Asians_in_Cj

Lou Kenneth Q Isip Multiculturalism In The Criminal Justice System Chapter 5: Asian Americans in the Criminal Justice System Professor Brown November 6, 2010 The main thing that Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans have in common when talking about immigration is the hardships they endured when they got here. All groups have shared a great amount of hatred and discrimination by White Americans. With the Chinese and Japanese, they actually had laws passed against them which showed complete prejudice against the groups because of their ethnicity. These immigrants also share the commonality that they all came to the United States as laborers to work on railroads, plantations, etc. The first case of anti-Asian sentiment can be seen in the way that the Chinese were outlawed from immigrating to the United States for 10 years by the Chinese Exclusion Act by Congress in 1882. This act also did not allow naturalization to Chinese people already living in the United States. This was brought about partly because they were hard workers and the White American workers felt threatened that they would lose job opportunities to the Chinese. 10 years after the bill was passed, Congress added that laborers would need to get certificates of residence within a year or face deportation. They also extended the Exclusion Act for another 10 years. (McNamara & Burns 108) The second group of Asians to come to the United States was the Japanese. Although they show great difference from the Chinese by understanding what they needed to do to be treated different and because they were more vocal, they too had experienced the discrimination and faced hardships when immigrating to the United States. The first wave of Japanese came at the time when the Chinese Exclusion act had been formalized. They replaced the Chinese workers and took jobs with low pay and poor working conditions. This was good for employers but they were hated by employees and unions. (McNamara & Burns 109) Once Pearl Harbor was attacked, fear grew amongst the American people against Japanese Americans living in the West Coast. In 1942, President Roosevelt then signed an Executive Order authorizing removal of anyone perceived as a threat to the United States. This resulted in anyone with Japanese ancestry to be put into internment camps. These camps would hold these people until the government saw fit to release them. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that all detainees must be granted their freedom, and were released. (McNamara & Burns 110-111) Like the Japanese, the Koreans came to the United States in need to replace the Chinese workers who had been denied rights to enter the U.S. They were brought here to work on sugarcane plantations. Koreans had experienced hard ships during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. Tensions grew between them and the African American community when a 15 year old Black girl was killed by a Korean grocer. Korean businesses were destroyed, which were valued at $300 million. (McNamara & Burns 112) Media plays a big role in contributing to the myth that Asians perform and excel above and beyond in the educational system and work ethics in professional environments. Though that may be true for some people, it does not represent the entire Asian American community as a whole. “For every Chinese American or South Asian who has a college degree, the same number of Southeast Asians are still struggling to adapt to their lives in the U.S. Vietnamese Americans only have a college degree attainment rate of 20%, less than half the rate for other Asian American ethnic groups. The rates for Laotians, Cambodians, and Khmer are even lower at less than 10%.” (Le, C.N.) We can see the model minority myth of Asian Americans in television shows, movies, music videos, etc. They portray Asians as nerds, unusually intelligent and disciplined. Even watching the movie, The Goonies, which came out in 1984, the only Asian in the movie was the smart, intelligent one who had created his own gadgets. The question is; why did the director or writer choose that character to be Asian' Therefore, media plays a big part in how Asians are viewed, and mostly, they are viewed as hard working, intelligent people who are usually nerdy and disciplined. I actually believe that Asian Americans are underrepresented in the crime statistics because they commit fewer crimes than the rest of the population. The Uniform Crime Reports for 2005 show that since 1999, there percentage of Asians arrested have only been about 1% of the population. This trend shows that for 6 years, Asians have been “holding the title” for racial group to be arrested and therefore, commit less crimes. Although there have been studies that show that certain ethnic groups of Asians are more likely to commit crimes than Whites, Blacks, etc., that only shows part of the Asian population. When talking about crime and crime statistics, they talk about the representation of the racial group as a whole, not by ethnicities. If that was the case, African Americans, Hispanics, and even Whites would be broken down even further into many ethnic groups. Then we would compare these groups and rank them according to highest and lowest arrest rates. We would still see that the majority of the Asian ethnic groups will have the lowest percentage of arrests. Do you think that hate crimes against Asian Americans are common' Why is it that when people think of the crimes, they usually think of African Americans' I definitely think that hate crimes against Asian Americans are common. Even though a study showed that in 2007, Asians were only 2.5% of all hate crimes, it doesn’t take into account that there are instances where people do not report crime. More notably, they are committed often by children. There are many instances where Asians are targets of hate crimes in school. One example was in South Boston: “16 year-old Vietnamese student Bang Mai was killed on July 11, 2004 in a massive brawl between white and Vietnamese youths. The basketball court brawl was the result of weeks of tension between the two groups. Mai was fatally stabbed as he attempted to walk away from the brawl. Sixteen year-old Keith E. Gillespie was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison.” (Ellement, "Teen Gets 5-year Sentence in S. Boston Slaying,"”) There are victims that are targets because of ones beliefs. Anyone can be subject to a hate crime. We shouldn’t overlook one group over the other because of the media and what is being put out for the population to see. In an instance in California, Eddy Wu, 23 years old, was stabbed in his back and shoulder, in addition to a punctured lung. A police sergeant even stated, “He was looking for a victim based on his white supremacist beliefs” (Noble, “Attack Against Asians-Americans Are Rising”) The assailant, Robert Page even wrote in his confession to the police that he was going to kill him a “Chinaman”. To not think that hate crimes against Asian Americans are not common or do not exist is simply ignorant. It happens all over the world, never mind the United States. I think people usually think of African Americans when talking about hate crimes is because the media, for the most part, puts out things that are strictly Black and White. Also, being that America has been a segregated country, the emphasis was on Blacks and Whites only. There were signs everywhere segregating the two races. There was never an emphasis on other races. Then when it became socially wrong to commit a crime on someone based on race, most of those cases were Whites beating on Blacks. When it was deemed unconstitutional to discriminate based on race, religion, etc., the White population felt they were losing the battle and therefore, committed more crimes against Black people. I chose this chapter because I am an Asian American (Filipino-American) and I did not really know much about Asians migrating to the United States and why. This chapter gave me a good insight on the trials and hardships Asians endured throughout the history of the United States. Being that I came here when I was 2 years old, I did not know much about my Asian background. I knew I was Filipino but that was that. I wanted to learn more about Asians, and was interested when I started reading about the model minority myth. I did not realize that existed until now. Looking back, I do remember watching movies and television shows thinking, “Wow, that is real stereotypical”, when talking about Asians. I do, however, have some ambivalent feelings towards the Glass Ceiling theory. It might be true with Asians as a whole, but I think the theory differs between the ethnic groups. I know in my family and family culture, we can only succeed if you stand out and be vocal. I am just that and my success in life and work will be because I asked and earned the responsibilities. I am confident that my work ethics will put me in a position to claim what I worked so hard for. As far as Asians crime, I think we get stereotyped just like any other group. I can remember growing up in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood where I was Chinese to everyone. That really got to me, thinking how people can be so ignorant and insensitive. I experienced that even when I was 21. But then I look back and see the history of the United States and the bigotry in it and am not surprised. We were actually targets of crime, even in grammar school, getting picked on, having to empty out our pockets, and even succumbed to verbal abuse being called “chinks” and “gooks”. I wish in my lifetime I can see or experience our country without racial discrimination. There are laws against it, but I think it will never disappear. People have their own opinions on other groups, and just like religion, you cannot change their way of thinking. Works Cited John R. Ellement, "Teen Gets 5-year Sentence in S. Boston Slaying." The Boston Globe, December 6, 2005. Le, C.N.,”The Model Minority Age.” The Landscape of Asian America. November 5, 2010. McNamara, Robert, and Robert Burns. Multiculturalism In The Criminal Justice System. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2009. Noble, Kenneth B., “Attacks Against Asian-Americans Are Rising.” NY Times, December 13, 2005.