Where Are You Really From?

By Ryan Masaaki Yokota

It was only a few days ago, on March 4th, that a couple of API students from UCLA, as representatives of CAPSA, APC, ACA, CPS, and KAUSES, rode up to the Asian Pacific Student Union (APSU) conference up at UC Berkeley.

We were moving at a pretty decent click up the 101 freeway, when the driver of our van, who had been cruising a little past the speed limit, was pulled over.

The police officer sauntered over to our van, flashed a light inside to reveal six Asian faces, and then turning to the driver asked her a question.

"Do you speak English?" he said.

I was somewhat taken aback by the question. But not much. I knew about the reality of American society. I knew that this cop was looking at us with eyes as typically ignorant of racial dimensions as any American is, and seeing us for our skin color and ethnic features and thereby stereotyping us from the start.

I knew that he had no knowledge that my family had been in the U.S. for a hundred years, and that Asian Pacific Islanders had occupied these shores for over fifty years longer than that.

I knew that he didn't know how the railroads and sugar fields were built on immigrant Asian labor, that for over a hundred years much of the food on his table had been farmed by Asian hands, grown through API sweat. He obviously didn't know of the contributions that APIs had made to the history of America, and of the contributions that APIs are still making today.

The question he had asked had been built on this ignorance. And it seems that this question belies a very real societal problem for APIs in this country. For no matter what our history or our current condition, we continue to be perceived as outsiders and aliens in America today.

This is the same situation we continue to face when non-Asians ask us where we're from, and when answering we're from, say L.A., or California, they ask us again "No, I mean where are you really from?" waiting for our answers with ignorant stupidity.

The question of the police officer's statement underlines a very real situation confronting us in this society, where no matter how much we try to assimilate, American society still perceives us as outsiders, oftentimes in the land where we were born. This even takes on a similar context in other Anglo-dominated countries, as shown in a recent experience I had when crossing the Canadian border, where I was referred to as a "Japanese" by the border guard, when I made it very clear I was a Nikkei from California.

This ignorance becomes much more serious when the overflow of hatred against Asian nations such as that which was held against the Japanese in World War II, against the Koreans in the Korean War, and the Vietnamese in the Vietnam War, trickles back into the societal sphere back in the states, causing such things as the racial segregation of the Japanese American citizens into the American Concentration Camps, or the numerous attacks and lynchings that have occurred against APIs since their arrival in the US When disgruntled Detroit auto workers killed the Chinese American Vincent Chin, they blamed him for their loss of jobs not because he was perceived as a Japanese American, but because they thought he was Japanese. The list of killings and attacks goes on and on, from the Stockton schoolyard massacre to the recent October firebombings of the Sacramento chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and city councilmember Jimmy Yee by the Aryan Liberation Front.

Yet this continual perception in the American public of APIs as outsiders comes largely from the failure on the part of the educational system to truly address the need for adequate multicultural training in the schools. Through the institution of a real system of diversity training, children moving through the public education system can truly begin to understand, not only the things that make many groups in America culturally unique, but they can also begin to find the basis for a true harmonizing of all Americans, built on awareness, consciousness, and respect.

Also, by retaining the strength of our API cultural heritage here in America, not only do we add new and vibrant viewpoints, ways of life, and ideologies to this society, but we also continue to affirm the sense of psychological pride so often missing among our younger brethren, who often must deal with racism at all levels in their growth experience.

Even further, through self-education of our historical API experiences here in the US, we can begin the process of learning to be proud of our place in America, to claim the respect that is our birthright in this country, paid for in the blood and tears of our immigrant ancestors who paved the way for us to follow. The 1990 census counted more than 7.5 million APIs living in the US today, and the numbers are growing. With the growth of our nation, we must continue to struggle and fight for a greater place in America today. The ignorance must stop, and only through perseverance and strength of will can we truly begin to see America as it is meant to be.

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