Of course. But for those who haven't, here goes:
***** The New York Times March 7, 1993, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 13LI; Page 1; Column 2; Long Island Weekly Desk HEADLINE: Asian-Americans Say They Are Treated Like Foreigners BYLINE: By MURRAY POLNER
TALK with enough Asian-Americans, especially Chinese-Americans, and sooner or later Vincent Chin's name comes up.
Mr. Chin, 27, a Chinese-American, was killed in Detroit in 1982 by two bat-wielding white automobile workers, who , the Federal Civil Rights Commission said, had "reportedly called him a 'Jap.' " The commission added that the workers had reportedly held the victim responsible for the rising unemployment in auto factories. Despite the seriousness of the crime, his assailants received probation.
Mr. Chin's death became a symbol of the sporadic violence that Asian-Americans have encountered in recent years. Some experts attribute the incidents to a rise in "Japan bashing," to the high rate of joblessness and economic insecurity and to a pervasive anti-Asian bias in some communities....
..."Society doesn't think of us as genuine Americans," said David Wong, the first Asian-American staff member of the Nassau County Commission on Human Rights in its 30 years. "In the four and a half years since I've been here, there has been an extremely large increase in inquiries and actual filings about discrimination against Asian-Americans."...
...Mr. Wong, an affirmative-action specialist in Nassau, said he believed that even he had been slighted because of his origins.
"I'm an American first and Chinese-American second," he said. But in a bar one day after fishing with some American friends, one of them suddenly said to him, "Why don't you go back and iron laundry?"
Also, while looking for a friend's house in Glen Head one evening, Mr. Wong, on seeking directions, was told by a gasoline-station attendant that the street did not exist. Lost, he repeated his question and was told, "Oh, it must be in China," another remark that he deemed offensive.
Tun-Hsu McCoy of Setauket, who left Taiwan in 1965 and has a Ph.D. in physics, said: "Every Asian can tell you that we have all encountered subconscious discrimination. People don't equate an Asian face with being American."...
...Professor Chen is a past president of the Organization of Chinese-Americans, a group based in Washington whose 44 chapters include Long Island. He also heads the Anti-Asian Violence Task Force for the group.
"I'm here 34 years, but to the general public we are still foreigners," he said. "It makes us uncomfortable with the whole environment in which we live and work."...
...The growth of the Asian-American population over the last 20 years has been phenomenal, according to the Census Bureau. Asian-Americans represent 2.9 percent of the population, or 7.3 million people, making it the fastest-growing segment....
...A major impetus was the 1965 immigration law, which reversed the virtual exclusion of Asian immigrants, discontinued the "national origins" criteria and encouraged the influx of highly educated professionals. Families and relatives soon followed.
The end of the Vietnam War resulted in another rush, and the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong in 1997 and the warming of relations between the United States and Vietnam are expected to cause yet another.
Asian-Americans are hardly monolithic, differing in ethnicity, language, culture, economic status and education. They and Pacific islanders on Long Island include Chinese from China, Taiwan, Malaya, Hong Kong and Vietnam as well as Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Hmongs, Laotians, Thais, Bangladeshis, Burmese, Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Samoans, Guamanians and others.
Nativism and xenophobia have often targeted Asian immigrants. From the Congressional mandate in 1790 restricting citizenship to "free white persons" until the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, most Asians were denied citizenship.
Also, discriminatory laws were commonplace. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 lasted until it was repealed in 1943, when China became a World War II ally.
'Robbed, Murdered and Mutilated'
Acts of violence like the Snake River Massacre in Oregon in 1887 were commonplace. The historian Roger Daniels described the event in his book "Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States Since 1850" (University of Washington Press), telling how 31 Chinese were "robbed, murdered and mutilated."
Japanese and Filipinos were also confronted with hostility and suspicion. Racist groups denounced the "yellow peril" and "Asiatic hordes," and a host of state and anti-Asian laws were passed, especially on the West Coast.... *****
There is also a documentary film titled _Who Killed Vincent Chin?_ (directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima).
It is tragically ironic that a substantial number of Asian-Americans came here to begin with as the result of U.S. imperialism and anticommunism. I read an article in _The Nation_ about a meat-packing factory that exploits Laotians who came here because of the Vietnam War. Something that most Americans don't remember.
Yoshie