Asian American & African American Intersections Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, and concepts from the lecture on Asian American experiences, African American history, and their intersections.

Strategic Essentialism

A temporary political strategy that downplays internal differences within a group to present a united front for specific goals.

Anti-Essentialism

The stance that rejects the idea of fixed, uniform traits within a group, emphasizing internal diversity instead.

Essentialism (general)

The belief that a category or group possesses core, defining features shared by all its members.

Double Consciousness

Du Bois’s concept describing the experience of seeing oneself through the hostile gaze of the dominant society while maintaining a distinct self-identity.

W. E. B. Du Bois

African American scholar, activist, and co-founder of the NAACP who introduced the idea of double consciousness.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil-rights organization co-founded by Du Bois in 1909.

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery in the United States except as punishment for a crime.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist organization that used terror and violence to maintain racial hierarchy after the Civil War.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Slave Codes

Laws in colonial and antebellum America that defined the status of enslaved people and restricted their freedoms.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

The forced transportation of millions of Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Reparations

Compensation to descendants of historically oppressed groups for past injustices, e.g., Japanese American internment or slavery.

Alliance: Japanese & African Americans

Historical solidarity exemplified by figures like Yuri Kochiyama supporting Black liberation and reparations.

Yuri Kochiyama

Japanese American activist and ally of Malcolm X who advocated for cross-racial solidarity and reparations.

Malcolm X

Black nationalist leader associated with the Nation of Islam and later global human-rights activism; allied with Yuri Kochiyama.

Janice Mirikitani

Japanese American poet whose works ('Japs,' etc.) explore identity, generational conflict, and racism.

“Japs” (1978)

Mirikitani poem inspired by Hiroshi Kashiwagi’s play, addressing post-WWII Japanese American struggles.

Issei

First-generation Japanese immigrants to the United States.

Nisei

Second-generation Japanese Americans, children of issei.

Sansei

Third-generation Japanese Americans; Mirikitani’s poem references a sansei daughter’s rebellion.

Racial Passing

Adopting the appearance or behavior of another racial group for safety or social advantage.

Generational Trauma

Psychological effects of historical oppression passed down through generations.

Asian American Identity (heterogeneous)

Concept that Asian Americans are ethnically specific, uneven, and open to alliances with other oppressed groups.

“Cleaner's Kid” – Uzuhan

Hip-hop song illustrating working-class Asian American life and family sacrifice.

Uzuhan

Korean American rapper whose music often addresses Asian American identity and labor.

Letters for Black Lives

Open-letter project where Asian Americans explain Black Lives Matter to older generations to build solidarity.

13th (film)

Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary linking mass incarceration to the 13th Amendment’s punishment clause.

Crash Course Black American History

YouTube series (hosted by Clint Smith) providing accessible lessons on African American history.

Pan-Africanism

Movement aimed at solidarity among all people of African descent worldwide, championed by Du Bois.

The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston)

Memoir-novel questioning how to differentiate personal, familial, and cultural influences within Chinese American identity.