EMPOWERING OUR COMMUNITIES Asian American Story Chinese miners in Auburn Ravine, California in early 1850s. A ‘Chinatown’ in Virginia City, Nevada in late 1870s. Source: Lee, Josephine. Early Asian America, 2002. Asian American Story Filipino plantation laborers Sikh immigrants working on the arriving in Honolulu. A Korean rice farmer in California in 1920. farm fields near Fresno, California. Source: Takaki. Strangers from a Different Shore, 1989. Past Challenges • Economic freedom • Political freedom • Establishing community & family • Native rights or citizenship • Empowerment & Civil Rights ANYTHING DIFFERENT TODAY? Seeking Equal Status • Gaining citizenship - 1943 Magnuson Act, repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act; Chinese now eligible for naturalization. - 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act; Asians and persons of all races eligible to immigration and naturalization. Organizing for Workers’ Rights • Empowerment & Civil Rights - 1933, Cannery Workers’ and Farm Laborer’ Union formed in Seattle. Cannery workers in 1926. Filipino salmon processing workers in Alaska, known Union pioneers Virgil Duyungan, as the "Alaskeros." Tony Rodrigo, CB Mislang, Espiritu in 1933. Source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/cwflu.htm Breaking the Silence • Empowerment & Civil Rights – 1989, President George Bush (Sr.) signs into law Redress Entitlement Program. Source: Takaki. Strangers from a Different Source: Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress Shore, 1989. http://www.ncrr-la.org/ Increasing Visibility • Economic Justice Southeast Asian community members protesting 1996 welfare ‘reform’. 1946 Sugar Laborers’ Strike in Hawaii. Source: Foo. Asian American Women, 2003. Source: Takaki. Strangers from a Different Shore, 1989. Using the Law • Economic Justice Vietnamese Fishermen's Association v. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, 518 F. Supp. 993, 1010 (S.D. Texas 1981). Source: www.olemiss.edu http://www.olemiss.edu/ Source: www.nytimes.com Reconcile Community & Self SELF COMMUNITY ACTION Challenges are endless… • Immigration policies – divide and conquer citizens vs. green card vs. undocumented • Affirmative Action under attack as ‘racial quotas’. • California’s Proposition 209 • Michigan Proposition 2 • Washington state’s I-200 • Same strategies planned for 8 new states in 2008. Challenges (cont’d) • English only movement • Post 9/11 syndrome Just selected examples of twists on barriers that marginalize Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Mobilizing for the Future • Strengthen API coalitions • Moving API toward citizenship • Anticipate the needs of new immigrants • Dialogue with other communities of colors • Participate in Health Care and Community Health Reform Taking the Power • Passion for justice • Personal journey • Create and build community • Personal and collective responsibility.