Short Essays Flashcards
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, California’s Imperial Valley witnessed the rise of a vibrant Punjabi-Mexican community that came about following the biethnic marriages between Punjabi men and Mexican women. Detail three distinguishing characteristics of Punjabi-Mexican marriages.
(Four Possible)
Age difference: men older
Religion: not as influential as other Asian groups; cross-religion couplings (maybe talk about ethnicity/race too)
Opportunistic marriages for women: Punjabi have better jobs than Mexicans
Marriage networking: interracial encouraged, since matching up friends
According to Vivek Bald, what made it possible for Muslim immigrants from India to establish a peddler network during a time of heightened anti-Asian sentiment? What were two factors that prompted Bengali peddlers to set up their main US hub in New Orleans?
MADE IT POSSIBLE
orientalism: culture = popular/ huge demand
M peddlers give authentication to goods, cater to Am ideas of exotic far east. Ams may not have liked Asians, but because M peddlers gave them what they wanted, they left them alone.
Also, they didn’t settle in California, where anti-As sentiment was strongest. Here, the main race conflict was black versus white. In addition, California, unlike New Orleans, was experiencing mass unemployment which incensed exclusionary sentiment.
NEW ORLEANS
place for tourists: city’s business was creating, enacting, and commercializing myths. Mardi Gras
oriental=favorite obsession. M peddlers goods in high demand
port= gateway to caribbean and Latin America, trade rout of M peddlers forms around the three locations, which are also three touristy locations.
According to Lili Kim, what is benevolent nationalism? Provide and discuss three specific examples that showcase benevolent nationalism.
BENEVOLENT NATIONALISM
Korean women’s approach to Korean independence movement. They fostered unity and solidarity in Korean communities through financial and social support and cultural preservation
Korean women’s approach to Korean independence movement. They provided social and economic services, with a focus on community and the promotion of Korean unity and ethnic pride. They broadened the scope of community activism and the roles women could play (women organized activities and led organizations).
The work extended beyond a push for independence: cultural preservation, humanitarian efforts, support within community.
EXAMPLES
Korean Women’s Association: created to teach children the Korean language
Korean Relief Society: unity and humanity, promote peace and harmony beyond just independence for Korea
Hyungjay (Sisters) Club: teach Korean girls traditional Korean culture
THE WOMEN OUTSIDE provides a compelling look at why military camptowns exist and thrive. Provide three specific examples that explain why military camptowns, despite generating a slew of social problems, flourish.
economically benefit some members of K society
- pimps/club owners
- Korean women running acculturation classes for future brides of soldiers
benefits us military
- generals allow because boosts morale of soldiers
- solders
- –temporary social outlet that’s conducive to their lifestyle
- –uncommon opportunity to have sex
few economic opportunities for Korean women. This not only provides a way to make a living, but there is hope of escaping poverty/degradation of sex work in the possibility of marrying a soldier and escaping.
-and even when realize harsh reality stay because nowhere to return to; ostracized.
According to Sucheng Chan, it is important to examine the broader context of Sourth Vietnamese politics to account for the military defeat of the United States nd the South Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. Provide and discuss three specific examples that detail the weakness of the Thieu Regime.
currency market
Kai reported to Nixon that 90% of us aid lost to corrupt US and Vietnamese officials
–weakness of Vietnamese economy because of corruption
no clear leaders to unite country
-in fact, instead of leading itself, relies on US leadership; US provides supplies and military aid. Vietnam receives the support.
Military Strategy
Without US to guide, can’t strategize effectively
Spread too thin
Rely on US for supplies
What is the purpose of the Comprehensive Plan of Action? Discuss three important stipulations if the CPA. What changes took place in Vietnam and in the United States to prompt passage of the CPA?
Note as long as you use complete sentences, you’re good. There are six things to write about. For time’s sake don’t write six paragraphs!
PURPOSE
detail how to deal with refugee crisis: stop/slow the flow of refugees from SE Asia
THREE STIPULATIONS
established cutoff-date after which wouldn’t automatically be assumed a refugee.
established legitimacy of refugee status
- -come before date: refugee.
- -come after: screening process, refugee or economic migrant
Orderly Departure Program run through Vietnam
CHANGES IN VIETNAM AND US
Vietnam agrees not to prosecute returning citizens after December 1988
Relations between US and Vietnam begin to normalize
–Vietnam willing to release political prisoners to US
Compassion fatigue in US.
–weary of endless stream of refugees and economic/social strain.
What is the “Vietnam Syndrome”? Discuss and develop the significance of three storytelling strategies that journalists used to help the nation defeat the Vietnam Syndrome.
VIETNAM SYNDROME
national shame/discomfort over defeat in Vietnam War
disrupted history up through WWII of military triumph
led to demilitarization, anti-interventionism
STORYTELLING STRATEGIES
Vietnam war cast as war for freedom of Vietnam: communism creates refugees, US rescues them. In this sense the war is not a loss. This focus also diverts attention away from the politics of the war, especially US attempt at increased hegemony in SE Asia.
1.vet cast in sphere of domesticity and innocence
–honor dead but don’t reference purpose.
2.Vietnam cast as backwards and violent
together these two strategies divert focus of war from one of international politics to one of rescue: veterans go from order to chaos, innocence to violence, US to Vietnam to free Vietnamese from communism.
- Refugees to US as proof of US benevolence: tell success stories of refugees. important to note, only tell of wealthy happy refugees; one side of the story.
A central character of Kao Kalia Yang’s THE LATEHOMECOMER is Yang’s grandmother. Draw on specific examples to highlight the important role that Yang’s grandmother played in the family’s flight from Laos and in their residence in Thailand’s Ban Vinai refugee camp. How did grandmother’s role change when the family immigrated to the US? Be specific in your answer.
IN LAOS FLIGHT
matriarch– hold family together, keep women and children safe; lead them into laos military camp until men can come for them (develop?)
IN BAN VINAI
distinguished leader of Hmong, as shaman (spiritual leader and healer). helps guards with their STIs, and respected enough even by guards to be allowed to leave camp, and never attacked like others who leave. Because of this she is able to help both the guards and her own people with the herbs she gathers.
ROLE CHANGE IN AMERICA
degraded from distinguished leader to just another helpless elderly
-shaman not esteemed in am society
-older
-language barrier: can’t communicate with most people, uses language cards for basic needs
–doesn’t unite family anymore; family spread over country.
–doesn’t name grandchildren anymore
A key theme of Yang’s THE LATEHOMECOMER is “silence.” Provide and discuss the significance of two examples that Yang develops in her autobiography to address the issue of “silence.” How does Yang attempt to combat being silenced? Be specific in your answer.
EXAMPLE ONE
Yang struggles with speaking in English because she can’t find her voice. Often when she does find her voice her audience has already left. This is not a mechanical problem. Instead, she can’t connect culturally with the English speaking society. She feels silenced by the cultural divide. Hmong have no voice in society.
EXAMPLE TWO
Yang can’t bring herself to point out to her parents how hard their life in America is. She sees how much they try, and how much hope they have in the promise of America that she silences her observation/correction.
Together these show the inbetween-ness that she and other immigrant children growing up in the US feel and have felt. She feels distanced from the general public who don’t understand her culture or where she came from, and distanced from her family, which is so wrapped up in its hope in the American dream that she can’t bear to point out reality. She is silenced by both groups.
HOW YANG COMBATS BEING SILENCED
But Yang combats this silencing through writing. Through writing she found her voice; she could take the time she needed to find the words to explain her story, and the words would stay and wait for someone to come back and listen. Seeing that the Hmong have no voice in the history books, she has written this book, THE LATEHOMECOMER, to represent the Hmong in America and create a literary refuge for their lives and experiences.
Much of Sokyl Ny’s diaristic documentary is a quest for social and institutional belonging. Draw on three specific examples to develop why and how Ny struggles with social and institutional belonging in U.S.
INSECURE PLACES OF RESIDENCE (Projects, Tenerloin)
poor neighborhood, unreliable police responsiveness
–robbed several times, window broken. Once calls police and gets answering machine
EDUCATION SYSTEM
graduates HS, but just barely and may have cheated
school not equipped to deal with refuguees
-no one tries to understand his situation or history
–teacher thinks his paper on the jungle is fiction, asks if character brought a machete
FRACTURED FAMILY
no mentor/parental guidance
-mother with new husband or working
-little brother run off or in jail
-older brother good role model but distanced
-father sacrificed life for them in Cambodia but no one remembers him
–no one in his family attends his graduation; all are at little brother’s hearing
According to Sarah Gualtieri, in what ways have scholars exaggerated the Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis fairs as a major “pull” factor in the immigration of Syrians to the U.S.? What are two notable migration streams of Syrian women to the U.S. during the first decades of the twentieth cdntury that Gualtieri detailed in her study?
WAYS FAIRS EXAGGERATED
- There was already a community of Syrian peddlers in New York before fairs. So while the fairs may have encouraged migration, it was not the initial pull- it was merely an extension of an existing trend.
- This argument ignores the fact that there was also Syrian migration around that to places without world’s fairs, such as Argentina and Brazil. In fact, at that time and even fairly recently Argentina nearly always received more Syrian immigrants than the U.S.
TWO MIGRATION STREAMS OF SYRIAN WOMEN
note: They could come, unlike some other Asian groups, because originally classified as white.
- Purpose: Family unification and marriage. Follow fiancé, husband, or father. Often, elder Syrian women relatives would match younger female relatives with Syrian men in us and send the young women overseas to join match.
- Purpose: Wage-earning. Widows and young women also immigrated independently seeking opportunities to work in the U.S. They often made a living as seamstresses, factory workers, or peddlers. In one dramatic example, a Syrian woman became a highly successful trader in Canada, single-handedly rivaling the Hudson Bay Company.
According to Nabeel Abraham, anti-Arab sentiments can be grouped under the rubrics of 1) ideologically motivated violence 2) anti-Arab xenophobia and 3) jingoistic racism. Provide an example of each type of racism and develop the significance of each example.
- IDEOLOGICALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE
- Jewish Defense League (JDL) suspected in vandalizing automobiles belonging ot Arab students living in an apartment building that they also are suspected of bombing. The cars were covered with Stars if David and “Death to the PLO”, or Palestine Liberation Organization. Clearly these acts were motivated by the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Jewish mainstream orgs denounce the violence of these extremist groups, but the culture and atmosphere of anti-Arab sentiment influenced the extremists to act out. This sentiment is cultivated by mainstream groups, and in this way is perhaps worse than individual bombings, as it trains an entire people.
- ANTI-ARAB XENOPHOBIA
Fear and hatred of those identified as Arab by appearance, rooted in nativistic racism. Locally inspired hostility/violence
-Two Yemeni men were murdered by white men within days of each other. Both occurred in an Arab neighborhood in Dearborn. Because of high Arab population and fact on way to work, the men were likely a random choice, solely targeted because they were Arab. The men were never brought to justice.
- JINGOISTIC RACISM
- caused by a mix of false patriotism, political ignorance, ethnocentrism, and heightened international tensions, especially if US or US citizens are involved. Often not premeditated; spontaneous and reactionary.
- hostage crisis (US person=hostage, held by Lebanese)
- fliers circulate in Brooklyn urging violence against Arabs.
- -clearly a reaction to then current events, targeting Arabs in US simply because share ethnicity of perpetrators in Lebanon.
According to Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, in what way is the international transfer of caretaking a distinct form of the international division of labor? What is the significance of this distinction? Provide two specific examples to detail the social consequences of “being in the middle.”
TRANSFER OF CARETAKING= DIVISION OF LABOR
hierarchy with white priviledged women in industrialized countries at the top, Filipina domestic workers in those countries in the middle, and Filipina workers in the Philippines at the bottom. The white privileged women escape their reproductive work by hiring Filipina domestic workers and are able to perform productive work. Filipina domestic workers escape their reproductive work in the Philipines, but bear the reproductive of the white women in the new countries they arrive in. Filipina women in the Philippines take on the reproductive that the domestic workers leave behind when they emigrate. So it is an international exchange of reproductive caretaking labor; a subsection of the international division of labor.
SIGNIFICANCE
assists economic growth of receiving countries; women work
divergence of global economy: outsourcing, but creating racial divisions in labor.
CONSEQUENCES For migrant Filipina domestic workers, one consequence of being in the middle of this hierarchy is their conflicting class mobility. In the Philippines, not only are they well-educated, but they are well-off financially because of their foreign jobs as well. In the country where they work, the domestic workers are of low class, doing menial, skillless labor. One woman dreams of retiring in the Philippines, stressing that she has enough money to never lift a finger again. Many reconcile difference by stessing status in Philippines.
Another consequence is the pain of separation of family. Most Filipina migrant workers are part of transnational families, with only the mother outside of the Philippines. Women experience grief, guilt, and loneliness, as did one woman who recounted how she would receive letters from her son telling her how he cried missing her, and she felt utterly alone and sad.
