final self reflection letter

Xinyu Shang

ASAM 100 BB

Reading journal

The article, “Who Studies the Asian American Movement? A Historiographical

Analysis” by Diane Fujino details the activism of Asian Americans. The article is very

spectacular as it focuses on an area that has long been sidelined which is the political

protest of the Asian Americans. In the article Fujino takes the readers back to the late

1960s and early 1970s when the AAM (Asian American Movement) gained traction and

was widely recognized as a social movement. The article notes that the period between

the late 1960s and early 1970s was marked by activists producing knowledge on the

existence of Asian Americans. The period between the late 1970s and late 1980s was

marked by a vacuum in Asian American Movement. The period between the late 1980s

and late 1990s was dominated by a slow emergence in scholarly works on Asian

American Movements and civil rights frameworks. The fourth period from 2000 to the

present was marked by the full maturing of scholarly works associated with Asian

American Movements which saw the connection of social, political and national issues.

By exposing the different areas of struggle to the Asian Americans the article helps to

bring to light major issues facing the Asian Americans like racism, capitalism and sexism

not just abroad but also at home.

Unlike other historiographies, Fujino takes on a very unique perspective by

including book chapters, dissertations and journal articles. The inclusion of these research

studies helps to portray the significance of Asian Americans in the Cold War. For

example Asian soldiers positioned by the American military were fundamental to the

American empire building in the Asian Pacific region. Such shows how the American

state officials attained global capitalist assimilation while appealing to anti-colonialism

and antiracism hence supporting the position that “decolonization was not antithetical to

the spread of U.S global power but intrinsic to it.” According to Fujino, American shaped

the racialization of the Asian Americans, during the Cold War where it rewarded

assimilation while disciplined Chinese and Korean radicals.

The article further addresses the problems of framing Asian Americans in

education and related fields. It noted that the characterization of Asian Americans as

model minorities or the oppressed minority only instills problems in education and other

related fields. Overall, by focusing on the Asian American Movement, Fujino seeks to

challenge racism by questioning the notion of racialization of the Asian Americans. The

article is not so much a call to rescue but rather a depiction of the struggles faced by the

Asian Americans and the call towards a more just society. The article in my case is very

insightful as it beings to lights the efforts of the Asian American Movement and how it

helped the Asian Americans to champion for better treatment of themselves. The article is

significant in advocating for change and also in illustrating the importance of doing away

with aspects like racism or discrimination as it marginalizes certain ethnicities and makes

their integration into societal issues more difficult. Fujino did a spending job with the

article and in portraying the efforts of AAM.