interesting, Keep it up Sam!!
cool never knew these things. It seems like asians have taken to liking white people alot more, maybe because of media, or bad experiences. Either way, its up to them to accept us or not, I really don’t care. There acceptance isn’t going to affect me. Alot of the times, its them who cause problems in the black community.
Sam, thank you for highlighting the commonalities of cultures instead of our perceived differences. I commend you for being candid and outspoken on this issue. What concerns me, is how the majority culture in America, though not a majority in the world, achieves their goals and purposes through the method of “divide and conquer” which is alive and well in America and throughout the diaspora. It concerns me when the majority cultures of the world do not promote a dialogue with each other, because of our wish to assimilate and identify with the “majority” in America. It will only be through the print media and other media outlets , particularly the internet, that the world will indeed become smaller and people will see their commonalities more instead of their differences. I think the real change will happen because of efforts, predominately, among young and open minded people which we are seeing reflected in the current election. As an older person, my experience has shown me that real dialogue will not take place until we are willing to be vulnerable with each other, independent thinkers and concerned more about promoting truth in the world than in being a conformist or going along with the latest trends.
Sandra
good job. i didnt even know about some of this stuff
Folks:
Finally. And about time.
Sam Cacas is not only right-on but right all the way.
Of the world, that is.
A “world” wherein the undertrod and neglected, the oppressed and the “enslaved,” one way or another, happen to be the great, literally, “majority.”
A world wherein the ruthless and morally impoverished “ruling” plutocrats and oligarachy.
are actually a small, even tiny?, “minority.”
Cultural differences, especially in “values,” are beyond the scope of their perceptions, never mind their predilections.
Today, this week?, the “Establishment” guns have been drawn up, by the Clinton Dems at that, although the McCain GOPers will double that wager should Obama win Texas and Ohio.
They have brazenly and baldly tossed the race card into this so-called “election.”
Kenyan costume is not enough. Obama/Osama neither? But maybe the “Hussein” will work.
Never underestimate the lowest=COMMON-denomiator.
But, even if Obama comes through this trial by bigots unscathed, another fact still remains:
That Obama too is part of said Establishment, else how could he have possibly gotten as far as he has?
Yick Wo vs. Hopkins was about the time my fzther reached this “Gold Mountain,” and, even as Brown vs. whomever?, you know, that “watershed” Supreme Court decision that struck down “separate but equal”? in the neverneverland of Americsan “education,” Yick Wo too has simply garnered a laundromat and cleaners that are still (wo)manned by “immigrants,” legal or otherwise.
No, my friends, nothing has changed.
In the past century and a half, much less mere years and decades,
Everyone should
read today’s online Counterpunch piece by Alexander Cockburn, who, by the way, in the second half of the piece, shishkebabs the late arched-eyebrow and tongue-flicking archconservative William Buckley, is it Jr.? to a faretheewell and a seeya later.
And Sam, and all within hearing distance, at this point I would like to self-serve to the extent that I note my personal hajj? to that mecca? of the “universal soldier”?, to wit:
In 1949, after being graylisted, I didn’t quite qualify for the “black” one, I had the privilege and the honor of joining the late and great creator/artist/dancer/teacher/choreographer Lester Horton, who was “white,” a “hoosier” no less, who embraced “black,” then “Negro” America sans fanfare but with all the career handicaps attached.
In 1950, he “integrated” his dance ompany, having decades earlier included Native Americans and Latino Americans AND Asian Americans in his “color”less appreciation of humankind and the arts.
We not only “blazed” the trail, we provided the launching psds for the likes of Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade.
Bella Lewiitzky and his “Jewish nuns” preceded, when he and the likes of Carmelita Maracci openly espoused anti-Nazi causes, recognizing then the enormity of the Holocaust, just as he did when he mourned and “honored” the innocents of Hiroshima in ‘52.
The “Negro” community of the day knew and loved Horton, and it is my personal belief that he singlehandedly in the Los Angeles of the day, advanced the “black” revolution via dance and the arts and a community presence that threatened only the bigots and the fearful.
Why does this matter? At this late date?
Well, in this never-humble, sorry, dad, opinion –
neither power NOR money will ever right the wrongs, the iniquities, the injustices, the gross and insensate posturings and pretensions of those who perceive and proclaim themselves “superior” or “the chosen.”
Only when VALUES are adjusted to a channel other than the material and the manipulative will that be possible.
And the arts are one of those channels?
Long ago, half a century?, I perceived as I still believe, that the “system” herein is implacable and immovable, and, as a sensate and rational? individual, my 0nly hope for personal fruition, salvation?, lay in the cracks and crevices of said system, to wit:
Find, take, utilize to the max all that was worthy or desirable in said system, and minimize, to the extent of one’s powers the malign and dehumanizing elements.
ALL minorities, of whatever stripe or persuasion today in this increasingly fascist state of Amurrika, are, in truth, CONjoined, whether they know or acknowledge it or not, as the “underbelly” of this “beast.”
And the sooner we recognize that fact and status, the sooner shall we he able, singly or communally, to rid ourselves of this undignified and dishonorable estate.
I, personally, believe and insist, WE are one.
Even the monsters “in power.”
They just don’t get the point that wealth and power are fruitless and bootless in the eternal human hejira to self-understanding and self-validation.
God help us, one and all, but later for “them.”
Frank Eng
P.S.: Sam, your dad was a mensch, for sure, as, indeed, was mine.
Thank you, Sam. I had no idea about all of the Asian and African-American History together. As a young black female growing up it is interesting to know all of this information you never learned in school. I am glad you put this information out there to share with the world that there are more colors than just BLACK and WHITE.
Takara Shelton
[…] the Day: Is There An Asian-Black Alliance? Posted on March 2, 2008 by local colors I read this commentary in Asian Week and it has certainly made me think. I believe the author has highlighted some valid […]
I curious…would you say an alliance between the Black American community and Asian American community still exists today? It is my observation that it is perhaps outdated.
Examples:
- Race relations between Koreans and African Americans have a more recent history of experiencing tension vs. unity
- The silence from the Chinese community regarding the death sentence for Stanley “Tookie” Williams. The African American community was very vocal against the sentence but not a peep from the Chinese American community…no sense of an “alliance” going on there.
- When Davis City decided to name name an elementary school after the late Fred Korematsu, the biggest supporters were Arab and Muslim Americans who feel the same threat today as the Japanese Americans felt during WWII.
The above article doesn’t include any recent examples of an Asian-Black Alliance but rather examples from past. So my question is, does such an alliance still exist or is the concept outdated?
It is my opinion that it is outdated. Or rather, I’d use other words besides “alliance” or “unity.”
Thank you, Sam Cacas for writing a positive article about Asian American and African American unity for Black history month. It is great that you mention such commonalities about these two races and how you were influenced by the politics 1970s and your father’s experiences. I wasn’t aware of this shared history until I was an adult.
Bravo! I’m glad to see such a well-informed article in AsianWeek. As an African American and ESL teacher, I am always looking for supplemental material for curriculum. This article encourages me to look at AsianWeek for more such articles for the classroom. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Sam. I really appreciate that you wrote about Asian-American and African-American history. I never knew about it. It is very positive article by this. I like it.
I will find out more about Asian-American history and people who have experience about Black History Month, etc.
Keep up the good work!!! Thanks again!!! :-)
To the “teachers”:
For a more recent example of Chinese-American “alliance” with blacks, and others?, I refer you to Lee Mun Wah’s “The Color of Fear,” which, I believe, was recognized and honored by Oprah herself on-camera.
Lee’s empanelling of protagonists to discuss their mutual fears and loathings? on the subject of “color” or race, was and remains all the more honest and courageous, insofar as his own mother was murdered, and the murderer happened to be a “black” man.
Fears must be met by honesty, and bridges must be built by individuals, especially “teachers”?
Frank Eng
P.S.: And note the many literal “alliances” of contemporary intermarriages. “Miscegenations,” anyone?
The term of “Black American” or “African-American” is based on the skin colour.
While the funny term of “Asian-American” is not based on skin colour but the ethnic origins.
But why there is no “European-American” as a category ?
Asia is as diverse, if not more so, than Europe, culturally, ethnically, religiously, in many many aspects.
People of Papua-New Guinea are blacks, many Indians have Aryan roots, and what about Afghanistan, Khazakstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, etc., are those people Asiaans or Caucasians ? What about Israelis ? Are they whites or “Asians” ?
In this so called “melting pot” of the US, the diversity of races often causes more boiling than melting. Never mind what the polticians tell you, you know better from your daily encounters yourself.
I didn’t know these things. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I have every intention of purchasing your book. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Sam! Very Factual and Well written Piece!
Thanks Sam! We need more articles like this to show the average American–especially black and Asian–that we have more in common than we are led to believe. As a black man who grew up with a lot of white and Filipino friends, I totally agree with you on everything in this article. Heck my favorite card game is pusoy dos!
Sam,
Great article!! I think your list of historical connections between the African American and Asian American struggles is a good start for a larger future writing project. I encourage you to pursue this subject further.
This article is very interesting. I think this is a rather good begining for both asians and african americans. I am often not sure where asian-americans stand when it comes to african americans. Nevertheless, i couldn’t blame them for their negative views because almost everybody was biased about african americans until recent. I think we were all blind to the truth but perhaps maybe we can all find a common ground and ease the fear created by ignorance.
Black-Asian Unity Well, Sam Cacas your article was a good beginning. It shows people are ready and need this type of information considering the responses But there’s a lot more that’s occured between Blacks and Asians that ’s positive. Unfortunately, no one will publish my article that’s been sitting in my files for more about fifteen(15)years!!! Is anyone listening????
asians are beautiful!! i’m black!! blacks are beautiful!!