The effects of the War on Terror on Asian-American communities is the focus of a program called \u201cAsian American Voices in an Age of Terror,\u201d which will debut at the Rutgers Student center on Oct 1.<\/p>\n
The program, which features former U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain James J. Yee, will bring together the voices from the Asian-American community to discuss the effects of racial profiling and stereotyping, said Allan Punzalan Isaac, associate professor in the Department of American Studies.<\/p>\n
Yee was falsely accused of espionage and imprisoned for 76 days in 2003 before all charges were dropped, Isaac said.<\/p>\n
Isaac said racist policies and practices, like the ones that led to Yee’s imprisonment, are detrimental to freedom of expression and citizenship.<\/p>\n
While Asian-Americans are rarely mentioned in relation to the War on Terror, there is a history of racism in the United States toward different groups within the Asian-American category, said Sylvia Chan-Malik, assistant professor in the Department of American Studies in an interview with Rutgers Today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the audience leaves with an understanding of how contemporary anti-Islamic racism in the U.S. is not simply the consequence of 9\/11, but has emerged in relation to longstanding and overlapping legacies of racism and xenophobia,\u201d Chan-Malik told Rutgers Today.<\/p>\n
Immigrants and non-Christian religious groups are popular targets for racist practices because they are perceived as foreign, Isaac said, citing the Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting that occurred earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSikhs and many other religious groups have thrived in the United States for over a century and yet, they are seen by some as threats to the American way of life, particularly at times of economic and political crises,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n
Stereotyping dilutes cultural identity and leaves some Asian-Americans without a full appreciation of their ethnic heritage, said Zion Kim, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] assumes we all come from the same walks of life,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
Chan-Malik told Rutgers Today that racism, classism, sexism and homophobia are rampant, even if they are sometimes seems invisible.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the one hand, racism is everywhere \u2014 in the coded language of politicians, law enforcement practices, the violent inequality that determines the uneven distribution of state and social resources,\u201d Chan-Malik told Rutgers Today. \u201cOn the other hand, racism no longer speaks its name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim said this generation has gone through its share of stereotyping and, while he brushes off Asian-American stereotypes, he understands why it is hard to ignore some of the comments.<\/p>\n
More recently, Kim said people gave him comments of surprise when he admitted that he was not familiar with directions on Busch campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will still profile you because you’re Asian,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
The term Asian-American is an umbrella term for people that may belong to many different religious groups and ethnic affiliations, Isaac said.<\/p>\n
The group, he said, is affected by legacies of racism and exclusion dating back to the 19th century.<\/p>\n
Asian-Americans have historically been portrayed as the \u201cmodel minority\u201d when compared to other racial groups, which ignores the complicated racial history of the United States, Isaac said.<\/p>\n
When an individual does something great or terrible, Kim said news sources often refer to stereotypes before looking closely at the person.<\/p>\n
A lot of Asian-Americans were ostracized following the Virginia Tech shooting, said Kim, who recalls being taunted in school while someone threw an egg at his brother’s car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe myth still persists today, creating not only unrealistic expectations among widely diverse Asian-American communities who might fail to achieve class and social mobility, but is also detrimental to coalitions among communities of color necessary to fight against structural and everyday racism,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n
Kim said the stereotype could also paint the individual in a positive light, such as Jeremy Lin, the Houston Rockets basketball player, because it treats Asian-Americans who do not fit the stereotype as a novelty.<\/p>\n
\u201c[People think that] they were great and, specifically, they were Asian, so that’s a surprise,\u201d Kim said. \u201cThat sounds unfair, but you get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim said it is wrong to lump Koreans, Japanese or Chinese ethnicities together because each group has a distinct history and cultural identity. But he admits the practice may also provide a positive unity, as well.<\/p>\n
Originally published by dailytargum.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The effects of the War on Terror on Asian-American communities is the focus of a program called \u201cAsian American Voices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"The effects of the War on Terror on Asian-American communities is the focus of a program called \u201cAsian American Voices","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":142,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":4,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"News<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}