Asian American Race Analysis

Words: 1492
Pages: 6

The meaning of the term race is ambiguous according to the “Contested meanings of Asian American; racial dilemmas in the contemporary US”(Kibria 939). Based on the dictionary definition race is defined as a group of people who have similar physical characteristics and genetic traits. In American census “Asian American” is a race itself which is conflicting based on this definition because Asia consists of multiple ethnic groups and not just one. While discrimination is the reason for Asians to redefine themselves as Asian Americans in westernized countries globalization is at root. This re-identification process can be challenging for the immigrants and also for the natives back home. Not only did the Asian Americans encountered issues but …show more content…
Some of the immigrants actually came already financially well off while some needed help from the government in order to improve their lives in the new environment. But with all the stereotypes the government even faced problems identifying who needed help and who didn’t and also who is a minority. One particular stereotype was that “Asians are outsiders who just happened to accomplish stunning achievements” as mentioned in Ann Lo’s essay Also, “Asians” are able to work on their own than there was no need for government intervention. But in reality some Asians didn’t need help while some actually did. Some Asian groups need greater help than other groups (Kibria 945). One example of a group who faced tremendous financial problems in the United States are the Korean Asian Americans. The 1992 riots in Los Angeles resulted in the destruction of Korean businesses. The reason for these riots was that Koreans were taking over businesses that should have been already owned by other groups (Kibria 948). This shows that not only did these people had trouble getting help, but if they attempted to help themselves they faced threats by other …show more content…
Although, globalization is supposed to reach people from all socio economic and help them come forward but actually there is not a whole lot of improvements. As Hieu Nguyen mentions that globalization bring debts in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan. Also, it mostly benefits the rich such that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer (Nguyen 4). So, we can see that although globalization could mean the availability of internet, tv and phone, it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone can afford