Cold War, Civil Rights & Rise of Radicalism in Asian American Studies

Introduction

• Focus: Cold War, U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and the rise of Asian American radicalism.
• Central premise: These overlapping historical currents catalyzed an alternative narrative of the Asian American experience, fostering a new political consciousness that challenged racism at home and U.S. imperial projects abroad.

Reflection Artist – Blue Scholars: “Yuri Kochiyama”

• Group facts:
  • Hip-hop duo from Seattle founded in 2002 by DJ Sabzi & MC Geologic while at the University of Washington.
  • Name is a play on “blue collar,” signaling solidarity with hourly, manual laborers.
• Song content (lyrics referenced in slides):
  • Imagery of Life Magazine photo depicting Yuri Kochiyama at Malcolm X’s final speech.
  • Lines such as “I wonder what you felt when his eyes were going dim” invite listeners to contemplate radical empathy and shared struggle.
  • Raises the hypothetical: if Malcolm had not been assassinated, would mainstream America know Kochiyama’s name?
• Pedagogical use: Establishes affective bridge between popular culture and Asian American movement history.

Week 7 Module Overview – “Cold War, Civil Rights & the Rise of Radicalism”

• Learning goals:
  • Grasp how Cold War geopolitics intersected with domestic civil-rights upheavals.
  • Trace emergence of Asian American political consciousness.
  • Conduct retrospective analysis for an alternative Asian American narrative.
• Framing questions: How do foreign policy, race relations, and student activism intertwine?

Ch. 13 – “Making a New Asian America Through Immigration & Activism”

• Multi-issue engagement:
  • Asian Americans participated in campaigns for civil rights, women’s liberation, and LGBT rights.
  • Anti-Vietnam War activism served as a trans-Pacific lens on U.S. imperialism.
• Outcome: Distinct Asian American Movement defined “Asian American” pan-ethnic identity and mobilized heterogeneous communities for shared goals.

1965 Immigration & Nationality (Hart-Celler) Act

• Intent: Initially conceived as incremental reform; absence of later comprehensive legislation means it remains the immigration foundation today.
• Key changes: Abolished national-origins quotas; instituted hemispheric & family-reunification preferences.
• Consequences:
  • Post-1965 Asian & Latin American immigration reshaped U.S. racial hierarchy.
  • All sectors—politics, education, health care, intermarriage—affected.
  • Asians’ population growth & capital investment transformed everyday life.

Asian American Movement (AAM) of the 1960s–1970s

• Generational shift: New activists expanded elders’ anti-racist struggles.
• Dual participation:
  • Part of larger U.S. social-justice coalitions.
  • Launched campaigns around specifically Asian American issues (e.g., ethnic studies, anti-eviction, international solidarity).
• Notable cross-movement figures:
  • Yuri Kochiyama (Civil Rights).
  • Philip Vera Cruz (Farmworkers).
  • Grace Lee Boggs (Black Power & Labor).

Spotlight: Yuri Kochiyama

• Biographical timeline:
  • Born 1921, San Pedro, CA to Japanese immigrant parents.
  • WWII incarceration: Jerome, Arkansas, one of the ten War Relocation Authority camps.
  • Post-war: Returned to California amid anti-Japanese hostility.
• Activism arc:
  • Community organizer in Harlem; closely allied with Malcolm X (present at his 1965 assassination).
  • Bridged East-Coast AAM with African American struggles.
  • Later decades: Advocated for political-prisoner releases, fought post-9/11 racial profiling.
• Significance: Embodied intersectional, trans-racial solidarity model.

Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes – SF State College & UC Berkeley (1968–1969)

• Authored by Harvey Dong; lasting impacts on Chinese/Asian America:
  1. Structural win: Creation of ethnic-studies curricula & programs.
  • Enabled comparative study of Chinese American history focused on discrimination & equality struggles.
  1. Consciousness shift: Chinese American youth underwent politicization; rejected assimilationist advancement strategies.

Political & Social Context (Late 1960s)

• Global revolutions in “Third World” (Asia, Africa, Latin America) galvanized diaspora pride.
• Rise of Black Power sharpened critiques of U.S. racism.
• Institutional racism in universities manifested as curricular erasure of Asian Americans.
• Result: Heightened Asian American resolve for activism, often linking local conditions to international anti-colonial liberation.

Yellow Symposium

• Campus-based convening of Asian American students.
• Passed resolution backing:
  • SF State TWLF Strike.
  • Demand for Asian American Studies.
  • Establishment of Third World Colleges nationally.
• Symbolic break from individualistic “model minority” aspirations toward collective liberation politics.

Legacy of Asian American Student Activism

• TWLF became training ground; lessons in coalition-building, direct action, negotiating with administrations.
• Settlements empowered marginalized students with partial institutional control.
• Energy channeled into:
  • Building Asian American & broader ethnic-studies departments.
  • Legitimizing scholarship once dismissed as “identity politics.”

Bruce Lee & the Anti-Imperialism of Kung Fu – A Polycultural Adventure

• Thesis: Studying kung fu moves us from narrow multiculturalism toward antiracist, polycultural frameworks that trace “long waves of linkage.”
• Critique of “racism with a distance”: Celebrates Asian cultures superficially while ignoring intertwined histories (the “mulatto” metaphor for cultural hybridity).
• Context:
  • 1965 act reconfigured U.S. racial attitudes—Asians shifting from “yellow peril” to techno-admired “model minority.”
  • U.S. Cold-War need for scientific talent spurred selective embrace of Asian immigrants.
• Bruce Lee’s media presence (The Green Hornet 1966–1967) mirrored this ambivalence: visible yet typecast.

Allegory in “The Way of the Dragon” (aka “Return of the Dragon,” 1972)

• Plot elements:
  • Lee as Tang Lung, restaurant worker (stereotyped servility) who trains coworkers in back-alley kung fu.
  • Fights Chuck Norris (Colt) in Rome’s Coliseum—symbolic East-vs-West showdown.
• Interpretive layers:
  • Chinese vs. Western civilization.
  • “Paper tiger” of U.S. imperialism challenged by “rising tide of the Red East.”
  • Offers allegory of Asian American radicalism and the Vietnam War’s anti-imperialist critique.

Combat Multiracism

• Lee as a product of liberal multiculturalism still illuminates its limits.
• Task: Transition from celebration of diversity toward dismantling structural racism across racialized groups—“polycultural” solidarity.

Class Reflection Prompts

• Identification: How do we diagnose issues within Asian American communities?
• Advocacy: Strategies for mobilization & coalition building.
• Visioning social change:
  • What forms can it take?
  • Beneficiaries & potential unintended consequences.

Conclusion

• Cold War + Civil Rights era forged heightened Asian American political awareness.
• Student activism proved catalytic, reshaping both personal identities and institutional landscapes (e.g., ethnic studies).
• AAM demonstrated that struggles against racism at home are inseparable from critiques of U.S. global power.

Reminders

• Midterm: Due last week.
• Module 7 forum discussion post & peer review pending.
• Topic-proposal assignment upcoming.