How Have Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Helped Shape Civil and Workers' Rights?

Though they were denied the ability to even apply for citizenship for decades, Asians and Pacific Islanders helped shape civil rights and workers' rights in America. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/cultural-traditions/asian-american-history.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boble Bam here. As anti Asian
hate crimes have surged in the United States, Asian American
scholars and activists have responded by speaking out about their stories,
which have often been overlooked in textbooks. For the article

(00:22):
this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with
Gary Okahiro, Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs at
Columbia University, an author of Margins and Mainstreams Asians in
American History and culture. He said, there are so many
stereotypes and myths about Asians in America and they really
need to be disabused. According to the census results, twenty

(00:47):
three million Asian Americans in the United States can trace
their ancestry to more than twenty countries, and many of
these individuals have roots in the US that span decades
and even centuries. But Asian immigrants were denied citizenship for
much of American history. Their American born children were granted citizenship,
but they themselves couldn't even apply. This dates back to

(01:10):
the seventeen ninety Nationality Act, which limited citizenship to only
quote free white persons. But after World War One, many people,
including Asian Americans, were seeking citizenship through the courts by
demonstrating that they were white. Two of the most notable
were Begot Singh Thinned, a seek immigrant from the Indian

(01:31):
subcontinent who served in the U. S. Army, and Tokao Ozawa,
an immigrant from Japan who had lived in the US
for twenty years. Both appealed to the Supreme Court on
racial grounds. Ozawa argued in nineteen twenty two that he
was white because he had adopted American culture. Then Thinned
argued in nineteen twenty three that he was Caucasian because

(01:53):
he grew up in the Caucus Mountains. The Court denied
both Thinned and Ozawa's citizenship based on race, yet their
challenges show how Asian Americans resisted laws that limited their naturalization,
believing that they were entitled to their full rights as Americans. Thinned,
who had served in the army, eventually was granted citizenship

(02:14):
in nineteen thirty six when a bill was passed providing
citizenship to anyone who would serve. But it wasn't until
the Immigration and Nationality Act of nineteen fifty two that
every Asian immigrant finally became eligible for citizenship under the
law of the land. Okahira said, Asians were not immigrants
like Europeans, and unlike Europeans, were never intended to be

(02:38):
citizens of this country by the founders of this nation.
But despite all that, they stayed, and they made laws
for them, and their children became American. Another battleground for
rights took place during World War Two. Following the bombing
of Pearl Harbor, the U. S Government began to fear
that Japanese Americans were enemy agents of Japan, even though

(03:00):
two thirds of Japanese Americans were American citizens. According to Okahiro,
there was no evidence to support these claims, and decades later,
Ronald Reagan would declare internment a mistake based solely on race,
implicitly recognizing that these fears were rooted in racism, but
at the time. As a result, the government ordered a

(03:22):
hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans to leave their homes
and relocate to internment camps under Executive Order nine zero
six six issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and as
the war progressed, the government began seeking Japanese Americans from
the camps to serve in the U. S. Army. The
government presented residents in the camps with a loyalty questionnaire.

(03:45):
Two questions Questions twenty seven and twenty eight were particularly controversial,
asking Japanese Americans if they would renounce any loyalty to
Japan and serve in the U. S. Military. About six thousand,
seven hundred individuals, including a fair number of second generation
Japanese American men, who became known as the No No Boys,

(04:07):
answered no to both questions, and by answering no, they
challenged the U. S. Government for depriving them of their
rights and treating them as enemies. O'cahiro said the No
Nos were responding to this illegal confinement of them. There
was no reason given for their mass confinement. There was
no justification for holding citizens within those camps. For their refusal,

(04:32):
the No No Boys were incarcerated in a federal penitentiary
at Fort Leavensworth for the duration of the war. According
to Oka Hero, who argues that their defiance showed they
were true Americans. He said, but what they were trying
to do was to have the US live up to
its constitution and the promises afforded to all citizens. If

(04:52):
that's not patriotism. I don't know what is beyond both
of those examples. Filipino amer Gins played a key role
in the labor movement in the US. Filipinos comprised the
third largest group of Asian Americans. The Manila Galleon Trade
brought indentured Filipino workers to Mexico, from where they eventually

(05:13):
made their way to California, Louisiana and beyond. Additionally, Filipino
indentured workers, along with Chinese and Japanese workers, were brought
to provide labor to sugar plantations in Hawaii and on
the West Coast. Okay Hero said, Now, these workers who
came to Hawaii and to the West Coast, over time

(05:33):
they began to see that they might want to stay
here in the US. And when they did that, they
began to demand rights. That led to the formation of unions,
with Filipino farm workers like Larry eat Leon and Philip
Vera Cruz. Banding together with Mexican civil rights activists Caesar
Chavez and Delora's Worth, the two boycott non union grape

(05:56):
growers in the Delano Grape Stripe. Thus the United farm
Workers Movement was born. Leaders like it Leong went up
and down the coast, from the fields of California to
salmon canning industries in Alaska to organize workers. Okay Hero said,
this is an amazing thing because agricultural workers were never
organized by unions until Asians and Mexicans got together and

(06:19):
formed those agricultural unions. Today's episode is based on the
article five things about Asian American history they don't teach
in school on how stuff works dot Com, written by
Terry Yard Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and

(06:40):
it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from My
heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.