“This is what we wanted to learn”: Anti-racist and anti-colonial education with 1st gen Korean American seniors in a time of Asian hate and racialized dread (original) (raw)
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First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents for my inspiration for this project. I was too young to realize for so many years, but I realize now that they were pioneers for not only myself, but Asian Americans everywhere. When my father came to the United States when he was only eleven years old, he was one of the first Korean immigrants Northern Virginia. Despite this, he wasn't the first to come to America; two other waves of major Korean immigration had come across the country years before. To keep in context, the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1965, and my father arrived in the USA in 1976; tensions were still high, and the ethnic landscape had yet to include Asians or Hispanics into the black and white diaspora discussion. However, an even greater factor to consider was the Cold War, which prompted massive displacement and the US opening its doors. Further complicating the issue was the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which was aimed at "abolishing the national-origins quota," rather creating a seven-category preference system that did little to alleviate tensions between the different socially defined ethnic groups and refugees in American society. From the moment he arrived, he had to face a whole new culture, environment, and challenges. He found protection and comradery amongst the few other Koreans who had lived in the area, but in general he was an enigma. Not black. Not white. He was neither, but rather, unique; Asian American. My mother, though she came later in the 80s, faced similar problems, as she and her roommate, another woman from Korea were young aspiring nurses living in Brooklyn, NYC, the melting pot of the United States, a plethora of cultures, but also a K i m | iv breeding ground for conflict and ethnic tensions. Throughout it all, they never broke, and their struggles helped them learn lessons that I was taught and will never forget. The most important was: never forget who you are. I never forgot to balance my identity as an Asian American. We have stories, struggles, and perspectives that need to be taught and be brought out to the world. If my parents had never asked me to learn about myself, I would've never taken this class, or tried to help the Asian American Studies program. I would've never tried
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