Hillary Hui

Asian Studies 491A

May 4, 2015

Asian American and Black American Relations

Introduction

Asian Americans and Black Americans have a long and relatively similar history with

this country and white supremacy. One would think that in order to work against the dominant

group, the two groups of color would work together to form a bond over a common struggle.

This was true in the past when prominent Asian Americans like Yuri Kochiyama and Richard

Aoki joined in solidarity with Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. However, recently, due in

part to the media’s portrayals of the L.A. Riots in 1992 as mainly a conflict between Korean

Americans and Blacks and Latinos the perceived race relations have been negative. The focus

was taken off the police murder of a Black man named Rodney King and instead put it on the

destruction of Korean American owned stores by Black people to aggravate the dislike between

the groups. Additionally, the constant appropriation of Black culture by Asian Americans in

combination with the virulent anti-blackness in the Asian community helps to further the

conflicts between the groups. Coalition and solidarity is an important stage that Asian Americans

and Black Americans need to reach in order to more successfully dismantle the systemic

structures of racism working against them in this country. This study will work to look at the

relations to see where they can go from here.

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Due to growing up with anti-blackness in the Asian community, I have struggled with the

conditioned negative thoughts against Black people. From telling me that I should not date Black

men to open stereotyping, I have heard the worst from the Asian community and want to do

something about it. This issue is important to me because I cannot stand by while an entire group

is marginalized by my community.

Hypothesis

The problem in the Asian and Black American communities is that our movements,

especially the recent Black movements against police brutality, do not gain much traction due to

the fact that they are barely supported by other marginalized groups. In particular, Asian

Americans. In order for movements to succeed and problems to be solved, they need to garner

enough attention from unaffected groups to show that the issue is important enough to gain the

support of outsiders. As people of color who have an extensive history of racism and

stereotyping in the United States, we should be the first to stand up and join Black Americans in

their struggle. As much as the solidarity between Asian and Black Americans is necessary, the

differences and animosity between the two groups is not something to be ignored. They must be

addressed in order to move towards the coalition that is so needed. This paper will be studying

what the general feelings of the Asian and Black American populations are towards the other

group and if there is any hope of a large, joint group that endeavors to solve the problems we

struggle with.

Literature

Daryl J. Maeda

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“Black Panthers, Red Guards, and Chinamen: Constructing Asian American Identity

through Performing Blackness, 1969-1972” focused on the history between Asian and Black

Americans, specifically, the Black Panther Party and the Red Guard. He discussed the

appropriation of Black culture in a positive light by saying that it led to a more concrete Asian

American identity. “Asian American adaptations of black power’s emphasis on race and racial

identity not only contributed to the construction of Asian American identity, but also provided

points of conjunction around which African Americans could connect political and cultural

movements” (pg 1082). To make the conclusion that Asian Americans and Black Americans

cannot find similarities with each other unless one is appropriating the other is a backwards

thinking. One does not need to be in another’s shoes to sympathize with the struggles they face. I

feel that instead, education about issues specific to each group and connections that they have

with the other is the best way to create links between political and cultural movements.

Maeda also mentioned the time around when a significant number of Asian Americans

began appropriating popular Black culture in addition to the activist strategies. “Chin credits the

‘sixties and the civil-rights movement’ with making Asian Americans ‘aware that we had no

presence, no image in American culture as men, as people…So a bunch of us began to

appropriate ‘blackness’. We’d wear the clothes, we’d affect the walk and we began to talk black”

(pg 1086). He mentions that this is one of the several areas that Asian Americans interacted with

Black culture in a positive way. Maeda’s main point was that due to the shared support and

history between the Black Panther Party and Red Guard, there should be solidarity between the

two to overthrow whiteness. He also did not denounce the appropriation of Black culture because

according to him, the exchange of cultures was relatively equal. For example, the Black Panther

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Party referred to Mao Tse-Tung’s Red Book in their activism and the Red Guard regularly

appropriated the Black Panther Party’s strategies and community plans.

Maeda lays out a thorough explanation of the history and relations between Asian and

Black Americans but I disagree with the interpretations he took. Unfortunately, the only point I

agreed with was that he believed the Asian portrayals of Black masculinity was problematic. It is

not to the benefit of race relations if we ignore the disproportionate amount of appropriation of

Black culture compared to appropriation of Asian culture.

Kevin R. Johnson

“Law and politics in post-modern California: Coalition or conflict between African

Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/os?” discussed the reasons behind solidarity between

different racial and ethnic groups. My one problem with the language used was that he kept

referring to Latinos as a racial group, which they are not. A white Latino will have a different

experience in this country compared to a Black Latino or an Asian Latino. They are a

marginalized group in the United States so they should be talked about. Due to the topic of my

paper, I will be focusing on what Johnson says in general about race relations.

Johnson focused on race relations in California since they have the highest number of

people of color and Latinos in the United States. He considered these race dynamics in relation

to how they could affect social change in the state. “Racial justice requires political coalitions to

bring about social change. The choice is between whether we work together or allow the status

quo to remain” (pg 385). This really emphasizes what was said in my hypothesis. If we do not

combine effort and stick our necks out to bring about change, we will not get anywhere. He also

talked about the racism that plagues our communities and bars us from having a solid foundation

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for social movements. “Racism within communities of color causes tension that hinders political

cooperation, generates suspicion, and flares up in times of social turmoil. Those communities

must squarely address it” (pg 384). I appreciate the fact that in addition to acknowledging that

racism exists even among people of color, he said that we must do something productive about it,

unlike Maeda. For too long, communities have let slide the racism because the majority of it is

micgroaggressions or stereotyping jokes, which are unnoticeable within a culture that is rife with

them. Johnson’s main argument is that “For successful cooperation in the future, community

work will be necessary to identify and build common ground on some major issues, such as

discrimination, immigration, employment, criminal justice, and voting rights” (pg 394).

Communities of color have so much in common regarding the struggle we face, despite being

slightly different for each race, that we must join together to get rid of our problems.

Elaine H. Kim

“"At Least You're Not Black": Asian Americans in U.S. Race Relations” was an

interesting piece that talked more extensively about the racism and privileges in communities of

color than Johnson did. She does not place the entirety of the blame as to why racism exists in

our groups because those are side effects we receive when living in a society that hates people of

color as much as they do. “Since their information sources are primarily from the dominant

culture, people of color are almost as perceptible to racist stereotyping as anyone else” (pg 9).

When people absorb as much racist media, conversations, etc as much as we do, there is no way

to not ignore those messages. Just as people of color internalize the racism about themselves,

they can easily succumb to stereotypes of other people of color. It is our job to break down and

analyze the messages we receive and work towards combatting them, whether within ourselves

or in our community. In addition to this internalized racism due to society, we are also always

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pitted against each other to be the better minority. “In a society held together by hierarchical

arrangements of power and the privileging of competitive individualism, it is difficult for groups

of color to deal with each other on an equal basis, without falling into competition, ranking and

scrambling around hierarchies of oppression” (pg 8). Specifically, Asians have been cast as the

“model minority” as being the example of how other people of color should be: successful,

educated, silent on matters of oppression. This myth however, goes to our heads and in

combination with the anti-blackness in our community, helps us put down Black Americans

while also hurting ourselves. “While being encouraged to feel superior to African Americans,

Asian Americans are being positioned in a racial hierarchy meant to perpetuate white privilege at

the expense of both Asian and African Americans” (pg 4). Nobody benefits from this battle

among people of color except white people.

A thought-provoking point that Kim brings up is that similar to the “model minority”

myth, Asian Americans are always in this middle position between Black and white people. We

have the choice to pick a side to support but too often, we do not. “In many ways, Asian

Americans are positioned on the in-between – on the cusp, at the interstice, in the buffer zone –

of Asian and America, between black and white, between old-timer and newcomer, between

mainstreamed and marginalized. Yet the in-between is a precarious and dangerous position to

occupy if we are not fully cognizant of where we are and what our position means in the larger

picture” (pg 3). Typically, this position of precariousness confuses us and our response seems to

be to stay silent and not support either side. However, as Ginetta Sagan said, “Silence in the face

of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.” If we do not choose a side, we are seen as going

along with white supremacy even in the face of police brutality and lynchings. This obviously

has a negative effect on Asian relations with other groups. “It has been suggested that other

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people of color have good reason not to trust Asian Americans, who have been widely known in

this country for risking our own hides or sticking out our own necks for someone else” (pg 9).

The United States is where our dreams are supposed to come true but we need to realize that

keeping silent to realize our dream helps others’ dreams get destroyed again and again. Kim

wants coalition between groups but Asian Americans must resist their levels of privilege and

support other people of color who are perceived as farther from whiteness than us.

Michael C. Thornton

“Meaningful Dialogue? The Los Angeles Sentinel's Depiction of Black and Asian

American Relations, 1993-2000” studies a newspaper’s portrayal of our relations over some

years to see if anything changes by the end. Similar to what Kim brought up, Thornton also

mentions that Asians are viewed as somewhat of an in-between of white and Black people and

expands on the idea. “’…Korean merchants are viewed as a layer of the white power structure

that African Americans view as racist and oppressive and thus become targets of rage.’ As

middleman minorities, ‘they are places between the dominant and subordinate populations’” (pg

1283). Due to the fact that we are seen as part of white supremacy because of our closeness to it

compared to Black people, we are viewed as enemies who should not be in coalition with them. I

think that Asian Americans are then turned off from Black people when they are met with this

hostility and turn their backs without understanding where they are coming from.

Thornton concludes from his study of the newspaper that race relations are too often

perceived as black and white but that is gradually changing to become more inclusive.

Especially, in media run by Black people, the language used is turning into people of color and

white people instead of Black people and non-white people. “…the results here suggest how race

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is not a coherent category but a dynamic system of affiliation, exclusion, and disavowal,

constantly reinvented and part of an emergent self-identity” (pg 1294). Race relations is not

something that is set in stone. It changes and morphs to accept different people and according to

Thornton’s research, the relations between Black and Asian people were changing for the better

back in 2000.

Methodology

The method chosen to study the relations between Asian Americans and Black

Americans was an anonymous, 19 question survey. It was distributed solely online on social

media. Specifically, Facebook and Tumblr. The survey was live for exactly one month, from

March 9th, 2015 to April 9th of the same year. It was open to all races because I was interested to

see if non-Asian and Black people had significantly different answers compared to the two

groups I was looking at. The only requirement of the survey was that respondents had to have

lived in the United States for the majority of their lives since I was only looking at American

race relations.

Questions

The following questions were all required in order for respondents to complete the

survey:

What is your racial identity?

What gender do you identify as?

How old are you?

Which state have you lived most of your life in?

How many of your friends are Asian?

How many of your friends are Black?

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As an Asian person, do you notice what happens in the Black community? Vice

versa, as a Black person, do you noticed what happens in the Asian community?

Have Asian and Black relations gotten better or worse over the years? Please

explain your answer.

In your opinion, how would you describe the current relationship between Asian

and Black people in the U.S.?

As an individual, how would you describe your personal relationship with the

other race?

Please check all of the Asian stereotypes you agree with.

Please check all of the Black stereotypes you agree with.

Do you think it is a problem that Asians take part in Black culture? e.g. use

AAVE (African American Vernacular English), rap, say n***a, do hip hop, have

dreads/locs/afro. Please explain your answer.

As an Asian or Black person, would you go to a protest/rally supporting Asian

people?

As an Asian or Black person, would you go to a protest/rally supporting Black

people?

What do you think could be done to improve Asian and Black relations?

How do you think Asian and Black relations will be in the future?

Drawbacks

A few flaws of survey was that I did not ask what generation they were, if they were

adopted by people of a different race, and that I distributed it only on social media. Especially for

Asian Americans who have high population of recent immigrants, whether they are children of

immigrants or their family has been in this country for centuries can affect how they perceive

race relations. I tend to feel that children of immigrants are more in touch with their Asian

culture and thus may not be as assimilated which could lead to more racism and xenophobia,

compared to other generations. Also, if a Black or Asian person was adopted by someone of a

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different race, especially white, they would most likely have at least a slightly different view of

race relations because the race of their adopted parent(s) could affect what race they spend most

of their time with. Lastly, the reason why distributing this survey solely on social media could

affect the data is because the circles within which I posted it were mostly social justice

advocates. I feel that the fact that the majority of the respondents were at least slightly socially

aware of race problems skews the data since most of the American population is still ignorant of

many of these things. Despite these faults, I believe my survey received enough responses to

have gotten a decent grasp of race relations between Asian Americans and Black Americans.

Results

The survey received more responses than was expected. There were a total of 300

responses with 37 non-Asian and Black responses and 263 Asian and Black responses. The 263

responses included Asian and Black people who were mixed with other races and ethnicities.

The following demographics will only be about those 263 responses.

The respondents were 78 percent female, 12 percent male, and 10 percent non-binary. 61

percent were Asian, either mono-ethnic or multi-ethnic. 18 percent were Black. 13 percent were

mixed Asian and white. 6 percent were mixed Black and Asian. 2 percent were mixed Black and

white. The ages were split according to ages of education. 23 percent were under 18 years old, 45

percent were 18 – 21 years old, 28 percent were 22 – 30 years old, and 4 percent were above 40

years old. The regions of the United States that respondents were divided into were the ones used

by the Census Bureau. I only had 1 Pacific region response so I placed it with the Southern

region. 38 percent were from the East, 33 percent were from the West, 15 percent were from the

South, and 14 percent were from the Midwest.

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The responses did not vary much across gender, age, and region. The number of Black

and Asian friends also did not appear to affect anything except for what they thought Black and

Asian relations were like. It seemed the only deciding factor that changed the responses was race

so I will be looking specifically at that factor.

Do you think it is a problem when Asians take part in Black culture?

For the question, “Do you think it is a problem when Asians take part in Black culture?”,

I had a surprising response. 37 percent of Black respondents, mixed and full, answered with

either no or I don’t know. This was slightly lower than the 39 percent of Asian respondents,

mixed and full, that answered with no or I don’t know. There were a few patterns among the

Black respondents’ answers. They thought that the n-word is off limits for everyone, including

Black people, because of the terrible history behind it. Then, respondents felt that certain

environments surrounded people with Black culture, like AAVE, while they grew up so it was

every bit part of their culture as Black people. Lastly, they said that hip hop and rap were

generally acceptable for other people to take part in because it was an art form. Despite these

allowances and exceptions for non-Black people, the majority (63%) still said that yes, it is a

problem when Asians take part in Black culture. One person stated “Everyone wants to be Black,

but no one wants to be Black” meaning everyone wants to be able to have Black culture but they

do not want to deal with the stigma and racism they face.

As said earlier, 39 percent of Asian respondents felt that it was a problem when Asians

took part in Black culture. The majority of them agreed with the trends of Black people’s

responses in the previous paragraph. After reading the explanations behind their answers, I felt

that some Asians did not look as deep as they could. One quote from someone who said No, “It’s

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fine if it comes from a place of understanding and communication, and is done in a conscientious

way. The problem is that it so very often is not.” This person does understand that a lot of Asian

participation is done in an offensive way yet they are still fine with them taking part in it. Many

other responses were similar in that Asians can do things associated with Black culture, but they

need to be careful. I wonder why they still gave the overall Asian community a pass at Black

culture despite the problematic participation. Even if it was only one Black person getting

offended by Asians’ participation, that is one person too many. To sum up the thoughts of other

61 percent of Asians who said that Asian participation was problematic, “Black culture has been

appropriated by the white mainstream society and exploited for profit. As a non-Black PoC

[person of color], it is necessary for us to take a stance in solidarity with Black folks by not

perpetuating the same violence if we seek to achieve racial justice.”

Discussion

What do you think could be done to improve Asian and Black Relations?

The majority of the responses, both Black and Asian respondents had similar thoughts on

how to improve relations. Most of them said more education and interaction between races

would ease the tensions and help debunk the stereotypes that are said about either side. Both

groups also said that Asians need to do their part in working against the anti-black mentality in

the Asian community and mainstream society. As one Asian woman said, “Asian Americans

need to be more proactive in confronting the anti-Blackness that exists in all of us and in

unlearning it and supporting Black people in the ways that they want and need.” There were a

few misguided responses suggesting interracial dating and ignoring the problem would solve the

issues. Neither of those solutions fix the heart of the problem but the fact that some people think

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those are viable answers to the race relations right now highlights the need society has for proper

race education.

Please check all the stereotypes you agree with.

This section of the survey was difficult to read because even though majority of the

people across racial and ethnic groups chose None of the above as the answer, a few stereotypes

were close to overtaking them. One pattern that I noticed was that Asian people believed in their

own stereotypes more than Black people. This may be due to a higher amount of interactions

with Asian people but to believe such rude things, like cheap/stingy and loud/rude, about oneself

highlights the internalized racism in the community. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for

Black people and their stereotypes. Most of them chose None of the Above while Asian people

doubled the amount of votes for that option compared to the others. The last pattern I saw was

that people do not seem to understand that any stereotype, no matter how good it sounds, like

athletic for Black people or smart/studious for Asian people, is still damaging. I saw a few

answers where respondents chose None of the Above and a positive stereotype. These “good”

stereotypes hurt both communities when the majority of society believes them. Asians who are

struggling in school may not get the mental or emotional help they need to cope with the

schoolwork because of the belief that all Asians are smart. In a similar vein, Black college

students might be stereotyped as getting free rides due to athletic scholarships even though every

single Black person is not athletic. Relating back to the previous question, a lot of respondents

also said that breaking down stereotypes about both groups would be a productive way of

improving relations between Asian Americans and Black Americans.

Have Asian and Black relations gotten better or worse over the years? /

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How do you think Asian and Black relations will be in the future?

There was no general consensus within either of the groups whether Asian and Black

relations have gotten better or worse over the years. For every Better or Worse answer, there

were two I don’t know answers. Many of the respondents were just not aware of what relations

were like in the past. As for the future, there was an optimistic agreement that Asian and Black

relations would be better in the future. If the overwhelming number of respondents’ Yes’ are

true, that both groups would go to protests/rallies supporting Asian or Black people, I have a

hopeful view of future relations as well.

Non-Asian or Black Responses

The answers of the Non-Asian or Black respondents were overwhelmingly neutral and

did not contribute anything meaningful to the conversation. When asked whether Asians

participating in Black culture was a problem, many of them said that people are allowed the

freedom to express themselves and that culture is meant to be shared. This is unhelpful and goes

against the voices of what many Black people have said. For the questions of whether Asian and

Black relations have gotten better or worse and how will Asian and Black relations be in the

future, there was a resounding I don’t know in most of the long answer boxes. It is

understandable that someone not from the marginalized groups that are in discussion may not

know how to respond if they have not had any interaction with the other groups. However, ally is

a verb. In order to be one, one needs to educate themselves, listen to the voices of people of

color, and support us but do not speak over us. Non-Asian or Black voices are unnecessary in our

spaces but in order to get the mainstream to heard our struggles, we need privileged people to

come forward and push our voices into the spotlight.

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Conclusion

While non-Asian or Black allies are helpful allies to our movements, it is also wise to

keep in mind that Asians need to do their part as well as Black allies. As the respondents said,

both Asian and Black, we need to work to combat the anti-blackness in our communities,

especially among the older generations like our parents. We need to get rid of stereotypes, both

positive and negative ones. There needs to be no more appropriation of Black culture in the

Asian community because we cannot just take their culture and then try to call ourselves their

comrades in their struggle against white supremacy. Based on the general knowledge and

awareness in the responses, both communities are waking up and seeing the problems within the

race relations for what they are. I am optimistic that Asian and Black relations will be better for

future solidarity and coalition.

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Bibliography

Johnson, Kevin R. 2004. “Law and politics in post-modern California: Coalition or conflict

between African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/os?” Ethnicities 4:381-401

Kim, Elaine H. 1998. “‘At Least You’re Not Black’: Asian Americans in U.S. Race Relations.”

Social Justice 25:3-12.

Maeda, Daryl J. 2005. “Black Panthers, Red Guards, and Chinamen: Constructing Asian

American Identity through Performing Blackness, 1969-1972.” American Quaterly 57:

1079-1103.

Thornton, Michael C. 2011. “Meaningful Dialogue? The Los Angeles Sentinel’s Depiction of

Black and Asian American Relations, 1993-2000.” Journal of Black Studies 42:1275-

1298.

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