Asian Americans

1. Asian Americans E-Portfolio Project Wolran Kim Dec 4, 2012

2. Table of Content • 5 Research Articles (p3-7) • 6 Charts and Tables (p8-12) • Book Summary (p13)

3. Research Articles #1 • Title: Asian-Americans make historic gains in Congress (Nov 13, 2012) • Summary The first Hindu will arrive in Congress in January, as will the first Buddhist senator. At least 10 members of Congress will be of Asian-Pacific heritage, with another Asian-American candidate leading an undecided race, according to The New American Leaders Project, an organization that recruits civic leaders from immigrant communities. Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S., and they voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama. • Connection with the topic They bring organizations from the homeland and later develop groups to respond to the special needs identified in the U.S. The immigrants come from nations where political participation was unheard of or looked upon with skepticism and sometimes fear. Pan-Asian unity is a necessity and urgency for al Asian groups. • Source: News, New England Cable. NEW ENGLAND CABLE NEWS. 13 Nov 2012. Web site. 14 Nov 2012. • http://www.necn.com/11/13/12/Asian-Americans-make-historic-gains-in-C/landing_nation.html?&apID=35172b55ca824722b03d463e5adf1b64

4. Research Articles #2 • Title: For Asian-American Couples, a Tie That Binds (Mar 30, 2012) • Summary Interracial marriage rates are at an all-time high in the United States, with the percentage of couples exchanging vows across the color line more than doubling over the last 30 years. But Asian-Americans are bucking that trend, increasingly choosing their soul mates from among their own expanding community. Today, the majority of Ms. Young’s Asian-American friends have Asian-American husbands or wives. she is delighted by how completely right it feels. • Connection with the topic From 2008 to 2010, the percentage of Asian-American newlyweds who were born in the United States and who married someone of a different race dipped by nearly 10 percent, according to a recent analysis of census data conducted by the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, Asians are increasingly marrying other Asians. • Source: Swarns, Rachel L. The New York Times Company. 2012. Web site. 14 Nov 2012. • http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/fashion/more-asian-americans-marrying-within-their-race.html?pagewanted=all

5. Research Articles #3 • Title: What Asian Americans Reveal About Affirmative Action (Mar 6, 2012) • Summary As the Supreme Court prepare to reopen the issue of affirmative action, we can expect another fierce debate about whether college admissions should be color blind. But that debate itself is blind. Consider Asian Americans, who make up a large part of the student body at selective colleges and universities. Most people assume that the dismantling of affirmative action would benefit Asian Americans by opening up even more slots for Asian high-achievers. The notion that this is good for Asian Americans seems plausible on the surface, but on a deeper level, it’s quite misguided. • Connection with the topic They constitute a Model or Ideal minority because, although they have experienced prejudice and discrimination, they seem to have succeeded economically, socially, and educationally without resorting to political or violent confrontations with Whites. Some observers point to the existence of a model minority as a reaffirmation that anyone can get ahead in the United States. • Source: Liu, Eric. Time. 2012. Report in Web site. 14 Nov 2012. • http://ideas.time.com/2012/03/06/what-asian-americans-reveal-about-affirmative-action/?iid=op-article-mostpop1

6. Research Articles #4 • Title: Creating a vision for Chinatown’s future (Nov 12, 2012) • Summary In 2008, the community embarked on a plan to create a vision for the future of Chinatown, and to identify opportunities for future growth. Since the adoption of the 1990 Chinatown Community Plan and complementary zoning, Chinatown has experienced significant changes: the decline of the Combat Zone was replaced by new high-rise housing developments; the movement of the garment industry out of Chinatown; increased civic participation; and the rapid growth of the Asian population in Boston’s suburbs. • Connection with the topic A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of expatriate Chinese people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. While some Chinatowns are focused on commercial tourism, others are actual living and working communities; many are in fact a synergetic synthesis of both. Chinatowns can range from slum ghettos to modern sites of up-to-date development. • Source: Wong, Ling-Mei. Sampan org. 2012. Article in Web site. 14 Nov 2012. • http://sampan.org/2012/11/creating-a-vision-for-chinatowns-future/

7. Research Articles #5 • Title: Racial violence spurred Asian students to take a stand (Oct 16, 2010) • Summary Last December, as many as 30 Asian students were attacked at South Philly High. Asian students boycotted the school to protest what they felt was a lack of response. The Justice Department has instructed the school to better protect Asian students. New principal Otis Hackney says security is his "No. 1 priority" • Connection with the topic Despite the widespread belief that they constitute a model minority, Asian Americans are victims of both prejudice and violence. According to the reports by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium in 2002, have chronicled incidents of suspected and proven anti-Asian American incidents. For young Asian Americans, life in the U.S. often is a struggle for identity when their heritage is so devalued by those in positions of influence and racial profiling. • Source: Hoye, Sarah. CNN Cable News Network. 2012. Report in Web site. 14 Nov 2012. • http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/16/philly.school.asian.american.attacks/index.html?iref=allsearch

8. Asian Pacific Islanders,2008

9. Median Household Income ($)

10. Median Income by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

11. Percentage Completing College (%)

12. Degree of Prejudice Directed Toward one’s Racial or Ethnic Group Source: Bruce E. Cain and D. Roderick Kiewiet, Minorities in California (1986), p. lll-115

13. Book Summaries • Title: Asian American Dreams • Author: Zia, Helen • Source: Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. • This book is about the transformation of Asian Americans from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups into a self-identified racial group that is influencing every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-like working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska salmon canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the L.A. riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. • The book examines the rampant stereotyping of Asian Americans, which has an impact on key issues concerning all Americans, from affirmative action and campaign finance to popular culture and national security.