Asian American Movement Research Paper

Words: 531
Pages: 3

The term “Asian American” wasn’t coined until the 1960s, when the Asian American Movement emerged in response to the systemic racism and discrimination that this group faced. It came from UC Berkeley students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee when they created the Asian American Political Alliance. They did so to “unite students of Asian descent under the banner of one pan-ethnic and pan-Asian identity” (Hewang, 2023). The 1960s was the decade with many historic moments in US history of social and political activism like the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war and countercultural movements. The younger generation is fueling the fight for change and breaking traditional norms. The Civil Rights Movement served as a guide for the Asian American movement, …show more content…
Already, the system is not in favor of people of color and marginalized groups. During this time, there weren’t many Asian immigrants in the US, not until the 1800s when Asian groups immigrated to America. Some East and Southeast Asians were migrating to Hawaii to work on plantations and settlements. The first major wave of Asian immigration was in the 1850s, during the Gold Rush when Chinese immigrants left their homes to go to California because there was news of a “gold mountain” and to avoid the unstable economy in China due to the Opium Wars (Takaki, 1998). However, there was no such thing which left many of the Chinese immigrants looking for other jobs that many of the locals did not enjoy because they believed that they were taking their jobs. The Chinese were stereotyped as uncivilized and disease carriers (Yellow Peril) which led to a lot of violence and hostility against Chinese immigrants. Then came another law that Congress passed, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which did not allow any immigration from