The Unassimilable Races 15

What it Means to be Asian

There are lots of issues that Asian Americans share, ... one being the

immigrant experience, being relatively recent immigrant arrivals.

And Asians also suffer from a perpetual-foreigner syndrome,

meaning that you could be a fourth- or fifth-generation Asian

American but still somehow it’s difficult to believe that you’re an

American. I get that: First they compliment me on my ability to

speak English, and often I get asked, “Well, where are you from?” and

for some reason people refuse to take Flushing for an answer.

John Lui, attributed

Institutionalized Aggression

Formal, institutionalized policies that target Asian populations have a long
history in the U.S., something that we tend to forget. A short overview:

1790 Congress decrees that “any alien, being a free white person

who shall have resided within the limits and under the

jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years,

may be admitted to become a citizen thereof.” The “free

white person” element was retained until “persons of

African descent” was added in 1873. Cargile (2010) notes

that while this was a major civil rights victory, it also

alienated Latinos and Asians: “their status as ‘outsiders’

was now firmly fixed in a society only able to see in black

and white” (ibid.: 60).

1882 President Garfield vetoes the Chinese Exclusion Act;

Congress rallies a three-quarter majority to override the

veto so that Chinese are not allowed to immigrate.