DOCSLIB.ORG

WORKERS ,,1N(Jijl1ftlj25

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WORKERS ,,1N(Jijl1ftlj25 WORKERS ,,1N(JIJl1ftlJ 25¢ No. 330 .~~.:~ X_-523 20 May 1983 Reagan's Butchers Shakioo 6~'" DID MAY 17-A leftist guerrilla in central EI Salvador recently declared, "We are moving the war along as fast as possible now, so the people don't have to suffer so much. We are coming to the final stage. We now have the capacity to launch a definite insurrection" (Wash­ ington Post, I May). In recent weeks the insurgent forces of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) have kept the U.S.-backed army reeling. The much-touted "new" military strategy (nothing but Vietnam­ \ era counterinsurgency) has gotten no­ 1 where as each army sweep is met by fierce resistance and devastating coun­ terattacks by the rebels. The FMLN-_ iorces have IT,,,intained and accelerated the military momentum which they seized last October, striking targets at will across the country. Six months ago, the opposition Democratic Revolution­ ary Front (FOR) declared that the rebels were entering "a more offensive and defining phase of the revolutionary war" with the "creation ofconditions for the general insurrection of the masses" (FDR/FMLN, Boletin £1 Salvador Libre, October 1982). This has certainly been accomplished. What now? In the United States, all sectors of the ruling class are worried about the "fire in America's front yard," vividly recall­ ing the Vietnam debacle. Reagan wants to escalate, the liberals want to nego­ tiate. Now various reformists are joining with the Democrats to call an "emergen­ cy" demonstration (on July 2!) for "No Vietnam War in Central America." The Spartacist League (SL) says: Vietnam ~ was a victory-Two. three, many .. No Negotiatecl Sellout! . defeats for U.S. imperialism! And the ill bourgeoisie has good reason to be worried. With Central America already successful the guerrillas are against the while the workers and peasants defy cutting the link to Honduras and aflame, there is now rumbling in the army, the more insistent their leaders blood and fire in a struggle to rid southern Central America at the border. Southern Cone of South America. One are in offering to sell out what has been themselves of a rapacious oligarchy and And while the sizable FM LN "areas of thousand arrested for demonstrating won on the battlefield in exchange for its kill-crazed death squads. Ungo and control" are expanding, the government against the Pinochet dictatorship in some :cabinet seats and promises of the rest of the phantom bourgeois army is crumbling as a result of mass Chile, general strikes against the gener­ reform (the so-called "political solu­ politicians in the FOR ply tb? cocktail surrenders to the guerrillas: als in Argentina, workers confront the tion")" This pattern has again been circuits hoping to rally liberal support • March 27-Capture of 114 sol­ 1M F austerity policies of the popular dramaticaliy confirmed. A week after and thus stave off social revolution. The diers in a rebel attack on San Esteban front in Bolivia. And to the north Reagan's war on Communism in Cen­ SL says: No negotiated sellout! Military Catarina, 29 miles from the capital. Mexico is in deep crisis. Now is the time tral America speech to Congress, FOR victory to leftist insurgents! Take San • April 17-Capture of 71 soldiers to strike for victory on the battlefield in leader Guillermo Ungo came to Wash­ Salvador! and their commander. overrunning an El Salvador. A leftist military victory ington to hold a press conference in army post near Chichontepec volcano could open the door to workers revolu­ which he announced: "The United Reagan's Butchers On the Run (La Paz province). tion that could spread throughout the States has the right to stop the spread of • April 18-Capture of 80 govern­ continent. communism. That's true. We agree on After the "Heroic January 1983" ment soldiers on the San Vicente Yet as we have noted before, the more that" (Ballimore Sun. 3 May). Indeed. F\1U\ offensive. which resulted in the volcano. rebel occupation of the town of Berlin In addition, in what was described as and attacks inside the capital itself. the one of the biggest FM LN victories of the guerrillas have kept up the pressure. UAW: From Sitdowns to war. on March 31 guerrillas ambushed pre\enting the army from taking back and destroyed two companies of the the Chrysler Board Room the initiative oreven regainingequilibri­ crack U.S.-trained Ramon Belloso urn. The rebels responded to Reagan's battalion in the northeastern Morazan .Fraser"~.· ;~.·; threats by occupying the key border province. And in mid-April the govern­ Doug .• ... town of Santa Rosa de Lima in eastern ment made its 14th attempt to dislodge La Union province on April 29. They rebels from Guazapa volcano just Company CCJP •• ~~, ,. also destroyed five bridges along the . "-''--:,- - --~:::-:\:.~;T,'!;:\:/-c.t~· .;- ;_._.:·-~;~:~~/~/i}{ Pan American highway, including continued on page 4 La Migra's Racist Roundups in Chicago CHICAGO-With the push on to pass the "community" petty merchants­ the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration "re­ who fatten themselves off the blood and form" bill, they're trying to whip up a sweat of poor immigrants-do without chauvinist frenzy against foreign work­ "illegal aliens"? (CP fellow traveler Ray ers, During the month of March alone, Romero remarked: "Employers look at some 1,000 "illegal aliens" were rounded things in terms of profits, what happens up here by the racist squads of the when you eliminate the undocumented Immigration and Naturalization Serv­ workers and reduce the margin?") At the ice (INS), known by its victims as fa 1982 May Day march, the Spartacist migra, The crackdown is part of a League (SL) contingent had the only nationwide pattern-the Border Patrol signs demanding "Full Citizenship announced it picked up an unprecedent­ Rights for Foreign Born Workers and ed 107,997 people along the Mexican Their Families! Stop the Deportations!" border in March, more than any month "Asylum for Refugees of Salvadoran in history and an increase of 43 percent Junta Terror!" and "Military Victory to over last year (Chicago Tribune, 24 Leftist Insurgents in EI Salvador!" For April). this we were jumped by a goon squad of And while fa migra spread its dragnet, these nationalists and Stalinists seeking the Tribune spewed out a racist propa­ to keep out opposition to their popular ganda barrage in a six-part series front with the Democrats. entitled "The Illegals." The press ac­ These popular frontists, whose call counts did bring to light the desperate for a "negotiated solution" in Central conditions faced by Chicago's countless America would lead to new massacres of thousands of undocumented workers: Salvadoran leftists. and who in Mexico from their perilous entry into this have for decades sought to tame all country, creeping through holes in the opposition to the ruling PRI. now seek chain link fences of the "Tortilla to tie Hispanics in Chicago to the Curtain," hiding in the brush from the Democrats' "reform" mayor. Yet this Border Patrol \",ho stalk their quarry same Democratic Party and the same with an arsenal ranging from helicopters liberals are some of the biggest to infrared nightscopes. At the mercy of pushers of anti-immigrant legislation. the "coyotes" (smugglers), they pay Carter/Chicago Tribune The Stalinists along with the class­ Immigration cops raid factories in Chica~o, April 1982. hundreds of dollars to be packed into collaborationist labor tops call for vans and car trunks, arriving in Chicago protectionist legislation against runa­ to wash dishes, sew garments or work in and addresses on file, and could be for the garment sweatshops of the way shops (run away to Juarez, for grimy metal shops. deported at any moment. Northeast and the foundries in Chicago. example) and support protectionist The latest sweep was called "Opera­ The Reagan-backed Simpson­ Now with the financial and economic demonstrations against buying foreign­ tion Repeater," a follow-up on last Mazzoli bill now pending in Congress, if crisis in Mexico, in addition to the made steel (such as from Monterrey). In year's "Operation Jobs," Reagan's fully enforced, would lead to a South normal attraction of making a better life contrast to this reformist racist poison, vicious attempt to make foreign workers African-style internal passport system, for themselves, hundreds of thousands the Spartacist League calls for interna­ scapegoats for skyrocketing U.S. unem­ strengthening the police powers of the more are being driven across the border tional class struggle. The SL points out ployment. In last year's ten-city sweep, INS and expanding the Labor Depart­ looking for any kind of work. that everyone in this country came from Chicago was a particular focus of the ment's role as a labor contractor. Under Moreover, many Mexicans and somewhere else (except the Indians and INS: 1,295 out of a total of 5,000 arrests the vaguely worded "amnesty provi­ Central Americans meet death in their look how they were slaughtered). We nationwide took place·here. We report­ sions" ofthe Senate bill, applicants must attempt to make it to the "land of the say that anyone who is here has a right ed how INS local chief H.A. Palmer show'tlrey entered the country before free." There are accounts of"wetbacks" to stay with full citizenship rights. murdered by Ku Klux Klan' mobs raided factories and warehouses, swept 1977 and that they won't become More than a century ago Karl Marx waiting for them to· cross the Rio through the barrios separating families "public charges"-impossible to prove pointed out that capitalism maintains Grande, of bodies ofteenage boys found and slamming terrified people into in depression-ravaged USA.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reenactment Program
    T R I A L R E E N A C T M E N T A LIVE VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida WITH ITS COHOSTS The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Tampa Bay The Greater Orlando Asian American Bar Association The Jacksonville Asian American Bar Association PRESENT THE MURDER OF VINCENT CHIN ORIGINAL SCRIPT BY THE ASIAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK VISUALS BY JURYGROUP TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT BY GREENBERG TRAURIG, PA WITH MARIA AGUILA ONCHANTHO AM VANESSA L. CHEN BENJAMIN W. DOWERS ZARRA ELIAS TIMOTHY FERGUSON JACQUELINE GARDNER ALLYN GINNS AYERS E.J. HUBBS JAY KIM GREG MAASWINKEL MELISSA LEE MAZZITELLI GUY KAMEALOHA NOA ALICE SUM AND THE HONORABLE JEANETTE BIGNEY THE HONORABLE HOPE THAI CANNON THE HONORABLE ANURAAG SINGHAL ARTISTIC DIRECTION BY DIRECTED BY PRODUCED BY ALLYN GINNS AYERS BERNICE LEE SANDY CHIU ABOUT APABA SOUTH FLORIDA The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of South Florida (APABA) is a non-profit, voluntary bar organization of attorneys in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties who support APABA’s objectives and are dedicated to ensuring that minority communities are effectively represented in South Florida. APABA of South Florida is an affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (“NAPABA”). All members of APABA are also members of NAPABA. APABA’s goals and objectives coincide with those of NAPABA, including working towards civil rights reform, combating anti-immigrant agendas and hate crimes, increasing diversity in federal, state, and local government, and promoting professional development. The overriding mission of APABA is to combat discrimination against all minorities and to promote diversity in the legal profession.
    [Show full text]
  • The Murder of Vincent Chin*
    BUILDING OUR LEGACY: THE MURDER OF VINCENT CHIN* ROLES (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE) NARRATORS 1 AND 2 BRUCE SAPERSTEIN………….…………Defense. attorney for Ebens, state criminal case JUDGE KAUFMAN……………… ……………..State judge, Wayne County Circuit Court, state criminal case RONALD EBENS……………………………..Defendant THEODORE MERRITT……………………………..Government attorney, first federal trial DAVID LAWSON……………………………..Defense attorney for Ebens, first federal trial RACINE CALWELL……………………………..Government witness; Fancy Pants Lounge dancer JIMMY CHOI……………………………..Government witness; celebrated with Chin at Fancy Pants Lounge JUDGE TAYLOR……………………………..Federal district judge, Eastern District of Michigan, first federal trial FRANK EAMAN……………………………..Defense attorney for Ebens, first federal trial CLERK……………………………..……………………………..First federal trial FOREMAN……………………………..First federal trial JUDGE ENGEL……………………………..Federal circuit judge, Sixth Circuit LIZA CHAN……………………………..Attorney who helped found the American Citizens for Justice; conducted witness meeting with Choi, Koivu, Sirosky GARY KOIVU……………………………..Government witness; celebrated with Chin at Fancy Pants Lounge; participated in Liza Chan meeting ROBERT SIROSKY……………………………..Government witness; celebrated with Chin at Fancy Pants Lounge; participated in Liza Chan meeting TIMELINE OF EVENTS Jun. 19, 1982 Vincent Chin is savagely beaten. Chin dies four days later. Mar. 16, 1983 State court sentencing proceeding: Ebens and Nitz are each sentenced to three years probation, a $3,000 fine, and court costs. Mar. 31, 1983 American Citizens for Justice (ACJ) is founded. May 17, 1983 Liza Chan meets with Choi, Koivu, and Sirosky. Jun. 1983 ACJ meets with the Department of Justice. ____________________________ * During the 2008 presentation of Building Our Legacy: The Murder of Vincent Chin, the presenters used a slideshow to accompany the re-enactment. The slideshow was prepared by Jury Group, http:// www.jurygroup.com.
    [Show full text]
  • Dreaming in Black and White: Racial-Sexual Policing in the Birth of a Nation, the Cheat, and Who Killed Vincent Chin?
    Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons Faculty Scholarship 1-1-1998 Dreaming in Black and White: Racial-Sexual Policing in The Birth of a Nation, The Cheat, and Who Killed Vincent Chin? Robert S. Chang Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Robert S. Chang, Dreaming in Black and White: Racial-Sexual Policing in The Birth of a Nation, The Cheat, and Who Killed Vincent Chin?, 5 ASIAN L.J. 41 (1998). https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/407 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dreaming in Black and White: Racial- Sexual Policing in The Birth of a Nation, The Cheat, and Who Killed Vincent Chin? Robert S. Changt Professor Chang observes that Asians are often perceived as interlopers in the nativistic American "family." This conception of a nativist 'fam- ily" is White in composition and therefore accords a sense of economic and sexual entitlement to Whites, ironically, even ifparticular benefici- aries are recent immigrants. Transgressions by those perceived to be "illegitimate," such as Asians and Blacks, are policed either by rule of law or the force of sanctioned vigilante violence. Chang illustrates his thesis by drawing upon the threefilms referenced Introduction ............................................................................................42 I. Policing the Family that Is "America": Racial-Sexual Policing in The Birth of a Nation and The Cheat ......................................45 A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Immigrant and Asian American Politics of Visibility
    ANXIETIES OF THE FICTIVE: THE IMMIGRANT AND ASIAN AMERICAN POLITICS OF VISIBILITY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY SOYOUNG SONJIA HYON IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY RODERICK A. FERGUSON JOSEPHINE D. LEE ADVISERS JUNE 2011 © Soyoung Sonjia Hyon 2011 All Rights Reserved i Acknowledgements There are many collaborators to this dissertation. These are only some of them. My co-advisers Roderick Ferguson and Josephine Lee mentored me into intellectual maturity. Rod provided the narrative arc that structures this dissertation a long time ago and alleviated my anxieties of disciplinarity. He encouraged me to think of scholarship as an enjoyable practice and livelihood. Jo nudged me to focus on the things that made me curious and were fun. Her unflappable spirit was nourishing and provided a path to the finishing line. Karen Ho’s graduate seminar taught me a new language and framework to think through discourses of power that was foundational to my project. Her incisive insights always push my thinking to new grounds. The legends around Jigna Desai’s generosity and productive feedback proved true, and I am lucky to have her on my committee. The administrative staff and faculty in American Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota have always been very patient and good to me. I recognize their efforts to tame unruly and manic graduate students like myself. I especially thank Melanie Steinman for her administrative prowess and generous spirit. Funding from the American Studies Department and the Leonard Memorial Film Fellowship supported this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • April 29-Neal-Rubin-Cache
    April 29, 2014 at 12:22 pm What we all assume we know about the Vincent Chin case probably isn't so Neal Rubin From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140429/METRO08/304290025#ixzz30O2DdcKl Two unemployed autoworkers beat Vincent Chin to death because they thought he was Japanese and they drunkenly decided he had cost them their jobs. That’s an accepted piece of history, like Ty Cobb being the worst racist in baseball or Henry Ford boosting his workers’ daily wage to $5 so they could buy his cars. It popped up again last week in the New York Times, in a piece about the mob attack on tree trimmer Steve Utash. “I remember two out-of-work white autoworkers in 1982,” the article says, “beating a Chinese-American man to death because they thought he was Japanese.” The problem, says Tim Kiska, is that “almost all of that is wrong.” Chin was, in fact, murdered. The killers were two white men, and it has never made sense that they didn’t go to jail. Neither was unemployed, however, one worked for a furniture chain, and the only testimony connecting the crime to fury over the auto industry was so dubious that a jury in a federal civil rights trial rejected it. The early ’80s was an angry time, with Japanese car companies thriving while the Big Three stumbled. A bar Downriver bought a sledgehammer and a junked Toyota, and people lined up to take their whacks. The Chin story has context, drama and outrage. But sometimes, the accepted truth shouldn’t be.
    [Show full text]
  • UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Asian American and African American masculinities : race, citizenship, and culture in post- civil rights Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0c8255gj Author Chon-Smith, Chong Publication Date 2006 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Asian American and African American Masculinities: Race, Citizenship, and Culture in Post -Civil Rights A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Phil osophy in Literature by Chong Chon-Smith Committee in charge: Professor Lisa Lowe, Chair Professor Takashi Fujitani Professor Judith Halberstam Professor Nayan Shah Professor Shelley Streeby Professor Lisa Yoneyama This dissertation of Chong Chon-Smith is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2006 iii DEDICATION I have had the extraordinary privilege and opportunity to learn from brilliant and committed scholars at UCSD. This dissertation would not have been successful if not for their intellectual rigor, wisdom, and generosity. This dissertation was just a dim thought until Judith Halberstam powered it with her unique and indelible iridescence. Nayan Shah and Shelley Streeby have shown me the best kind of work American Studies has to offer. Their formidable ideas have helped shape these pages. Tak Fujitani and Lisa Yoneyama have always offered me their time and office hospitality whenever I needed critical feedback. I want to thank them for their precise questions and open door.
    [Show full text]
  • Casco Bay Weekly : 15 February 1990
    Portland Public Library Portland Public Library Digital Commons Casco Bay Weekly (1990) Casco Bay Weekly 2-15-1990 Casco Bay Weekly : 15 February 1990 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1990 Recommended Citation "Casco Bay Weekly : 15 February 1990" (1990). Casco Bay Weekly (1990). 5. http://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1990/5 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Casco Bay Weekly at Portland Public Library Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Casco Bay Weekly (1990) by an authorized administrator of Portland Public Library Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. osc Greater Portland's news and arts weekly FEBRUARY 15, 1990 FlEE Healthy faces, hidden wounds By Andy Newman removed and a metal plate was put in her head. The scar Those consequences are not as obvious as mouths that is hidden beneath her hair. don't talk right, eyes that don't see right, limbs twisted "I'm not the type of person who 'shoplifts. I never According to the National Head Injury Foundation in a spasm. But to Corinne and the people that advo­ did that kind of thing before my accident," said Corinne. (NHIF), an injury to the brain can paralyze someone as cate for her, those hidden disabilities are just as real as But Corinne recently risked spending60days in jail well as impairing speech, vision and hearing. Those are the more visible ones. They claim Corinne's disabili­ when she entered Shop 'n Save - a store her probation the apparent effects of head injury.
    [Show full text]
  • Vincent Chin</Em>
    Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 1 1996 The Social Construction of Identity in Criminal Cases: Cinema Verité and the Pedagogy of Vincent Chin Paula C. Johnson Syracuse University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation Paula C. Johnson, The Social Construction of Identity in Criminal Cases: Cinema Verité and the Pedagogy of Vincent Chin, 1 MICH. J. RACE & L. 347 (1996). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol1/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Race and Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN CRIMINAL CASES: CINEMA VERrT AND THE PEDAGOGY OF VINCENT CHIN Paula C. Johnson* IN TRO D U CTIO N ................................................................................... 348 I. THE ENIGMA OF RACE ........................................................................... 355 A . Theories of Racial Identity ............................................................. 355 1. Biological R ace ......................................................................... 355 2. Socially Constructed Race .....................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988): Ethnicity and a Babble of Discourses LESLIE FISHBEIN
    Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988): Ethnicity and a Babble of Discourses LESLIE FISHBEIN Who killed Vincent Chin? A film by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima New York, New York: Filmakers Library [distributor] 124 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016. Telephone: (212) 8084980; FAX (212) 808-4983. 1988. 1 videocassette (82 minutes); sound; color; 1/2 inch. Credits: edited by Holly FIsher; produced by Renee Tajima. Summary This Academy Award-nominated : film related the brutal murder of 27- year-old Vincent Chin in a Detroit bar [sic]. Outraged at the suspended sentence that was given Ron Ebens, who bludgeoned Chin to death, the Asian-American community organized an unprecedented civil rights protest to successfully bring Ebens up for retrial. Popular wisdom would have us dismiss the building of the Tower of Babel as an instance of divine punishment for human hubris, the tragic sin of pride represented by the belief that mankind could elevate itself closer to heaven through its own efforts. God punished mankind by scattering it across the earth and dividing it by a babble of languages that would prove mutually incomprehensible and prevent mankind from ever uniting again in such a prideful project. However, rabbinical authorities have been kinder in their interpretation of this biblical episode, noting that those who built the Tower of Babel were impelled by their love of God and their desire to grow closer to Him and that their tragic mistake derived from their naivete and from their desire for a unanimity of purpose that was suspect in divine eyes rather than from a more venial motive.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Models Masochism, Masculinity, and the Machine in Asian American Cultural Politics
    Minority Models Masochism, Masculinity, and the Machine in Asian American Cultural Politics by Takeo Edward Ken Rivera A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Associate Professor Shannon Steen, co-chair Associate Professor Colleen Lye, co-chair Professor Juana María Rodriguez Associate Professor Abigail De Kosnik Associate Professor Melinda Y. Chen Spring 2017 © Takeo Edward Ken Rivera, 2017 Abstract Minority Models Masochism, Masculinity, and the Machine in Asian American Cultural Politics by Takeo Edward Ken Rivera Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Shannon Steen, Co-Chair Associate Professor Colleen Lye, Co-Chair As W.E.B. DuBois asked African Americans in The Souls of Black Folk, “How does it feel to be the problem?”, Vijay Prashad asked Asian Americans in The Karma of Brown Folk, “How does it feel to be the solution?” That is, what are the affective and ethical repercussions of being positioned as “model minority” in the U.S. racial system? In response, this dissertation aims to develop a queer theory of Asian American masochism, gesturing to a cultural politics intertwined with this racial position, negotiated through a masochistic attachment to the figure of the machine. My dissertation, Minority Models: Masochism, Masculinity, and the Machine in Asian American Cultural Politics, analyzes the masochistic performance of masculine Asian American cultural production in the co-constitution of Asianness and machineness in Asian American identity from 1982 to the present day.
    [Show full text]