Latino/As, Asian Americans, and the Black-White Binary
Author(s): Linda Martín Alcoff
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of Ethics, Vol. 7, No. 1, Race, Racism, and Reparations (2003), pp. 5-27
Published by: Springer
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LINDA MARTLN ALCOFF
LATINO/AS, ASIAN AMERICANS, AND THE
BLACK-WHITE BINARY
(Received 5 November 2002; accepted 6 November 2002)
to contribute
This paper aims
toward coalition
that,
building
by showing
common
around what might
look like our most
obvious
try to build coalition
racism
the dominant
of racial politics
in the United
discourse
States
reducing
an understanding
of how racism operates
vis-a-vis
Latino/as
and Asian Americans,
ABSTRACT.
even
if we
concern
inhibits
and
thus proves
to govern
in relation
understood
criticisms
of
the black/white
in many
white
poor).
KEY
WORDS:
racism,
to one
the paradigm
that continuing
show
and
race,
of an obstacle
operates
to consist
in the U.S.
paradigm,
takes race
ments
more
which
to coalition
racial
building
classifications
and
then develop
race
to theorize
two further
in the U.S.
is actually
paradigm
disadvantageous
as well
for whites
(or at least
Americans,
assimilation,
arguments.
as operating
for all people
for white
blacks,
black/white
in the U.S.,
racial
politics
of only two racial groups,
and White,
Black
of these categories.
I summarize
and discuss
respects
Asian
than an aid. The
and
others
the strongest
Together
these
argu
exclusively
through
of color in the U.S.,
union
identity,
with
households
immigration,
and
the
Latino/as,
whites
were alive today, he would probably
tell us that the
to
will
the
be
the
lines between
prove
century
problem
twenty-first
communities
of color, or the question of cross ethnic relations.1 In the 2000
United States presidential
the voting bloc for candidate Al Gore
election,
If W.E.B.
DuBois
of
in each of the following
consisted
of a majority
groups: every minority
and union households.
ethnic group, white women,
This coalition actually
a slim majority
of the population,
constitutes
and thus its unity is poten
a
are of course
force.
U.S.
elections
However,
tially
powerful
presidential
not determined
vote
the
the
but
electoral
by
popular
by
college, a procedure
that not only has the power to overturn the popular vote nationwide
but,
even more
the urban vote, which now carries the majority
of
importantly,
the
the electoral college
the population
and is increasing. If we eliminated
would
the presidency,
urban population
therefore determine
which would
real enfranchisement
for people of color for the first time in U.S.
mean
history.
1 I am
grateful to David Kim, Emily Lee, Arlene Davila, Frank Kirkland, David
McLean,
^^
j\
Angelo
Corlett,
and Howard
McGary
for their comments
on
this paper.
The Journal of Ethics 7: 5-27, 2003.
? 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in theNetherlands.
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6
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
It is unlikely
that the electoral college
but even if this were to happen, political
the difficulty
require building coalitions,
will
be eliminated
anytime soon,
power for people of color would
of which has been brought home
in New York and Los Angeles.
This
elections
by recent city government
an
a contribution
to
is
make
toward coalition
paper
attempt
building
by
even
we
to
if
around what might
build
coalition
look
that,
try
showing
like our most obvious common concern
the dominant
reducing racism
of racial politics
in the U.S.
inhibits an understanding
of how
and
vis-a-vis
Latino/as
and
thus
Asian
Americans,
proves
operates
to coalition building
of an obstacle
than an aid. First and foremost,
discourse
racism
more
of course, we must begin to talk more with one another.
There are many important similarities between
the history of oppression
Asian
in the U.S. Histori
Latino/as
and
faced
Americans
specifically
by
were
to
both
often
this
groups
country as cheap labor and
cally,
brought
then denied certain political
thus making
and civil rights,
them a more
vulnerable
and exploitable
to this day
that continues
on U.S.
once
labor force
shores
(a practice
in sweatshops
in many
cities on the east and
west coasts and on the U.S.-Mexican
border, and in the erosion of even
or emergency
basic protections
hospital services for "illegals").2 And both
are
of origin that have been the site
often
from
countries
groups
coming
wars
of imperialist wars,
and civil
invasions,
instigated by the cold war,
some
own imperialist
of which
involved
the U.S.'s
such as
aggressions
in the Philippines,
Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia,
and most recently,
Guatemala,
Korea, the Dominican
Nicaragua,
Republic,
In this sense, many of these immigrants
had experience
with
Colombia.3
2
York:
See
Rodolfo
Acuna,
Cultural Politics
Mainstreams:
A History
America:
Occupied
Publishers,
HarperCollins
Lisa
1988);
Lowe,
3rd edition
(New
of Chicanos,
Acts: On Asian
American
Immigrant
(Durham: Duke University Press, 1996); Gary Okihiro, Margins
in American
Asians
and Culture
History
(Seattle:
University
and
of Washington
Press, 1994); Earl Shorris, Latino/as: A Biography of thePeople (New York:W.W. Norton
Us: Latino
in a Changing
and Company,
Lives
Suro, Strangers
1992); Roberto
among
America
Iron Cages:
Race and Culture
Takaki,
Books,
(New York: Vintage
1999); Ronald
in 19th Century
America
Mirror:
Press,
(New York: Oxford
1990); A Different
University
A History
America
Press,
(New York: Oxford
1993);
University
of Multicultural
Wei Tchen, New York Before Chinatown:
and the Shaping
Orientalism
of American
1776-1882
3
See
Johns Hopkins
Barry, Beth Wood
(Baltimore:
e.g., Tom
America
to Central
The Politics
Review
York:
(New
of Intervention:
Press,
1984); Noam
Grove
The
United
Chomsky,
Press,
Jack Kuo
Culture
1999).
and De
Preusch,
and Dictators:
Dollars
Burbach
Press,
1983); Roger
in Central
America
States
Year 501:
The Conquest
and Patricia
(New
Continues
A Guide
Flynn,
York:
Monthly
South
(Boston:
End Press: 1993); Eduardo Galeano, Guatemala: Occupied Country (New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1967); Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of
a Continent,
Translated
by Cedric
Belfrage
(New
York:
Monthly
This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Feb 2013 11:20:05 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Review
Press,
1973);
ASIAN
LATINO/AS,
THE BLACK-WHITE
AND
AMERICANS,
BINARY
7
the U.S. Government,
direct or indirect, well before they became refugees
or immigrants
that Latino/as
and Asian
there. There are also similarities
Americans
share with other people of color after they go there: having to
face vicious and demeaning
continually
stereotyping
along with language,
and being
discrimination,
education, health care, housing and employment
and murder
violence
(random only
or Arab
farm laborer or Asian American
or Jewish person would do).
as sources of cheap, easily
of their similar genealogy
the target of random identity
in the sense that any Mexican
or African American
American
because
Perhaps
based
between
labor, there are also some important commonalities
exploitable
the ideological
and legal methods
that have been used to
justifications
and discriminate
and Asian Americans.4
Both
persecute
against Latino/as
the main
of "nativist"
which
victims
advocate
arguments
or
the
and
of
both
have
limiting
rights
immigrants
foreign-born Americans,
as
no
matter how many gener
often been portrayed
ineradicably
"foreign"
ations they have lived here. Yet an account of these nativist-based
forms of
have
been
and persecution
has not been adequately
into
incorporated
the civil rights paradigm of progressive
politics.
race has
The discourse
of social justice in regard to issues involving
name
in
the
been dominated
the "black/white
U.S. by what many theorists
discrimination
to govern
which
and racial
racial classifications
operates
paradigm,"
most
in
the
in
the
of
formulation
civil
law
U.S.,
politics
clearly
rights
but also in more
informal arenas of discussion.
Juan Perea defines
this
paradigm as
the conception
that race
constituent
racial groups,
all other racial identities
Black/White
binary
in America
the Black
either
consists,
...
and White
and groups
in the United
or primarily,
exclusively
In addition,
the paradigm
are best understood
States
of only
dictates
that
two
through
the
paradigm.5
He argues that this paradigm operates even in recent anti-racist theory such
as that produced
and Toni Morrison,
Hacker, Cornel West,
by Andrew
even
as
is
in
it
clearer
works
liberals
such
Nathan
Glazer. Openly
though
by
Elaine
H. Kim
York:
New
Rico
and
Victor
1995);
Unfinished
Press,
1993);
translated
Chile,
Leslie
paper
and Daan
1998),
Stefancic
(eds.),
The
"Comparing
at Duke
delivered
The
Uribe,
(Boston:
Braveman,
Latino/a
Korean
Power,
(New
Life Stories
and Migrations,
Puerto
February
University,
Tragedy
(Berkeley:
Book
of American
Black
Beacon
American
Colonialism
The Guatemalan
Casart
(St. Paul: West
Publishing
Company,
5
Juan Perea,
"The Black/White
Jean
to America:
Okihiro,
Conquest:
Armando
by Jonathan
Bender
Yu, East
Gary
the Philippines,"
Perera,
California
and Eui-Young
Press,
Press,
Privilege,
17-19,
1995;
of
University
Intervention
in
1975).
and Law:
A Civil
Rights
Reader
1995).
Binary
Paradigm
Condition
(New
of Race,"
York: New
p. 361.
This content downloaded on Wed, 6 Feb 2013 11:20:05 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in Richard
York
Delgado
University
and
Press,
8
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
this view, Mary Francis Berry, former chair of the U.S. Civil
espousing
has stated that the U.S. is comprised
of "three nations,
Commission,
Rights
one Black,
one White,
and one in which people
strive to be something
to avoid the sting of White
other than Black
To understand
Supremacy."6
race in this way is to assume that racial discrimination
operates exclusively
racism. Others can be affected by racism, on this view,
through anti-black
of the black/white
but the dominance
paradigm works to interpret all other
as "collateral
caused by the same phenomena,
damage" ultimately
and psychological
the given other,
terms, in which
or
in the
whether
Asian American,
Latino/a,
else, is placed
something
there is basically
category of "black" or "close to black." In other words,
one form of racism, and one continuum
of racial identity, along which all
effects
in both
economic
can be understood
be placed. The black/white
either
paradigm
a
or
as
claim
(or both):
descriptively
prescriptively
making
descriptive
nature of racializations
and racisms in the U.S., or
about the fundamental
as prescribing
how race shall operate and thus enforcing
the applicability
groups will
of the black/white
paradigm.7
and Asian
such as Elaine Kim,
theorists,
Juan
Frank
Martinez,
Perea,
Wu, Dana Takagi,
Gary Okihiro,
as
Hwan
Kim
such
and community
activists
have argued that the
Bong
to explain
black/white
is not adequate,
paradigm
certainly not sufficient,
Several
Latino/a
American
Elizabeth
in the U.S. They have thus contested
its claim to descriptive
and
that
the
the
of
black/white
in
hegemony
paradigm
adequacy,
argued
and Asian
racial thinking has had many deleterious
effects for Latino/as
racial realities
In this paper, I will summarize
and discuss what I consider
two further arguments.
and then develop
the strongest of these arguments
to stress that the black/white
It is important
does have some
paradigm
Americans.8
even though it is inadequate when
reach, as I shall discuss,
descriptive
are
of
and Latino/as
racism.
Asian
Americans
taken as the whole
story
and treated in ways
that reflect the fact that they have
often categorized
6
in Frank Wu,
Quoted
Basic
7
Books,
2002),
I am grateful
Yellow:
Race
in America
and White
Black
Beyond
(New
York:
p. 34.
to Frank
Kirkland
for helping
me
to see
this distinction.
8 Richard
Delgado, "The Black/White Binary: How Does ItWork?" inRichard Delgadp
and
Jean
1998),
Hwan
and
pp.
and
369-375;
Kim,"
Resistance
Martinez,
Jean
1998),
Condition
Press,
(New York: New York University
(eds.), The Latino
with Bong
Black
and White:
An Interview
"Between
Elaine H. Kim,
in Karin
Juan
America:
Activism
(ed.), The State
of Asian
Aguilar-San
in the 1990s
Elizabeth
South End Press,
1993),
(Boston:
pp. 71-100;
Stefancic
"Beyond
Stefancic
pp. 466-477;
Paradigm
and Racial
Black
and White:
(eds.),
The Latino
Okihiro,
of Race";
Dana
Politics
(New
Margins
Y. Takagi,
Brunswick:
The
Racisms
Condition
(New
and Mainstreams;
The Retreat
Rutgers
from
University
of Our
York:
Time,"
New
Perea,
Race:
in Richard
University
"The Black/White
Asian-American
Press,
Delgado
York
1992); Wu,
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Press,
Binary
Admissions
Yellow.
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
9
as either "near black" or "near white," but this is not nearly
been positioned
or political
to
their ideological
adequate
understanding
representation
treatment in the U.S. One might also argue that, although
the black/white
to the complexity
and plurality
is not descriptively
paradigm
adequate
force to organize
it yet operates with prescriptive
identities,
these complexities
into its bipolar schema. Critics, however, have contested
both the claim of descriptive
efficacy. That
adequacy as well as prescriptive
of racialized
as a prescriptive
does not operate with effective hegemony
to theorize race
these arguments will show that continuing
as operating
is
paradigm
exclusively
through the black/white
is, the paradigm
force. I believe
in the U.S.
actually
for all people of color in the U.S., and in many
disadvantageous
and the
for whites as well (or at least for white union households
respects
white poor).
to start with
I want
between
Latino/as
the legal history
California
defined
icans. This
convicted
American.
a story that exemplifies
the close association
in
in the ideological
and Asians
traditions embedded
of the U.S.
In 1854 the Supreme Court of the State of
as Indians, that is, Native Amer
a
white
after
man, George W. Hall, was
ruling
of a Chinese
of murder based upon the eyewitness
testimony
Hall's
the conviction
by invoking the law that
lawyer appealed
Chinese
came
Americans
about
or mulatto
or Indian, shall be allowed
to give
person,
in favor of, or against a white man."9 In support of his claim that
this law was relevant to Hall's case, the defense
lawyer cited the hypothesis
were
Americas
from Asia
and
that all Native
of
the
peoples
originally
over
the
traveled to the Western
hemisphere
Bering
Straights. Thus, he
said
"no black
evidence
man was actually
the racial ancestor of
argued, the Chinese American
from testifying
Native Americans,
and because
the latter were excluded
in court, this Chinese man should be excluded
also. The Supreme Court
of the State of California
this argument and upheld the appeal,
accepted
and
thus
the
and all
freeing Hall,
legal status of Asian Americans
linking
a
those with indigenous American
that includes many
ancestry,
category
or most Latino/as.
story does not end there. The Supreme Court of the State of
was concerned
that as a scientific hypothesis
the Bering straight
one
be
which
would
then
theory might
day
disproved,
destroy the basis for
in the courts and allow them to give testimony. In order
Chinese
exclusion
The
California
to avoid
in appeal.
9
to embellish
the Court decided
the arguments made
this outcome,
to argue
Justice Charles
J. Murray
interpreted
legal precedent
Okihrro,
Civilization:
Press,
and Mainstreams,
Margins
Race and Minority
Issues
Color, Culture,
p. 50; see also Stanford
Lyman,
in American
of Illinois
Society
(Chicago: University
1994).
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
10
that the terms "black"
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
and "white"
that "black" must mean
concluded
are oppositional
terms, from which he
"nonwhite"
and "white" must exclude
all people of color. Thus, by the law of binary logic, Chinese Americans,
then also became black.
after having become Native American,
that one might
like to go back and pose to
questions
most
the
is
the
if "black" and "white"
obvious
Murray, perhaps
following:
are oppositional
instead
of
does
"black"
terms, then,
"nonwhite,"
meaning
as
mean
it not just
in which
"nonblack,"
logically follow that "white" could
Of
the many
case all people of color except African Americans
would be white? This
conclusion
is no more or less fallacious or absurd than Murray's
conclusion
a conclusion
even the "one
that "black" means
that exceeded
"nonwhite,"
rule"
drop
that one
in holding
can be black
even
if one has no African
at all.
ancestry
to Amer
this case began with a strategy to link the Chinese
Although
a black/white
ican Indians, it ends in a ruling that prescribes
binary. And
to
it suggests that by use of the black/white
all racial
binary
conceptualize
as those without
one drop
in the U.S.,
and by defining whites
identities
to separate whites
out (in reality,
of "other" blood,
it became
possible
a specific group of whites),
and then protect
Even
it
coalesces
the conditions
though
lege.10
and maximize
white privi
communities
of the various
into one rubric, suggesting
the possibility
of solidarity,
it also
as
to
them essentially
their
relation
non-whites.
"White"
whites,
by
are defined.
all groups
around which
becomes
the pivot point
This
of color
defines
one all-purpose
the efficiency
increasing
to make
the state
allowed
thus
non-whites,
discrimination.
Asian
Americans
this black/white
10
I use
have been
and Latino/as
tossed back
To continue
for 150 years.11
binary
argument against the rights of
with which
it could maintain
with
and forth across
the example
of
the term "white
that all whites
the ideological
also
structure"
in this paper not to imply
and "white power
privilege"
over
or
are
in
all cases, but to signal
all
nonwhites
power
privileged
a power
of the power
structure
in the U.S.,
structure which
is
racialization
are oppressed
the fact that many men
within
the U.S. The
gendered
despite
hold
obviously
to believe
that this translates
into
white men, but it is mere
ruling elites are mostly
ideology
true empowerment
for all of the white
and or male workers,
immigrants,
prison population,
use of white
makes
and male
and so forth. The present
hierarchy
unemployed,
supremacist
to justify
in truly sharing
its rule, though
it has no interest
its power
supremacist
ideology
even among
these categories.
11
Ian F. Haney
See
The Legal
Construction
White
(New
by Law:
of Race
Lopez,
in the
York: New
York University
"Racial
Classifications
Press,
1996); Sharon M. Lee,
U.S.
Census:
Martinez,
1890-1990,"
"Mexican
Ethnic
Americans
and
Racial
Studies
and Whiteness,"
16
(1993),
in Richard
pp.
Delgado
A.
George
Stefancic
75-94;
and
Jean
(eds.), The Latino Condition (New York: New York University Press, 1998), pp. 175-179;
Okihiro,
Margins
and Mainstreams;
Michael
Omi
and Howard
Winant,
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Racial
Formations
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
11
were classi
in 1860 Louisiana,
Chinese Americans
Americans,
as
But in 1900, the
fied as white. By 1870 they were classified
Chinese.
as either
children of Chinese
and non-Chinese
parents were reclassified
Chinese
or black. Other
states had similarly convoluted
histories of classifi
In 1927 the U.S. Supreme Court ended this confusion
and defined
as nonwhite,
to all the
them
the Chinese
thus more
firmly
subjecting
Jim
in
and
Crow
then
Similar
stories of
effect.
legislation
segregationist
white
cation.
variable
can be told about Mexicans
racial classification
in Texas
and in
to say,
and other groups. Needless
in California,
New Mexico,
Japanese
in which argu
tell a story of strategic reasoning
the variable classifications
are deployed
ments
for legal discriminations
against people of color by
whatever
classification
opportune
Contrary to what
presents
itself
in the context.
one might imagine, it has not always or even generally
to be classi
to the advantage
and Latino/as
of Asian Americans
fied as white.12 An illustration of this is found in another important legal
been
case decided
issued
by the U.S.
the decision
Supreme
in Brown
Court
in 1954, just two weeks
The
of Education.
vs. Board
before
case
of
they
a
man
vs.
Texas involved
Mexican
American
convicted
of
Hernandez
to life imprisonment.13
His
murder by an all white jury and sentenced
the conviction
by arguing that the absence of Mexicans
lawyer appealed
on the jury was discriminatory,
reference to the famous Scottsboro
making
case in which
the U.S. Supreme Court overturned
(after many years) the
men
on the grounds of an absence of
of nine African American
conviction
African
Court
Americans
of
Spanish
all-white
DeAnda,
the State
descent,
from the jury. But in the Hernandez
case, the Supreme
were white people
of Texas ruled that Mexicans
of
and
therefore
that there was
no discrimination
in the
of the jury. Forty years later, Hernandez's
lawyer, James
make-up
recounted how he made his argument appealing
this ruling:
no Hispanic
there in the Jackson County
where
had served on any kind
Courthouse,
Right
were white
of a jury in living memory
and so it was okay to bring them
because Mexicans
rooms. One had a nice sign mat just said MEN
before
all-white
juries,
they had two men's
on it. The other had a sign on it that said COLORED
MEN
and below
that was a hand
scrawled sign that said HOMBRES AQUI
have
been
white,
but when
it came
to nature's
[men here]. In that jury pool, Mexicans may
functions,
they were
not.14
to the 1980s
in the United
From
States:
the 1960s
(New York: Routledge,
1986); Clara
E. Rodriguez,
Race:
in the
the Census,
and the History
Latino/as,
Changing
of Ethnicity
United
States
Press,
(New York: New York University
2000).
12
to watch
this is a fact that could possibly
and we need
Although
change,
carefully
future developments.
13
"Mexican
G. Martinez,
Americans
and Whiteness";
Suro, Strangers
among Us.
Suro,
Strangers
among
Us,
p. 85.
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LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
12
In fact,
facilities
not only were Mexicans
in public
subject to Jim Crow
were
to bathrooms,
restaurants
also
excluded
from
they
were
and community
and
children
of
Mexican
descent
groups,
in Texas
from
business
a segregated
school for the first four grades, whether
or
as
not.
classified
Thus, when
they spoke
English
they were
were overtly denied certain civil rights; when
Latino/as
nonwhite,
they
to attend
required
fluent
were
as white,
classified
the de facto
denial
of their civil rights
could
not
be appealed.
the Supreme Court of
the U.S. Supreme Court overturned
Although
the State of Texas decision
in the Hernandez
its final decision
case,
a perplexity
American
indicated
identity. The U.S.
regarding Mexican
as black, nor did they
Supreme Court did not want to classify Mexicans
as white;
of Mexicans
since these
the legal classification
the only racial terms they thought were available,
they ended up
as
on
Mexicans
based
"other differ
the
faced
discrimination
explaining
want
to alter
were
Thus,
ences," left undefined.
there was racial discrimination
the U.S.
oddly,
against Mexicans,
that
Supreme Court upheld
but denied thatMexicans
a race.15
constituted
this legal history
is that race is a
as the
to
be
stretched
construction
enough
opportunistically
The fact that Latino/as
and expand discrimination.
need arises to maintain
- black
and
had to be put into either one of two categories
and Asians
one might
take these
white
has not been of benefit to them. Nonetheless,
was
against African Americans
legal cases to indicate that discrimination
One
clear
lesson
to be
learned
from
that is variable
case which
the paradigm
discrimination
black/white
against
paradigm
courts
U.S.
other nonwhites,
of race.
when
they could to justify
and thus to provide support for the
stretched
The distinguished
historian
John Hope Franklin
argued in this way at
which was
of the Race Relations
Commission
the first official meeting
to
his
Bill
advance
initiative
President
Clinton
U.S.
convened
former
by
for a national
on race. Franklin
in the
maintained
that "racism
when
first in North America
slavery was
sphere" developed
in 1619 and has served as a model
in the Jamestown
introduced
colony
for the treatment of race in the U.S. Attorney Angela Oh, also serving on
the commission,
argued against Franklin on this point, using the example
to show that the specific
of the uprising of April 29, 1992 in Los Angeles
dialogue
black/white
history and racist treatment of Asian Americans
for in order to understand what occurred during
to make
beyond
sure we
go beyond
the world
that because
15
Haney
Lopez,
White
by Law,
pp.
needs
to be accounted
"I just want
need to go
paradigm.
than that ..."
is about much more
she
that event.
the black-white
182-183.
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We
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
13
on this exchange,
to
tries diplomatically
commenting
bear the greatest bur
that "African Americans
sides, affirming
and that the Los Angeles
den of racial discrimination"
uprising needs to be
understood
in relation both to African American
history as well as Korean
said.16 Frank Wu,
unite both
history (and, I would add, Latino/a history, since Latino/as
the largest number of arrested). Wu advocates
the following:
American
any of us concludes
leaders
should
speak
Whatever
... Our
a whole.
A
African
unified
race relations,
we should
start by including
all of us
as
about every group,
and for the country
individuals,
race relations,
and racial
tensions must
have whites,
theory of race,
and all the rest, and even within
Americans,
Jewish
about
to all
white
Americans,
ethnicities,
were
and
so forth.
groups must
Our
theory
include
is an
Arab
Americans,
account
inadequate
otherwise.17
The
Wu
question
does
not
of the black/white
acceptance
the continued
is whether
directly
a
allow
such
will
comprehensive
paradigm
address
account.
than
reality of race in the U.S. has always been more complicated
in court,
The initial exclusionary
black/white.
laws concerning
testimony
as mentioned
and Native Americans."
earlier, grouped "blacks, mulattoes,
The Chinese
in the 1800's had specific rulings
laborers brought to theWest
The
their right not
and ideological
used against them, restricting
justifications
or
own
even
to
to
vote
other
Chinese.
but
This latter
marry
property
only
images of Asian
slavery and was justified by invoking
ruling outlasted
women
were
to
To
avoid
allowed
Chinese
reproduction,
overpopulation.
as prostitutes
defeated
come
but not as wives, a restriction no other group faced. The
in theMexican-American
War were portrayed as cruel
Mexicans
and cowardly barbarians, and although
ratified in 1848 guaranteed
theMexicans
the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
who stayed in the U.S. full rights
of citizenship,
like the treaties with Native Americans
neither local govern
ments nor the federal courts upheld theMexicans
right to vote or respected
the land deeds they held before the Treaty.18 By the time of the Spanish
American
War
of
was
the image of barbarism
to a Latin-Catholic
attributed
1898
used
against Mexicans
and expanded
heritage
and the Caribbean,
thus subsequently
consistently
for use throughout Latin American
the immigrant populations
affecting
coming from these countries as well
as justifying U.S. claims of hegemony
in the region.19 The so-called Zoot
Suit riots in Los Angeles
in 1943 targeted Mexicans
and their ethnically
16
17
18
19
Wu,
Wu,
pp.
Yellow,
p. 36.
See Acuna,
Walter
and Border
32-35.
Yellow,
Occupied
Mignolo,
Thinking
Local
America;
Shorris,
Histories/Global
(Princeton:
Princeton
Latinos.
Designs:
University
Coloniality,
Press,
2000).
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Subaltern
Knowledges,
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
14
sequester and
specific style of dress. The attempts made to geographically
also to forcibly and totally assimilate Native American
groups were not
own
other
and
had
their
group,
experienced
by any
ideological
justifi
cations that combined
contradictory
images of the Great Chain of Being
as
Savage. Native peoples were represented
an
and thus of no account. The paradigm
of
vanquished,
disappearing,
these
antiblack racism intertwined with slavery does not help to illuminate
with
the romanticized
Noble
and other
of other nonwhite
groups, where
specific experiences
ideologies
relied on charges of evil, religious backwardness,
horde mentalities,
not used in regard
and other projections
people,
being a disappearing
to African Americans.
The hegemony
has
of the black/white
paradigm
often
account
the development
of an adequate
of the diverse
racial
in the U.S.,
and weakened
the general theories of racism which
effect on our ability
attempt to be truly inclusive. This has had a negative
to develop effective
to
the various forms racism can take, to make
solutions
common
cause against ethnic and race based forms of oppression
and to
stymied
realities
and has recently played a significant
role in the
lasting coalitions,
of affirmative
action. I will support these claims further in what
create
demise
follows.
Critics
the black/white
of
communities
of color have
Korean
of
all
argued that, although
of political and economic
in the U.S.,
there are significant
of this disenfranchisement.
disenfranchisement
the causes
have
paradigm
shared the experience
leader who
American
between
differences
Kim, a
Bong
both as the Director
Hwan
and the forms
has worked
community
Center of East Bay in Oakland,
CA, and as
Community
of the Korean Youth
Center
in Los Angeles,
and Community
the black/white
among people
binary for disabling
relationships
the Korean
Director
blames
and even
of color
civil
for creating
the conditions
leading to the Los Angeles
in
which
small Korean
owned busi
1992,
2,300
and
American
looters.
Latino/a
African
by mostly
destroyed
disaster
nesses
of April
were
cites
the xenophobia
marshaled
leader Danny
by African American
and argues that the Korean Amer
before the looting occurred,
to be systematically
rendered
had been and continues
ican community
Kim
Bakewell
to such rhetoric
incapable of responding
in the media as a player
It is difficult
and
during
20
See
to describe
after
Kim,
the figure
give
First Multiethnic
Activism
the
"Between
of
how
sa-i-ku
'Riots,'"
and Resistance
and
disempowered
Black
An
and White:
businesses
in Karin
in the 1990s
Elaine
frustrated
29
(the April
p'ok-dong
destroyed
because
in racial politics.20
as
Aguilar-San
(Boston:
they are not recognized
Kim explains:
Korean
Americans
many
Korean
Americans
"riots").
Interview
see
2,700;
with
Edward
Bong
T.
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Kim."
Some
"America's
Chang,
State of Asian America:
(ed.), The
End Press,
1993),
Juan
South
Hwan
felt
across
pp.
101-118.
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
the
shared
country
which
everyone
the anguish
to have
and
despair
abandoned
seemed
of
the Los Angeles
tongp'o
(community),
black and
the police
and fire departments,
who
American
advocates
tried to dissociate
-
the Asian
and Pacific
leaders,
political
our tragedy disputed
from us because
themselves
... the Korean
Americans
violence
against Asians
white
and
all but
female,
ruined
voiceless
mostly
invisible
shopkeepers
(except
..
when
15
their narrow
on white
of the storm were
as hysterically
stereotyped
focus
and risk-free
at the center
mostly
and
inarticulate,
.).21
in Texas, the Koreans
have been denied the legal
Similar to the Mexicans
a
or socially recognized
of
group at the same
category
being
politicized
as
time that they are made subject to group based scapegoating. Moreover,
of race is incapable of
this event demonstrates,
the black/white
paradigm
or
of color,
racism
communities
among
theoretically
addressing
politically
or racism, in other words, which
is not all about white people.
A response to this line of reasoning might be that it is white supremacy
of
which
relations
is at the root of the conflictual
among communities
of stereotypes manufactured
for their acceptance
color, and responsible
on
a
structure.
this reading, what occurred
white
dominant
Thus,
power
by
can be reductively
in Los Angeles
analyzed as caused by white supremacy.
I
do
find
that focus on political economy
arguments
Although
explanatory
often compelling,
it is far too simplistic, as I think Karl Marx himself knew,
to imagine cultural conflict as the mere epiphenomenon
of economic
forces
with no life or grounding of their own. To blame only white supremacy for
what occurred
in Los Angeles
would also deny power and agency to any
untrue. We must all accept
is increasingly
but
the
which
dominant,
groups
our rightful
share of the blame, whatever
that turns out to be in particular
that would a priori reduce that blame to
instances, and resist explanations
zero for communities
of color.
the arguments of both Elaine Kim and Bong Hwan Kim,
Supporting
Juan Perea argues that because of the wide acceptance
of the black/white
like
and
"other
racialized
Asian
Latino/as,
Americans,
groups
paradigm,
are often marginalized
or
out that the concerns of Asian Americans
Native
Americans
points
addressed
ignored altogether."22 He
cannot be
and Latino/as
through immigration
legislation because all are not immigrants,
is one of the reasons to reject the claim of some ethnic theorists
that these groups will follow the path of European
in gradual
immigrants
success (the other reason to reject this claim is
and economic
assimilation
which
their racialization).23
21
22
23
Kim,
Perea,
The
Black
and White:
"The Black/White
issue
of who
An
Interview
with
of Race,"
counts
Bong
Hwan
Kim,"
pp.
Indians
and
some
71-72.
p. 361.
Binary
Paradigm
as an immigrant
has some variability.
On the most
to North
not count
America
would
indigenous
those peoples
only
cover American
which
would
definition,
grant,
"Between
Latino/as.
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In more
common
extreme
as
immi
usage,
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
16
that
argues
other people
of
Suro
Roberto
and
Latino/as
the
black/white
color
them to adopt the strategies
forcing
was
"not particularly
it
well-suited
though
by
more
For example,
Latino/as
affecting
diverse
group.24
discrimination
binary
disadvantages
are not African
Americans
who
even
civil rights
litigation
to Latino/as"
who are a much
of
redress of economic
any meaningful
to
will
need
and Asian Americans
these groups, as some "target of opportunity"
programs
today
disaggregate
and Japanese
in fact do, since the gap between median
incomes in Filipino
aver
or between Puerto Rican and Cuban households,
makes
households,
these
aging
incomes
useless
as an indicator
deserving
rights
legislation,
African
Americans,
do not take Delgado
Richard
group as
only
paradigm
to
Current
else
suffer."
civil
is likely
everyone
in Delgado's
for
view, has provided
legal advantages
over
I
other
color.
of
unwittingly
perhaps,
people
argues
of protection,
Delgado
success.
of economic
one
identifies
that "If one's
to be implying
that the legislation
has effectively
and
been
American
forcefully
population
applied
it has
and universally,
but that the language of the law, however much
Just
identifies only one group and this is a problem.
yet to be applied,
as the protection
and the
the propertied,
of the right of property advantages
benefited
the African
protection
of free speech
are articulate
and can afford microphones,
of those who
a social good,
the Equal Protection
Clause
namely
produces
and whites.
These
it genuinely
its coverage
blacks
for those falUng under
helps
on occasion.
But it leaves everyone
else unprotected.25
increases
time,
and
Put
the
influence
so on
...
in more
general
terms,
these
arguments
can be
TV
air
equality,
- at
least
summarized
as
follows:
various
racial and
has disempowered
1) The black/white
paradigm
ethnic groups from being able to define their own identity, to mark
and specificity
their difference
beyond what could be captured on
our own identity
this limited map. Instead of naming and describing
and social
circumstance,
we have had descriptions
foisted
on us from
outside.
2)
have historically
been ignored or
and Latino/as
on
race and racism.
in
the
U.S.
in
the
discourse
marginalized
public
it is simply unfair
for two reasons, first, because
This is a problem
concerns
it
to be excluded
from what
one, and second, because
Asian
Americans
who
recent
and Latino/a
families
arrivals.
Thus Asian
refer to more
"immigrants"
are
no
more
the
than
German
for multiple
lived in the U.S.
"immigrant"
generations
here.
families
English
24
Suro, Strangers
among Us, p. 87.
25
How Does
"The Black/White
itWork?"
pp. 370-371.
Binary:
Delgado,
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have
and
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
17
the analysis
of race and racism in the
weakened
has considerably
the social
situation of Asian
To explain
discussions.
mainstream
or Latino/as
terms
de
in
of
their
Americans
jure and de facto
simply
treatment as nonwhites
is to describe our condition
only on the most
terms. We must be included
adequate account can be developed.
within
By eliminating
specificities
shallow
3)
the large "black" or nonwhite
the possibility
of devel
has undercut
the black/white
group,
so that a more
in the discussions
binary
for the
solutions
and effective
legal and political
oping appropriate
can
movement
for
take. A broad
variable forms that racial oppression
civil rights does not require that we ignore the specific circumstances
that only
of different
racial or ethnic identities, nor does it mandate
the similarities
can figure into the formulation
an example of this problem,
tion. I will
discuss
application
of affirmative
action
in higher
of protective
legisla
one that concerns
the
at the end of this
education,
essay.
4)
within
the
of eliminating
specificities
major disadvantage
or
one
cannot
under
that
then
either
is
nonwhite
"black"
group
large
stand or address the real conflicts and differences within this amalgam
to understand
all
The black/white
of peoples.
proposes
paradigm
Another
of color through anti-black
between
communities
racism,
the reality is often more complex.
For all these reasons, the black/white
paradigm
seriously undermines
coalitions. Without
the possibility
of achieving
being a conspiracy
that keeping us in conflict with each other and
theorist, it is obvious
conflicts
when
5)
not in coalition
I would
6)
The
is in the interests
add to these arguments
the following
and the
binary
as between
and conflicts
black/white
discourses
of the current power
constant
blacks
structure.
two.
invocation
of
race
all
and whites
has produced
a very large white
an imaginary
of race in this country
in which
a
confronts
small
black
which has
relatively
minority,
majority
to white domination.
effect of reenforcing
the sense of inevitability
This
in almost any major
is not the reality of racial percentages
in New
in the country today. Nonwhites
outnumber whites
the
urban
center
York,
FL, Chicago,
CA, and
NY, Miami,
IL, Atlanta, GA, and Los Angeles,
come very close in San Francisco,
DC.
CA, Dallas, TX, and Washington
was
to
states
small
The original
intent of the electoral
protect
college
and the U.S. Government,
and create a buffer between
the hoi polloi
but the current effect
graphics
has
the added
of the electoral
"advantage"
college given these changed demo
the occupants
of disenfranchising
of
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18
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
cities generally
and people of color specifically
from influencing
national
electoral
outcomes.
If the popular vote determined
the
cities
elections,
would
have the determining
numbers
since this is where
of votes,
the
of U.S.
majority
toward.
means
The
citizens
numbers
and
now
live and where
the trend of movement
concentrations
of color
is
in the U.S.
of people
the politics
where
of recognition,
the all powerful
from
majority,
where we can negotiate
negotiation,
that we are quickly moving past
of color clamor for recognition
people
and reaching
the politics
of power
a
to rely exclusively
rather
than having
power
position
from
of
The
not
will
white
maintain
its near hegemonic
appeals.
majority
control as new configurations
of alliances develop.26 Moreover,
on moral
political
the white
is far from monolithic,
majority
splintering most notably along gender and
class lines: the gender gap has widened
in electoral politics along with the
households
gap between union and non-union
(the two largest gaps in the
last presidential
and white union
election), with droves of white women
as
same
members
the
the
of
of
color.
voting
majority
people
Thus, thinking of race in terms only of black and white produces a sense
to white domination
of inevitability
is not empirically
which
supportable.
I believe
must come to
this issue of imagery is very significant. Whites
white dominance
realize that maintaining
for much
longer is simply not
a viability,
or significantly
short of fascism,
the fascist treat
expanding
ments
that many
communities
the
already experience.
By maintaining
in falsely representing
the realities of
binary we only persist
race in the U.S.; by opening up the binary to rainbow images and the like
we can more accurately
and thus helpfully
present the growing and future
conditions within which political
will occur. This
action and contestations
black/white
interests. For this reason, the increasingly
is in everyone's
high profile
of Asian Americans,
and Latino/as
is all to the good.
Native Americans,
or
It may also someday
lead away from the imagery of oppositionality,
terms
which
the
exclusive
black
and
white
have
interests,
very
mutually
toward an imagery of pluralism
and move
(which has some
long conveyed,
of its own problems,
I realize, but which can more readily recognize
the
can
diverse ways in which alliances and differences
occur).
in regard to the black/white
that I would make
argument
race imagistically
as exclu
it
is
that
binary
mistakenly
configures
as
to
if color alone determines
do with color,
racial
sively having
identity (which has not been the case even for African Americans),
The
7)
next
and itmakes
26
This
it seem as if between
African
Americans
could
the jockeying
for position
the Democrats
and Republicans
among
explain
If those groups unite with opposing
American
and Latino/a
voters,
respectively.
rule is ensured.
of the white majority,
white majority
for African
sectors
and European
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LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THEBLACK-WHITEBINARY
of color
continuum
on this
lined up somewhere
and "black" clearly represent the
races must
all the other
Americans
since
be
"white"
polar extremes. There is certainly
ing in this and in many countries,
axis by which racism operates.
19
a racist continuum
but this continuum
of color operat
is not the only
taken the horrific reality of the hierarchy of adoption prefer
to Latino/a
to
to Asian
from white
in the U.S.,
that runs basically
to
as indicative of the existence
of this continuum
of color. Related
Some
ences
have
black,
this idea is the claim made
and Latino/as
by some that Asian Americans
me
so
first.
The claim
this
address
let
white,
eventually
on
is
all
white
first
will
become
and
of
that Asians
Latino/as
premised
identities: white
of racialized
the assumption
that we have two choices
and politically
located at or
and black. If a group is not economically
"become"
will
near
the bottom
associ
the black/white
of the society, which
paradigm
a
to
have
is
assumed
then
such
"blackness,"
group
What
other
claim
this
among
things, is
forgets,
racial and class variety within each of these large amalga
ates exclusively
with
"whiteness."
achieved
the significant
and
faced by Asian Americans
the discrimination
mated groups. Moreover,
will not likely lose its focus on language and cultural issues;
Latino/as
there are, the more virulent "English Only" campaigns
the more Latino/as
evidence
become. The claim also ignores the overwhelming
showing that
generations,
against
persist in their identities for multiple
to
it seems
their own economic
interests.27 And
inapplicable
entirely
as having some so-called white
who may be represented
Asian Americans,
attributes, but who have never been legally or socially accepted here as
most
Latino/as
white.28
are three major differences
the groups who have had
between
The
and Asian Americans.
in becoming
"success"
and Latino/as
white,
there is some very good
groups I am referring to here, and about whom
are the Irish and (white Anglo)
Jewish Amer
historical research emerging,
There
Jews have wholly made it is debatable;
icans. Whether
they seem to move
back and forth, as they did in Germany. For the Klu Klux Klan, still influ
Jews are not white. And even the U.S.
ential in many parts of the U.S.,
one might
mainstream,
suggest, seems able to accept an Alan Greenspan
7
Juan Flores,
York:
Political
Clara
28
From
Bomba
toHip-Hop:
Columbia
Press,
University
Predicament
of Latinos
E. Rodriguez,
Okihiro,
(Minneapolis:
Puerto
Margins
University
2000);
inNew
Ricans:
Born
Puerto
Culture
Correa,
and Latino
Between
Identity
Two Nations:
York City (Ithaca: Cornell University
in the U.S.A.
(Boulder: Westview
and Mainstreams',
of Minnesota
Rican
Jones
Michael
Vijay
Press,
2000);
Prashad,
Wu,
The
Yellow.
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Karma
Press,
Press,
of Brown
(New
The
1998);
1991).
Folk
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
20
as "finance
czar" but not a Jewish
President
of the U.S.29
The U.S.
has
already had Irish presidents.
to the differences
In regard, however,
between
Irish and Jews on the one
on the other, the first obvious
hand and Asian Americans
and Latino/as
is in their racialized
difference
differences
based
significant
largely on
color and physical
The Irish and Jews can "blend in" to U.S.
appearance.
cannot. The
in a way that Asian Americans
and most Latino/as
society
of the Irish and Jews
into the category "white" did not require
come from European
that
idea
superior characteristics
challenging
are correlated
to light skin color.
societies, and that superior characteristics
or non-light-skinned
were
If nonwhites
to
become
white, white
people
ness would begin to deconstruct,
a
to
cultural
and ethnic
perhaps mutating
admission
the
designation
whiteness
Latino/as
which
still is marked by superiority, but it is not obvious
is on the threshold of deconstruction.
Thus, to admit Asians
into the category would cause necessary
that were
changes
for the Irish and Jews.
necessary
The second difference
is historical.
memories
within
memories
The
that
and
not
Irish and Jews
represent bad
and genocide,
and thus
of Europe's moral
failings.
of colonialism
Europe,
representation
they operate as the symbolic
The Irish and Jews do not have that symbolic
fact may carry the opposite
symbolic meaning
in the U.S, and in
meaning
in representing
the idea that
it and be accepted here, even those who were despised
"anyone" can make
In contrast, African, Mexican
in Europe.
and Native Americans,
most
a
reminder
of
the
hollowness
notably, among others, represent
symbolic
of claims to white moral
superiority. The Irish and Jews are not a psychic
threat to the ideological
supremacy of white
identity in the same way that
are.
and certainly African Americans
Latino/as, Asian Americans,
concerns
third major difference
assimilability,
although
perceived
many
A
here
as entirely
separate. The Irish are perceived
so
is another
because
of religion
(which
only partly
to be moved
to the extent
back and forth). Latino/as,
come from a Spanish Catholic
culture considered
pre
the Irish and Jews must
Jews
assimilable;
reason Jews tend
they are European,
modern
and less civilized,
and to the extent
they are also indigenous,
come from a culture perceived
as totally different
than Anglo-European.
between
"east" and "west," or the Orient and
opposition
to be a major prop of the Anglo-European
is well-known
a plethora of such dichotomies
as between
"individu
self-image
fomenting
versus
and
future
alism versus collectivism,"
"democracy
despotism,"
The
symbolic
the Occident,
29 Vice
high
much."
presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, the first Jewish candidate for such a
national
office,
was
criticized
from
all sides
for emphasizing
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his
Jewish
identity
"too
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THEBLACK-WHITEBINARY
versus
oriented
21
backward
oriented societies. The very definition
of Asian
constructions
is to be non-western
and
given in these orientalist
of
not
assimilation.
The
of
is
considered.
incapable
possibility
synthesis
This issue of assimilability
has become more rather than less important in
recent years, with political
theorists such as Peter Brimelow
and Samuel
culture
Huntington
making
cultural traditions,
tion, and asserting
to continue
claims
open
the dominance
of European
laws and cultural integra
against liberal immigration
that the very survival of "western
civilization"
is at
stake.30
Because
and Latino/as
seen
as
of these three major differences,
I cannot see Asian Americans
it
is
still
white;
"becoming"
proving difficult enough to be
"American."
the claim
Thus,
ignores
that Asian
of color
the issue
and Latino/as will become white
takes no notice of the
differences,
these
groups, and forgets the
represented
by
It returns us to the problem
of misidentifi
Americans
and other
varying
symbolic meanings
of "assimilability."
problem
to recognize
cation discussed
the complexity
earlier, refusing
by which
can
be vilified. To give another example of this complexity, Asians
people
and Jews can be grouped together in the ways that their cultures have been
seen as in some respects
and monolithic.
In other
superior, threatening,
and Latino/as, Asians
and Jews are
words, unlike for African Americans
not seen as having inferior intelligence
or primitive
cultures, yet they are
seen as essentialized
to
with
collective
take over the world
groups
goals
and/or
evil
and "Jewish
intent
toward
world
because
analysis,
affirmative action
those
outside
This
their groups (the "yellow peril"
of ideology
requires specific
vis-a-vis,
among other issues,
kind
conspiracy").
it operates
differently
concerns
in regard to higher
education.
The most
recent
issue that has arisen since September
involves the representations
11,2001,
a group that is very much racialized. Yet again, their
of Arab Americans,
in specific ways mediated
racialization works
claims about
by ideological
their cultures and most notably the religion of Islam.
Racial oppression
works on multiple
axes, I would
argue, with color
and currently most
being the most dominant
exhaustive
of all the forms racial oppression
But color is not
pernicious.
can take. The most pejora
tive terms used against Asian Americans
often
a color connotation
"Chinks,"
have
a racial
but without
connotation
and
for the
"slant-eyes,"
a
terms
a
These
whole
not
Vietnamese,
"gooks."
denigrate
people,
partic
ular set of customs or a specific history, and thus parallel the essentializing
30
Peter
(New York:
Brimelow,
Random
the Remaking
of World
Alien
Nation:
House,
1995);
Order
Common
Samuel
(New York:
Sense
about
America's
P. Huntington,
The Clash
Simon
and Schuster,
1998).
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Disaster
Immigration
and
of Civilizations
22
move
of racist discourse
that is demarcated
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
that universalizes
on the basis
value across a group
negative
features. The two most pejorative
in this country have been the terms
of visible
terms widely
used against Latino/as
whose
references people who were heard by Anglos
as
"spic"
genealogy
and "wetback." The first invokes the denigration
saying "no spic English"
of language, the second denigrates
both where people came from and how
across
here:
from
Mexico
the Rio Grande. Mexican
Americans
they got
were also called "greasers" which connoted
the condition
of their hair, not
their skin color. Thus, these terms demonstrate
the possibility
of a racial
ization and racism that works
and then denigrating
through constructing
other
racialized
features and characteristics
besides color. We might
think
axes of racialization
of these as two independent
that operate through phys
ical features other than color, and through genealogies
of cultural origin.
There is, then, the color axis, the physical
other than color
characteristics
axis, and the cultural
The discrimination
origin
axis.
and Latino/as
has also
against Asian Americans
on a fourth axis of "nativism." Nativism
is a
very strongly
operated
thus
it
is
often
related
distinct,
to,
prejudice
against immigrants;
though
or the rejection of foreigners.
Acufia
Rodolfo
that
xenophobia
explains
historical
nativism
is also distinct from anthropological
nativism, which
a
refers to
"revival of indigenous
historical
nativism
culture," because
refers to the belief
of some Anglo-Americans
that they are "the true
even
the
Indian"
because
in their
Americans,
excluding
they represent
cultural heritage the "idea" of "America."31 On this view, the problem with
Asian Americans
and Latino/as
is not just that they are seen as foreign;
seen
are
as
they
ineluctably
foreign, from inferior cultures
(morally and
if not
of and unmotivated
toward
intellectually),
incapable
to the superior mainstream
white Anglo
culture. They want to
keep their languages, demand instruction in public schools in their primary
their own holidays,
cuisines,
languages, and they often maintain
religions,
and living areas (the latter sometimes
the fact that
by choice). Despite
Mexican
have been living within
Americans
the current U.S. borders for
politically
assimilation
longer than most Anglo-Americans,
they are all too often seen as squat
ters on U.S.
This "xenophobia
soil, interlopers who "belong" elsewhere.
directed within"
at specific
has been especially
virulent
times in U.S.
wars
and
after
both
a
world
for
and
is enjoying
history, during
example,
now
war
or
with the
fever and hysteria against Arabs
resurgence
anyone
a turban, the serious erosion of civil
the political
rhetoric of Pat Buchanan,
wearing
groups,
31
Acufia,
peoples
p.
158.
indigenous
It is also distinguished
to a land have moral
from
rights
liberties
for racially profiled
the right wing disc-jockeys
"indigenism,"
to its occupation.
or the view
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that only
those
LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THE BLACK-WHITEBINARY
who make
23
and the "scholarly"
jokes about beating up illegal immigrants,
that their
like Alien Nation
that warn "Americans"
books
best-selling
loose immigration
laws will
forever
alter
of the U.S.
the racial make-up
identity will have the dire
if left unchecked,
and that altering our racial
of undermining
the basic cultural
consequences
make the U.S. what it is.
Another
feature
of nativism
is its use
groups. In my
rights for various minority
African Americans
together with American
and democratic
values
that
to justify claims of differential
that
view, there is no question
Indians have a moral claim on
thus far is
larger than any group, and that the redress made
the
that
toward
present inequities
completely
inadequate
repairing
persist
as a legacy of past state-organized
mass atrocities. Some may believe
that
a kind of nativist argument would provide
further justification
for these
this country
to redress, on the grounds
that these groups'
forbears
a
and/or
their
labor
and
contributed
deal
great
longer
ingenuity
to the wealth of this country. More
recent immigrants,
itmay be thought,
claims
legitimate
were here
or government
less by way of protected
assist
opportunities
issue of nativism
to address
in relation
to
is thus important
the differences
conflicts among communities
of color, since
and potential
"deserve"
ance. The
are post-1965
Americans
and Latino/as
(when the
immigrants
on immigration
based on geography were
lifted). One might
well ask, what is wrong with nativist arguments,
and is the critique of
on group self-interest?
nativism based ultimately
many Asian
restrictions
There
are both
and non-consequentialist
arguments
consequentialist
nativism. The principle
argument
consequentialist
to justify differential rights is that itwill produce (or
a hierarchy of first and second class citizens.
maintain)
one can make
against
nativism
using
against
in reality, merely
This is both undemocratic
would
want
and undesirable
to live in. Nativist
rhetoric
as the kind of community many
justified state orches
has already
at the U.S.-Mexican
border, a border that
arm even further (using
announced
President
he would
the Texas Rangers, who were disarmed
in the 1920s after it came to light
trated murders
and other horrors
the current U.S.
that they had lynched hundreds and perhaps thousands of Mexican
Amer
icans without
to
tend
arguments might well
trial).32 Nativist
encourage
to turn a blind eye to what happens at the border. And moreover,
people
a society must
such enforced
hierarchies
of status within
surely share
for creating
responsibility
affect
everyone.
adversely
32
Mind
Acufia,
Review
the problems
Leslie Marmon
America;
Occupied
31 (1994), pp. 9, 20, 58-59.
of crime
Silko,
and social
"Fences
against
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insecurity
Freedom,"
that
Hungry
24
These
its
provide
subsequent
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
based on
arguments
against nativism
consequentialist
non
on the U.S.,
also make
but one might
effects
of
nativism
is
The
nativism.
arguments
logic
against
consequentialist
based on the idea
that those
native
here
they have been
just because
American
Native
groups
by
to this country
longer (in which
"deserve"
case
all
not
more,
land claims
in
settled
immediately
or
and
contributed
the
labor
their
relatives
they
one
that made
There are several arguments
the U.S. wealthy.
ingenuity
out
that there
could make against this view. One might first want to point
are numerous
labor and ingenuity
that contributed
the U.S.
groups within
their favor),
would
have
to be
but because
toward the country's wealth and that have not received any approximation
But one could also argue that the wealth of the U.S.
of fair compensation.
and imperial global
in no small part of neo-colonial
has been the product
resources
at a price U.S.
of
natural
ensured
the
that
extraction
relations
as well as super-exploitation
of labor (i.e., a much
determined,
companies
the capital brought back
of surplus value) that produced
larger extraction
of the Panama Canal gives just one small but clear
here. The building
example.
The U.S.
contributed
project, helped to plan a coup
who would have been a much
for the
capital and some of the engineers
to separate the country off from Colombia,
more powerful
and
adversary,
negotiating
a treaty which no Panamanian
that
signed that guaranteed
to
"in
the
U.S.
canal
from
the
would
go
perpetuity."
profits
Not only did the treaty guarantee
capital flight, it gave the U.S. complete
over the canal zone, cutting right through the heart of
autonomy
political
it in half. The U.S. was also given the right
and thus splitting
Panama
manufactured
the entire
that
it unilaterally
determined
with military
force whenever
on
a
was
the
effects
at
that
had
stake,
major negative
proviso
security
in
in
the
in
the
and
development
country
particular
political developments
to intervene
canal
justice movements.
enticed from theWest
of social
canal,
labored to build the
The people who actually
as
as
local people, were
Indies and Asia
well
fever
paid 10 cents a day and died from yellow
in
the
U.S.
rhetoric
Nonetheless,
persist
anti-treaty
the true referent
Such facts as these contest
lands have been native if that
in foreign
Peoples
in tens of thousands.33
in calling it "our canal."
of the term "nativist."
means
the
contributing
of those
the U.S. wealthy. The descendents
labor and ingenuity that made
some
have
live in Panama
who built the Panama Canal mostly
today but
in
the
U.S.
to
And
the
so-called
the
U.S.
working
"illegals"
immigrated
economic
contribution,
doing work no one else
today make a substantial
33 See Michael L.
Coniff, Black Labor on a White Canal (Pittsburgh: University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1985); Walter LeFeber, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical
Perspective
(Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press,
1990).
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LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THEBLACK-WHITEBINARY
25
thus obscures more
than it clarifies
various groups'
to
of
the
and
the
U.S.
relationships
history
Many Asian Amer
prosperity
in
the U.S. for multiple
centuries
ican and Latino/a
sub-groups have been
will
do. Nativism
as well,
Chinese
in various forms of indentured
servitude
(especially Mexicans,
like
and Japanese). But the more recent immigrants,
from places
can
El Salvador,
the Dominican
Vietnam
and
also
be
Cambodia,
Republic,
to
tied
for
U.S.
that
made
countries
their
unlivable
directly
policies
literally
them. Surely these immigrants
therefore have a moral claim on the wealth
no
of the U.S. which has
relation to their number of years here.
Thus my last argument has been that the color axis is only one of the
axes that need to be understood
as pivotal in racist ideologies,
that racism
can and has operated in ways in which color is not central but other phys
ical features, cultural characteristics
and origins, and status as "native" or
"non-native"
operate to the same effect. It is important to note that these
axes
are forms
to classify
of racism that produce
and
other ways
of people and then justify discrimination
them.
All
against
in the sense of universalizing
immigrant groups are not racialized
negative
on the basis of visible features, and
value across a group that is demarcated
as static. Russian
their cultural characteristics
and Eastern
essentializing
other
delimit
subsets
European
immigrants,
though often living in horribly poor conditions with
of
little community
any kind, are not singled out for the same treat
help
ment as recent southeast Asian
as the
and Central American
immigrants,
and scapegoating.
targets of group based violence
European
immigrants
are not tagged as cultural inferiors nor is their difference
in the
racialized
as
and Asian Americans
Their category
way that Latino/as
experience.
is marked on their body, as Wen Ho Lee was forcibly reminded
"foreign"
when he was put in solitary confinement
with chained legs for nine months
as a result of being "racially profiled" and suspected of a loyalty to China
or his political
to his citizenship
unrelated
commitments.
My basic thesis, then, is simply that we need an expanded
analysis of
to the specificities
and an attentiveness
of various forms it can take
in regard to different
than
to accept the idea
rather
groups,
continuing
one way, with one axis, that is differentially
in basically
that it operates
distributed
among various groups. Whether
my own analysis of some of
racism
these
basic
is right
specificities
thesis is correct.
in all respects,
it may
still be the case
that this
an example
that links the false homogenization
of
recent
the
of
demise
affirmative
action
in
programs
people
U.S. higher education,
and that will show how much
is at stake in our
need to recognize
the complexity
of our differences.
Dana Takagi argues
I want
to end with
of color with
persuasively
that the recent disenabling
of affirmative
action policies
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"grew
26
LINDAMARTIN ALCOFF
on racial minorities
out of fluid discourse(s)
in higher education
in which
the main
issues were pivotally
constructed
and
in,
encapsulated
by, the
debate over Asian admissions"
and specifically
the debate over claims that
Americans
Asian
were
"over represented"
in U.S.
universities.34
In other
in colleges
the alleged "over-representations"
of Asian Americans
words,
was used to argue that the problem
and universities
of minority
under
an
not
in
is
caused
and
education
therefore
race,
representation
higher
by
affirmative
helpful nor justifiable.
that
is
the
black/white
argue
binary is operating
to obscure the real problems. Conservatives
argued that Asian
action
based
I would
What
in this case
here
are nonwhite
Americans
on race is neither
so that their case can be used
to dismantle
affirma
if they can get in, we all can get in. But this would
if
is undifferentiated
in terms of how
follow
the
category "nonwhite"
only
are being
to argue that Asian Americans
racism operates. Others wanted
tive action
for all:
treated here as white, and thus have no interest in an anti-racist coalition.
It is certainly
true that it is a white power structure that privileges
such
were still not actually being
things as test scores. But Asian Americans
out
the
claims of "over representa
that
treated as whites.
Takagi points
the
tion" conveniently
large disparity between Asian American
ignored
rates (the percentage
rates and white admission
of admissions
admission
a disparity
in relation to the pool of applicants),
that cannot be accounted
scores and grades constant,
for by SAT scores or grades. That is, holding
individuals were more
white
likely to be admitted than Asian Americans,
even if in real numbers on some campuses Asian American
acceptances
outnumbered
Student
whites
Association
(To give
at Brown
one
of this, the Asian American
example
1979
discovered
that between
University
even
in Asian
increase
while
applications,
rate - from 44% in 1979 to 14%
admission
1987 there was a 750%
there was a steadily declining
in 1987).35 So there has been a covert quota system operating against Asian
is covered over by
inmany university
American
systems, which
applicants
and
the high admission
is no doubt motivated
rates, and which
by the same
in the 1800s
fears of "yellow peril" that was used to justify discrimination
are not seen as
as well as the treatment of Wen Ho Lee. Asian Americans
"white" attributes because
the fact that they have so-called
despite
seen
as
are
and
countries,
unassimilable,
retaining
loyalty to Asian
they
was
thus a threat to "the nation." The concern about "over representation"
white
applied to Asians when
except Jews in the past which
oddly
34
Takagi,
The Retreat
Takagi,
The Retreat
35
it had not been applied to any other group,
was clearly a case of anti-semitism.
It is
from
Race,
p. 7.
from
Race,
p. 28.
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LATINO/AS,ASIAN AMERICANS,AND THEBLACK-WHITEBINARY
27
or to the
to the poor, who are under represented,
not applied
are
over
or
to
of alumni
athletes, both of whom
represented.
and policy changes
Takagi traces the empirical studies, public discourse
certainly
children
to the argument
that
prompted by this concern about over representation
action should ignore race and address only class, even though
affirmative
in this way can be easily empir
the claim that racism can be addressed
classes across
given the disparity of SAT scores within
Just to give one example,
there is an 80 point difference
in mean
blacks and whites
SAT scores, even when both come
between
or more, and similar cases apply to Puerto
from families making
$70,000
ically disproved
racial difference.
Ricans
What
and other groups.
this case demonstrates
in all cases
is not that all nonwhites
of attempts
together
that they should not be lumped
in the U.S.
in higher education
with
overt policies
directed
to redress
social
should be grouped
inequities, but precisely
of discrimination
together. The problems
faced by Asian Americans
has had to do
that apply quotas based on the specific forms of racism
in higher education
them. The problem of discrimination
not
worked
Americans
and Latino/as
has
through quotas
"over representation"
but through the use of SAT scores
against
faced by African
to guard against
and vastly unequal
but the means
is the culprit in each
public education. Racism
redress will
and ideology vary, and thus the effective
case,
have
to vary.
to
that some Asian American
activists who wanted
Takagi recounts
rates called for a meritocracy
end the unfair quotas on their admission
of
based on SAT scores and grades. But this would only block one
admissions
form of racism, leaving others not only intact but ideologically
reenforced.
an
is
to
still
illusion
African
Amer
Meritocracy
highly disadvantageous
to
icans and Latino/as.
that
seek
eliminate
Thus, strategies
discrimination,
action, must
including argumentative
strategies used to defend affirmative
be made
to certain historically
groups, or,
specific
disadvantaged
if they are general,
must
converse
their
consider
effects on
they
possibly
other groups. Only a rich knowledge
of the specific and variable forms of
either
racism
Syracuse
in the U.S.
will make
University/SUNY
such considerations
possible.
Stony Brook
Department
of Philosophy
SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook NY 11794
USA
E-mail:
[email protected]
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