AAS 345 OL - Contemporary Asian American Issues

UNIT OBJECTIVES

1. Examine the history of outmarriage
2. Examine changes in patterns since the 1960s
3. Examine the controversy around race and gender
   

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In reading about the history of the Watsonville, California anti-Filipino riots, and also considering what you read in weeks 2-4, why was marriage between whites and non-whites barred by law? What was the gender ratio for most Asian immigrant communities in the 19th and early 20th century and what connection did this have with the many legal restrictions on Asian immigrations including such things as anti-miscegenation laws? Lastly, what happened in Watsonville and why?
2. Using the second and third set of required readings, discuss interracial marriages involving Asian Americans after the 1960s. What changed? Why are there significant gender and ethnic differences in outmarriage rates (eg. more women outmarry, or Japanese Americans are more likely to marry whites than any other group, etc.)? Why would Asian Americans object to or make issue of interracial marriage today?

TASKS FOR THIS WEEK

• Prior to class - Do the required readings
• Read discussion questions for this unit - SEE ABOVE
• Wednesday, March 26th - Take pre-discussion quiz 4:30-5:00pm
• Participate in discussion 5:00-5:45pm - Join any of the five discussion groups
• Reporters reconvene in main channel, 5:45-6:30pm

Pick whichever channel you want but there should be no more than 4-5 students per group. If there are too many people joining, please POLITELY remind to try a different one!

Note: Once you are in a channel, choose a moderator. This should rotate and everyone should take a turn at least once during the semester. You can use whatever format you want (free-for-all, moderated, raise hands, etc). Make sure that the moderator for your group takes roll call so that you get credit and then the moderators will be reporting back to the professor.

READINGS

REQUIRED

• Timeline of significant events affecting interracial marriage
• Little Brown Brothers, Little White Girls: The Anti-Filipino Hysteria of 1930... - by Richard B. Meynell
• Interracial Dating and Marriage - Asian-nation.org
• blast@ explode.com: "Life in Asian America" - There are a number of articles, read at least one.

OPTIONAL

• Interracial marriage gender gap grows - Article based on 2000 Census data, discusses black-white, Asian-white.
• Providence's Black Chinese: A Love Story - Luke Tsai, creative non-fiction piece
• Why Asian Guys Are on a Roll... - Esther Pan. This is a reprint of a story that ran a few years ago in Newsweek magazine about how the image of Asian men is on the upswing.
  

Comments (8)

	1. 03-26-2008 15:40
	where is the pre quiz located? I counld not find the link. Registered Report

Juranita Thiraphoj

	2. 03-26-2008 15:52
	trends in Asian American racial/ethnic i For further reading, there is an interesting article on the “Trends in Asian American Racial/Ethnic Intermarriage: A Comparison of 1980 and 1990 Census Data” by Sharon M. Lee and Marilyn Fernandez. You may log on to the CSUN Campus Web Portal and access the databases (under Library) and look for the article under JSTOR database. Or you can try to access it using this link----stable URL:  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0731-1214%281998%2941%3A2%3C323%3ATIAARI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V    Here’s the abstract from the journal: “The paper uses data from the 1990 census to compare patterns of Asian American intermarriage with those reported by Lee and Yamanaka (1990). Lee and Yamanaka (1990) used datafrom the 1980 census to examine patterns of Asian American racial and ethnic intermarriage. They reported that one- quarter of married Asian Americans were outmarried; of these, 90% were married to non-Asians. Variations by gender and nativity were also observed. Women and the native-born  were more likely to be outmarried. We expect to see a decline in Asian American intermarriage since 1980 because of high levels of immigration, growth of the Asian population, and increased social distance between Asian Americans and Whites. Our main findings show that: (i) the overall outmarriage rate has declined; (ii) Asian American inter-ethnic marriages (that is, marriages between two Asian Americans of different Asian ethnicities) have increased; and (iii) social distance, measured by an Index of Intermarriage Distance, between Asian Americans and other racial and ethnic groups has widened. We conclude by discussing some implications of the findings for the role of racial and ethnic intermarriage as an indicator of intergroup relations.” Registered Report

Cathy Viado

	3. 03-26-2008 16:09
	trends in Asian American racial/ethnic i cant find the link to the quiz? anyone know where it is at? Registered Report

Edwin Higgins

	4. 03-26-2008 16:23
	Quiz Link This is now officially my number one pet peeve, the quiz link. The quiz link will never be active or available prior to 4:30. Because so many people try to access it early, I put password protection. However, then people try and log in with their userid and password even though it's password protected because you are NOT supposed to try and access it prior to 4:30.     So what happens? People who tried to access it early then have the password page in their browser cache and they don't know how to refresh/reload the page so then they are freaking out because it seems to continue asking for the password even after 4:30.    So, this time, I just didn't put a link. I just put updated the page with the link but for the life of me, if anyone asks me why then can't get in or find the link prior to 4:30, I'm going to jump off a bridge. The quizzes are not hard, as you've probably noticed, because they are only meant to encourage that people read and have the info fresh in their minds RIGHT before discussion.    OK? Registered Report

Steven Ropp

	5. 03-26-2008 18:34
	Quiz Link Our group discussed many different topics. We really focused on present day concerns. We discussed our personal experiences and feelings about multiracial dating as well as our families feelings. We discussed differences between the older and the newer generations as well as differences between gender. We also discussed the influence of religion. we briefly touched on outmarriage and the effect of the media. Registered Report

Emily Malfitano

	6. 03-26-2008 18:39
	Quiz Link YELLOW TEAM DISCUSSION    Everyone in my team participated very well. We were surprised to found out that intermarriages were illegal before (for a long time) and how we never heard about Whatsonville Riot. At the end of the discussion we talked about our experiences with interracial relationship. All us agreed that it is normal thing and it will be even common in the future (especially in the media).    Example of our discussion:  How were interracial marriages before 1960’s?  We all agreed that interracial marriages were illegal. US law banned white (citizens) to marry other race people (especially non white).  WHAT CHANGED SINCE 1960? The civil rights movement increased multicultural consciousness and cross racial political and community involvement.   In addition, cultural expectations about relationships, mates, marriages and parenting became more fluid. These postwar circumstances led to increased intermarriages.  nullnull Registered Report

Khorolgarav Murphy

	7. 03-26-2008 21:02
	Blue Team Blue team:  Everyone participated in the group. Our group discussed all the questions asked. We talked about past and present day concerns. Everyone in the group thought interracial marriages were illegal back then, because white Americans feel threatened by the other race people. No one in the group heard about Watsonville Riot. We all agreed on media has an influence in society. We also all agreed that things started to change when American soldiers brought back “war brides”. Registered Report

Julianne Lagrutta

	8. 03-27-2008 11:13
	Blue Team Red team had a good discussion where everybody participated. We discussed the all the study questions fairly thoroughly. We also thought that the anti-miscegenation laws were the reaction of white America because they feared mixing with people of other races would hurt them in some way. We also agreed that the media has a major influence on how people of different ethnicities can view eachother. One topic we didnt all agree on was the thought by some that Asian American women outmarry more because those women feel that by marrying a \"white\" man makes them more American. Some agreed with that sentiment while others found it hard to believe that in this day and age that those feelings would persist. Registered Report

Robert Koshak

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