Sorry for the lack of posts Day job got a little crazy- look for a lot more AAPIHM posts and getting back on schedule in the morning!

For today’s bit of Angry API History, we wanted to touch on something that makes us rage. While a lot of the immigration discussion often comes back to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island as the shining beacon of what the US has to offer to immigrants, it’s important to remember the other side of that history. While the Europe-facing Ellis Island may have been a symbol of welcome on the East Coast, Asian immigrants (and others) coming through the West met a very different “welcome”… At the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and other Anti-Asian restriction laws, Angel Island (in San Francisco Bay, just north of Alcatraz) served as a detention center enforcing the exclusion . Asians were treated differently from Europeans, even within the Angel Island Immigration Station. They were subject to extended detention and interrogation to determine their eligibility for entrance to the United States. They were given a smaller outdoor area compared to Europeans held at the facility- despite being more numerous. The walls still bear the scars of stories carved to bear witness to the hardships faced by Asians hoping to enter the US. During WWII, the Station saw a new purpose- holding Japanese and German POWs. The air of history still hangs heavy at Angel Island, and is definitely a worthwhile trip for any of you in or visiting The Bay. Remember our history, and that the shining narrative of welcome they teach in school wasn’t so for many of those who came before. photos courtesy jvalasimages.

This felt like an appropriate video to throw out there today. “Pick it up, flip it open”- because if we’re not going to find and engage in our histories, we know that the regular educational curriculum won’t teach it to us either. That’s part of the reason we started this blog. The little we learned about Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawai'ians in school was… lacking, to say the least. Our histories here are so much more complex, rich, and powerful than is included in mainstream educational systems. Books by us, by our communities, are powerful connections that bear even more fruit when we can learn and apply the knowledge that our communities have to pass down- and we in turn record, remember, and pass on our own stories and realities. The mods of this blog wanted to also take some space on here for API hip hop. If you haven’t heard Bambu or Prometheus Brown (or Native Guns, Blue Scholars, etc.), y'all should check them out.

A note from the moderators: The current admins/moderators of this blog are Chinese American, Japanese American, and Korean American. We are not experts or professionals- just very angry AAs. We want this space to be inclusive for other API folks whose stories are not always told in these settings. We would love submissions or volunteers to help mod and create content on this blog from Desi, Pacific Islander, Native Hawai'ian, Southeast Asian, and other API folks. If you’d like to get involved, send us a message! Or, if you’d just like to submit, PLEASE DO!! The focus of the blog, just as a reminder, is on the experience of our communities here in the US (and the places it continues to colonize). Come share your stories!

Up to that point, we had been called Orientals. Oriental was a rug that everyone steps on, so we ain’t no Orientals. We were Asian American. - - Richard Aoki The birth of Asian American identity springs from radical roots, anti-racism, solidarity with Black Power, and embracing the importance of self-definition. We need to remember the Asian American Political Alliance. From their declaration in 1969: DECLARATION OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN POLITICAL ALLIANCE, 1969

(http://instruct.westvalley.edu/kelly/History20_on_campus/Online%20Readings/asian_american.htm)

The Asian American Political Alliance is people. It is a people’s alliance to effect social and political changes. We believe that the American society is historically racist and one which has systematically employed social discrimination and economic imperialism, both domestically and internationally, exploiting all non-white people in the process of building up their affluent society.



They did so at the expense of all of us. Uncontrolled capitalism has pushed all of the non-white people into a cosial position so that only manual jobs with subhuman pay are open to them. Consequently, we have been psychologically so conditioned by the blue-eye-blond-hair standard that many of us have lost our perspective. We can only survive if “we know our place” - shut up and accept what we are given. We resent this kind of domination and we are determined to change it.



The goal of AAPA is political education and advancement of the movement among Asian people, so that they may make all decisions that affect their own lives, in a society that never asks people to do so. AAPA is not an isolated group, and should never profess to be such. Its only legitimacy and value is in the effects it has on many people, not just a small group of people. In the same vein, AAPA is not meant to isolate Asians from other people; it is unhealthy as well as unwise to do such a thing. AAPA must constantly expand and grow, and reach out to other people and groups. At the same time, AAPA must meet the needs of its own members and deal with its own problems.



In the past political organizations have tended to subject themselves to rigid, traditional levels of structure in which a few make the decisions, present them to the body, and the body can vote either “yes” or “no.” This hierarchistic organization, however, is only a manifestation of the elite control, primidal [sic (pyramidal)] structure mentality in which you are not capable of making your own decisions, an idea drilled into you from the foundations of this society.



AAPA is only what the people make it. We have adopted a structure which better fits the needs and goals of our alliance, not a structure to which we have to adjust ourselves. Furthermore, there is no membership in AAPA in the strict sense of the word. There are workers who for common interests join together with one or more people to intensify the effectiveness of an action.