Asian American movement

Before the 1960s, Asian immigrants to the United States were often perceived as a threat to Western civilization in what became known as "Yellow Peril". This in turn led to the mistreatment and abuse of Asians in America across generations, through historical incidents like the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese internment camps, and the Vietnam War. Japanese American women formed youth clubs in the 1930s because of a lack of representation in American culture. They and Chinese women in San Francisco Bay faced racial barriers prompted by segregation and chose to create ethnic-specific youth organizations. However, after the Hart–Celler Act of 1965, the increase of immigrants from highly educated backgrounds mainly coming from East Asia led to the perception that Asian Americans were a "model minority." Yet despite these positive assessments, many Asian Americans were still treated as "perpetual foreigners". Asian American groups started to emerge as second and third-generation Asian American activists moved up in the leadership hierarchy of their interest groups. Many of these new leaders associated with each other while growing up in schools and social groups and chose to focus on their collective identities as Asian Americans rather than their national heritage. Though activism against discrimination was a part of Asian American culture before the 1960s, it was limited in scope and lacked a wide base of support. == Early developments ==

While the Asian American Movement is commonly associated with the 1960s and 1970s, early forms of collective resistance can be traced to the 1920s and 1930s. Filipino laborers, in particular, organized major agricultural strikes in Hawaii and California. The 1920 Hawaiian sugar plantation strike and later farm labor movements, as chronicled in Carlos Bulosan’s The Cry and the Dedication and Ronald Takaki’s Strangers from a Different Shore, illustrate an earlier tradition of Asian American activism centered on labor rights and anti-exploitation efforts. Because Asian Americans had been called Orientals before 1968, the formation of the AAPA challenged the use of the pejorative term. According to Karen Ishizuka, the label "Asian American" was "an oppositional political identity imbued with self-definition and empowerment, signaling a new way of thinking." Unlike prior activism the AAM and by extension organizations like the AAPA embraced a pan-Asian focus within their organization accepting members from Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino communities regardless of whether they were born in America or immigrants. The influence of the Black Power Movement in the efforts of Asian American activists can be seen in several instances. For example, Richard Aoki served as a field marshal in the Black Panther Party prior to helping to form the AAPA. Another organization, Asian Americans for Action (AAA), founded in 1969 on the East Coast by two longtime-leftist Nisei women, Kazu Iijima and Shiz "Minn" Matsuda, was highly influenced by the Black Power Movement and the anti-war movement. With the independence of their native countries from European colonialism, Asian Americans were encouraged to fight for their rights in the US. However, segments of the movement struggled for community control of education, provided social services and defended affordable housing in Asian ghettos, organized exploited workers, protested against U.S. imperialism, and built new multiethnic cultural institutions. The Chinese American Museum located in Los Angeles, California is one example of these multiethnic cultural institutions that was influenced by the Asian American Movement. == Accomplishments of the Asian American Movement ==

The activism of Asian Americans during the Asian American Movement resulted in a variety of social, cultural, and political accomplishments. One of this movement's achievements was the consequence of student activism on college campuses. In solidarity with other ethnic groups, including Native American students, Latino American students, and African American students, Asian American student activists went on strike at colleges and universities including San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley in the late 1960s, demanding for courses that integrated the diverse histories and cultures of these various ethnic groups. The outcome of this activism was the establishment of college and university Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies courses. Another accomplishment of the Asian American Movement was the emergence of cultural institutions that sought to celebrate and authentically represent Asian culture. Community-based arts organizations such as Basement Workshop in New York City and Kearny Street Workshop in San Francisco fostered the artistic expression of Asian Americans and cultivated works of art that depicted Asian American themes. Theater companies were also founded by Asian Americans throughout the United States, including East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theater Workshop in San Francisco, Northwest Asian American Theatre in Seattle, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York. These theater companies highlighted the works of Asian American writers, directors, actors, and crew members. In addition to community-based arts organizations and theater companies, Asian Americans also founded their own production companies, such as Visual Communications in Los Angeles, to tell authentic Asian American stories. In addition to the establishment of new college courses and community-based organizations, another outcome of the Asian American Movement was the formation of a pan-ethnic identity and the embracing of Pan-Asianism, an ideology that promotes Asian unity. Before the 1960s, Asians in the United States typically engaged in the process of disidentification, in which different Asian American cultural groups distanced their groups from one another to prevent being grouped or lumped together and to avoid being blamed for the perceived transgressions of another group. However, the Asian American Movement of the 1960s and 1970s featured the collective unity, solidarity, and activism of diverse Asian American groups, including Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Cambodian Americans, and Laotian Americans. Rather than separating themselves from one another, Asian American activists forged a collective and pan-ethnic identity that encompassed all Asian countries and cultures. The Asian American Movement further impacted Asian identity in terms of a transition in terminology. Prior to the Asian American Movement, Asian Americans were commonly referred to as Oriental in the United States, a derogatory term that was used for not only objects but also people of Eastern culture. The coining of the term Asian American by Asian American activists and University of California, Berkeley graduate students Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka in 1968 not only replaced the term Oriental, but also helped collectively unite different Asian American groups under a single identity and continues to be used today, representing a long-lasting consequence of the Asian American Movement. == Legacy ==

The resurgence of Asian American pride came to a swell during the COVID-19 pandemic as a rise in anti-Asian sentiment grew across the globe. Social movements such as #StopAsianHate gained traction online and in news media as elevated reports of racially motivated crimes began to crop up more and more in countries such as the United States, Spain, France, etc. During this time, the Black Lives Matter Movement also comes to a head in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The intersection of police brutality on African Americans in the United States and rise in anti-Asian violence and racism resulted in strained relations within local and national communities, both urban and rural. Notably, the 2020 pandemic exacerbated already tense racial tensions within the United States that were highlighted through the treatment of African-American and Asian-American people. Stop Asian Hate became the slogan for a number of rallies and protests of the violence carried out against Asian Americans, Asians, and those of Asian descent across the United States. The root of these demonstrations was a result of the blame directed on those that were seen as connected to China, the alleged origin of the global pandemic. These demonstrations in protest against hate toward Asian Americans were also ignited by the targeted violence and fatal attacks on people of Asian descent across the United States, including an elderly Thai man in San Francisco, California, and six Asian women at a spa in Atlanta, Georgia. These demonstrations, beginning in 2020, signify a contemporary Asian American Movement and the continuation of Asian Americans fighting for social justice in the United States. == Key Asian American figures ==