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Abstract
The model minority began as an ideology pitting Japanese Americans against African Americans, using the former's economic success to deflect assertions of the persistence of race. In stressing enmity, research on black attitudes toward Asian Americans points to the utility of the myth in segmenting the two communities. The thrust of reporting on Japanese America in thirty seven black newspapers from 2000 to 2010 shows something different. Two frames emerge: Japanese Americans function as a reference group serving to reinforce the historical substance of racial profiling of minorities, and as a role model for developing a strategy for black efforts at reparations.
Notes
[1] Rosalind Chou and Joe Feagin, The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2010).
[2] Lawrence Bobo, “Racial Attitudes and Relations at the Close of the Twentieth Century,” in America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, ed. Neal Smelser, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: National Academy Press), 264–301; J. Eric Oliver, The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood and Civic Life in Multiethnic America (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2011); Michael Thornton and Yuko Mizuno, “Economic Well-Being and Black Adult Feelings toward Immigrants and Whites, 1984,” Journal of Black Studies 30 (1999): 40–69; Paul Wong et al., “Asian Americans as a Model Minority: Self-Perceptions and Perceptions by Other Racial Groups,” Sociological Perspectives 41 (1998): 95–118.
[3] David Widener, “‘Perhaps the Japanese are to be thanked?’: Asia, Asian Americans and the Construction of Black California,” Positions 11 (2003): 135–81.
[4] For example, Hemant Shah and Michael Thornton, Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict: Competing Visions of America (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004).
[5] Michael Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue?: The Los Angeles Sentinel’s Depiction of Black and Asian American Relations, 1993–2000,” Journal of Black Studies 42 (2011): 1275–1298.
[6] Ernest Allen, “Satohata Takahashi and the Flowering of Black Messianic Nationalism,” Black Scholar 24 (1994): 23–46.
[7] Cathy Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1999); Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000); and Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Racial Equality (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001).
[8] Reginald Kearney, African American Views of the Japanese: Solidarity or Sedition (Albany, NY: SUNY University Press, 1998); Yuichiro Onishi, “The New Negro of the Pacific: How African Americans Forged Cross-Racial Solidarity with Japan, 1917–1922,” Journal of African American History 92 (2007): 191–213.
[9] Atsushi Tajima and Michael Thornton, “Strategic Solidarity: Japanese Imaginings of Blacks and Race in Popular Media,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 13 (2012): 345–64.
[10] Henry Yu, Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact and Exoticism in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
[11] David Hellwig, “Afro-American Reactions to the Japanese and the Anti-Japanese Movement, 1906–1924,” Phylon 38 (1977): 93–104.
[12] Arnold Shankman, Ambivalent Friends: Afro-Americans View the Immigrant (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982), 41–51; Arnold Shankman, “‘Asiatic Ogre’ or ‘Desirable Citizen’? The Image of Japanese Americans in the Afro-American Press, 1867–1933,” Pacific Historical Review 46 (1977): 567–87.
[13] Hillary Jenks, “Bronzville, Little Tokyo and the Unstable Geography of Race in Post-World War II Los Angeles,” Southern California Quarterly 93 (2011): 201–35.
[14] Cheryl Greenberg, “Black and Jewish Responses to Japanese Internment,” Journal of American Ethnic History 14 (1995): 3–37.
[15] Quintard Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528–1990 (New York: Norton, 1998).
[16] Masako Nakamura, Families Precede Nation and Race?: Marriage, Migration, and Integration of Japanese War Brides after World War II (PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2010).
[17] Yasuhiro Okada, “‘Cold War Black Orientalism’: Race, Gender, and African American Representation of Japanese Women during the Early 1950s,” Journal of American and Canadian Studies 27 (2009): 45–79.
[18] Scot Kurashige, The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008).
[19] Jenks, “Bronzville,”.
[20] Diane Fujino, Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005); Diane Fujino, Samurai Among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance, and a Paradoxical Life (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2012).
[21] Kurashige, The Shifting Grounds of Race.
[22] Matthew Briones, “Hardly ‘small talk’: Discussing Race in the Writing of Hisaye Yamamoto,” Prospects 29 (2005): 435–72; Matthew Briones, “Charles Kikuchi's ‘American Dilemma’: African Americans in the Unpublished Diaries of a Nisei Intellectual,” European Contributions to American Studies 61 (2005): 191–203; and Fujino, Heartbeat of Struggle and Samuria among Panthers.
[23] Jacalyn Harden, Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003); J. A. Hijiya, “Japanese American Dilemmas,” Antioch Review 66 (2008): 363–82.
[24] Leslie Hatamiya, “Institutions and Interest Groups: Understanding the Passage of the Japanese American Redress Bill,” in When Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations to Human Injustice, ed. Roy Brooks (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 190–200.
[25] “Dymally Challenges Blacks to Seek Reparations Bill Like Japanese Americans,” Jet, August 22, 1988, 9.
[26] Rhoda Howard-Hassman, “Getting to Reparations: Japanese Americans and African Americans,” Social Forces 83, no. 2 (2004): 823–40; John Torpey and Maxine Burkett, “The Debate Over African American Reparations,” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 6 (2010): 449–67.
[27] David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness (New York: Verso, 1991).
[28] Sharon Lee and Frank Bean, “Reinventing the Color Line;” Pawan Dhingra, “Being American between Black and White: Second-Generation Asian American Professionals’ Racial Identities,” Journal of Asian American Studies 6 (2003): 117–47; and Eileen O'Brien, The Racial Middle: Latinos and Asian Americans Living Beyond the Racial Divide (New York: New York University Press, 2008).
[29] Rosemary George, “From Expatriate Aristocrat to Immigrant Nobody: South Asian Racial Strategies in the Southern California Context,” Diaspora 6 (1997): 31–60; Paula McClain, Monique Lyle, Niambi Carter Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, Monique L. Lyle, Jeffrey D. Grynaviski, Shayla C. Nunnally, Thomas J. Scotto, J. Alan Kendrick, Gerald F. Lackey, and Kendra Davenport Cotton, “Racial Distancing in a Southern City: Latino Immigrants’ Views of Black Americans,” Journal of Politics 68 (2006): 571–84; and Michael Thornton, Robert Taylor, and Linda Chatters, “African American, Black Caribbean and Non-Hispanic White Feelings of Closeness Toward Other Racial and Ethnic Groups,” Journal of Black Studies 43 (2012): 749–72.
[30] Edwardo Bonilla-Silva and David Embrick. “Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States, in Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the Color-Blind Era, ed., David Brunsma (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005), 33–48; Jenifer Lee and Frank Bean, “Reinventing the Color Line: Immigration in America's New Racial/Ethnic Divide,” Social Forces 86 (2007): 561–86.
[31] Sunaina Maira, “Henna and Hip Hop: The Politics of Cultural Production and the Work of Cultural Studies,” Journal of Asian American Studies 3 (2000): 329–69; Madhulika Khandelwal, Becoming American, Being Indian (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002); Gabriel Sanchez, “Latino Group Consciousness and Perceptions of Commonality with African Americans,” Social Science Quarterly 89 (2008): 428–44.
[32] Shah and Thornton, Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict, p. 187.
[33] Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue.”
[34] J. K. Yamamoto, “Study Shows Changing Demographics in JA Community,” Rafu Shimpo, http://rafu.com/news/2011/07/study-shows-changing-demographics-in-ja-community/ (accessed September 27, 2011).
[35] Charles Hirschman, and Matthew Snipp, “The State of the American Dream: Race and Ethnic Socioeconomic Inequality in the United States, 1970- 1990,” in Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective, ed. D. B. Grusky (2nd ed., Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 623–36.
[36] Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue.”
[37] Shah & Thornton, Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict.
[38] See Catherine Squires, Dispatches from the Color Line: The Press and Multiracial America (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2007) for more on textual analysis.
[39] Thornton, Taylor and Chatters, “African American, Black Caribbean.”
[40] Harold Kelley, “Two Functions of Reference Groups,” in Readings in Reference Group Theory and Research, eds. Herbert Hyman & Eleanor Singer (New York: The Free Press, 1968), 77–83; Theodore Kemper, “Reference Groups, Socialization, and Achievement,” in Social Psychology: Readings and Perspectives, ed. Edgar Borgatta (Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally & Company, 1969), 297–312.
[41] Shah and Thornton, Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict.
[42] John Urry, Reference Groups and the Theory of Revolution (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973).
[43] Firpo Carr, “An Unwinnable War with Whites?,” Los Angeles Sentinel, April 17, 2008.
[44] Rick Clyne, “Point of Order; Executive Branch is not Above the Law,” Miami Times, January 18, 2006.
[45] Askia Muhammad, “The Only ‘Good’ Arab …,” Washington Informer, February 23, 2006.
[46] Veronica Hendrix, “Veronica's View; Iraq and the Disparity between What America Deems Appropriate,” Los Angeles Sentinel, May 13, 2004.
[47] Anthony Samad, “Between the Lines: No Terrorist Act Should Relax Our Resolve for Tolerance,” Los Angeles Sentinel, September 26, 2001.
[48] Askia Muhammad, “Askia at-large: The Downfall of Civil Liberties,” Washington Informer, November 28, 2001.
[49] “Judge Rejects Lake County Police Stop,” Call & Post, December 22, 2005.
[50] “Pressing Forward; NAACP Emphasizes Taking Action on Public Policy Issues,” Michigan Chronicle, April 16, 2003.
[51] Nikki Burns, “Nikki Report Documents Racial Profiling before, After Sept. 11,” Mississippi Link, March 5, 2003; Sala Nolan, “No Place to Hide,” Atlanta Inquirer, February 15, 2003.
[52] Thomas Fleming, “Weekly Report,” Sun Reporter, August 18, 2005.
[53] Ron Daniels, “Revisiting the Immigration Reform Debate,” Tennessee Tribune, May 13, 2010.
[54] Nalea Ko and Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, “Repeal of Birthright Citizenship: Déjà-vu for Japanese Americans,” Louisiana Weekly, September 6, 2010.
[55] Daniels, “Revisiting the Immigration Debate.”
[56] Rosetta Miller-Perry, “African Americans, Tennessee Tribune's Citizens of the Year,” Tennessee Tribune, January 9, 2002.
[57] Thomas Sowell, “Homeland Security,” Chicago Independent Bulletin, August 1, 2002.
[58] Layla Merritt, “New Bill Targets Patriot Act,” Michigan Citizen, June 20, 2004.
[59] Shareef Wright, “Dearborn Groups Seek Peace Support,” Michigan Citizen, February 22, 2003.
[60] Elaine Welles, “When Racism Affects a Different Group, Culture,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 16, 2002.
[61] Kelley Wells, “Reparations: Check, Restoration or Apology,” Washington Informer, June 24, 2004.
[62] Donna Lamb, “Episcopal Diocese of NY Holds Convocation on Reparations,” New York Beacon, May 19, 2005.
[63] Veronica Hendrix, “Addressing Redress from the Inequities of the Past,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 9, 2003.
[64] George Mathis, “Congress Should Hold Hearings on Reparations,” Michigan Chronicle, July 20, 2005; George Mathis, “Hearings Should be Held on Slave Reparations,” Call & Post, July 21, 2005; Kendall Wilson, “Activists to Walk Halls of Congress: Group Wants Reparations Bill Passed,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 28, 2003.
[65] Lamb, “Episcopal Diocese.”
[66] Eric Yamamoto, Sandra Kim, and Abigail Holden, “American Reparations Theory and Practice at the Crossroads,” California Western Law Review 44 (2007): 1–85.
[67] Othor Cain, “Senators Cochran and Lott Fail to Sign Apology Memo,” Mississippi Link, June 30, 2005.
[68] Susan McGregor, “Tracing the Legacies of Slavery,” New York Amsterdam News, February 2, 2006.
[69] Jessie Jackson, “Jesse Jackson: A Sorry Apology,” Tennessee Tribune, July 7, 2005.
[70] Reggie Fullwood, “Funny how the US is good at forcing other countries to “do the right thing,” but our house is far from being in order,” Jacksonville Free Press, August 27, 2003.
[71] Jim Clingman, “Hold the Apology: Give Us Our 40 Acres. Sacramento Observer, July 2, 2009.
[72] “Senate Apologizes for Lynchings,” Sacramento Observer, June 16, 2005.
[73] Joseph Omoremi, “Mfume Boosts Reparations,” Chicago Defender, May 18, 2000.
[74] Fullwood, “Funny How the US is Good at Forcing.”
[75] J. Perry, “What Priced Lost Culture? New York Beacon, March 9, 2006.
[76] Karen Carrillo, “Reparations 101: SA Race Conference Spelled Out in ‘Durban 400’ Film,” New York Amsterdam News, June 19, 2003, 24.
[77] Omoremi, “Mfune Boosts Reparations.”
[78] Lamb, “Episcopal Diocese.”
[79] Fullwood, “Funny How the US is Good at Forcing.”
[80] Wilson, “Activists to Walk Halls.”
[81] “Congressional Panel Examines 1921 Riot,” Jacksonville Free Press, May 12, 2005; Roland Martin, “Tulsa Terror Victims Deserve Reparations,” Chicago Defender, May 16, 2005.
[82] Greg Mathis, “Affirmative Action for Diversity, Reparations for Slavery,” Michigan Chronicle, July 2, 2003; Greg Mathis, “Affirmative Action for Diversity, Reparations for Slavery,” Tri-State Defender, July 9, 2003; “Slave Descendants to File Suit in Texas,” Jacksonville Free Press, January 29, 2003.
[83] Donna Stefanik, “Seattleite Strives for Definitive Reparations Web Site,” Skanner, February 26, 2003.
[84] Lamb, “Episcopal Diocese.”
[85] Clarence Page, “Corporate Reparations on Trial—It Cannot Work, No Precedent,” Caribbean Today, February 1, 2004.
[86] Lamb, “Episcopal Diocese.”
[87] C.f., e.g., Zack Burgess, “Multiracial a Minority? Census Term Debated,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 28, 2009; Scott Kurashige, Grace Lee Boggs, “Asian Detroit and the Legacy of Vincent Chin,” Michigan Citizen, July 13, 2002.
[88] Thornton,”Meaningful Dialogue.”
[89] O'Brien, The Racial Middle. This marginalized status might also be seen in the papers interchanging the use of Japanese American and Japanese. When they reported on the internment experience, using the label Japanese might also be seen symbolically to highlight the foreignness of these American citizens. In that instance, Japanese Americans resemble African Americans more than any other Asian American groups, and both are targeted as something other than citizens.
[90] Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue.”
[91] Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue.”