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National Background

National Background - 1960s-2020s

Introduction

This timeline documents national, regional, and Indiana University events that led to the creation of Indiana University Bloomington’s (IUB) Asian American Studies (AAST) program and its activities through 2020, Indiana University’s Bicentennial Year. National and regional events influence decisions made locally. We include these three levels of history to provide the fuller context of IUB AAST’s origin story and trajectory. This timeline recounts how Asian American Studies has grown from its activist roots into a public-facing interdisciplinary field willing to question, adapt, and re-imagine solutions to contemporary social issues.

1965—Immigration and Nationality Act Drastically Alters Makeup of U.S. Population

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act unexpectedly changes the course of Asian American history. Congress passes the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act that abolishes racist “national origins” quotas implemented in 1924 to restrict Southern and Eastern European immigrants (mostly Catholic and Jewish) and shut out Asian immigrants altogether. New immigrant selection criteria prioritize family reunification and workers with talents or skill sets that benefit the US economy.

Photograph of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Immigration Act, 10/3/1965. National Archives Identifier 2803428

Congress does not anticipate the Act will lead to a massive demographic shift: the influx of new immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asian and the Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Asian immigrants arrive to fill professional positions in growing STEM fields. Others come to reunite with family already in the U.S. or to take low-skilled, low-paying jobs in the service economy.(1)

While celebrated as a big step toward racial equality, the 1965 Act leads to spikes in unauthorized immigration. In the name of fairness, all countries after 1965 are formally assigned the same numerical quotas, even though not all countries have the same conditions driving people to migrate abroad for better life chances. The implementation of numerical ceilings worldwide after 1965 directly results in rising numbers of undocumented immigrants, including many from Asia.(2)

A view of the Caesar Chavez Student Center on the campus of San Francisco State University. (Renamed from San Francisco State College, c. 1974) Trejo, Brian. “Caesar Chavez Student Center.” Wikimedia Commons, 24 June 2005. Shared under CC (BY-SA 3.0).

1968-1969—Third World Liberation Strike at San Francisco State College

The field of Asian American Studies is born during the Third World Liberation Strike. San Francisco State College (SFSC) students and faculty strike to demand an autonomous College of Ethnic Studies, more faculty of color, and more students of color on campus. After five months of protest—the longest student strike in U.S. history—SFSC administrators establish the country’s first Ethnic Studies College. The strike inspires a nationwide demand for ethnic studies courses and programs, including Asian American Studies, in the 1970s.

1968—Birth of the Asian American Movement

Inspired by Black Power and the opposition to the Vietnam War, the Asian American Movement takes off in the late 1960s and lasts through much of the 1970s. Across the country, people of Asian ancestry energetically denounce racism and imperialism at home and abroad. They champion solidarity with “Third World” peoples everywhere, and they push for more equitable and just ways of living. The Movement is “one struggle, many fronts”: it generates a robust press and vibrant artistic production. Activists campaign for affordable housing for the poor and elderly, community-relevant education, accountability for police brutality, affirmative action, and an end to U.S. military invention in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

“Asian American” identity itself emerges from this grassroots mobilization. Even as they condemn the nation’s ugly practices of denigrating and exploiting people of color, Movement participants unapologetically claim a rightful place in America.(3)

Across the country, people of Asian ancestry energetically denounce racism and imperialism at home and abroad.

1970—Who Counts as Asian American? The 1970 U.S. Census

Asian American advocacy groups and Asian American legislators argue that the 1970 Census undercounts the number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. In 1970, “Asian American” and “Asian Pacific Islander” does not yet exist as Census categories. Instead the 1970 Census categorizes different Asian ethnic groups as different races, separately counting “Japanese,” “Chinese,” “Filipino,” “Hawaiian,” and “Korean.” Together, these groups add up to 0.9 percent of the total U.S. population. Asian American advocates fight to add more ethnic groups to 1980 Census. They argue that adding more ethnic categories will help Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups obtain adequate assistance from federal, state, and local services that rely on Census Bureau counting.(4)

1970s-1980s—Asian American College Enrollment Explodes

1977—Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Releases Statistical Directive 15, Announces “Asian or Pacific Islander” as One of the Nation’s Five Racial/Ethnic Categories.

OMB’s Statistical Directive 15, “Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting,” provides official guidelines for government data-collection and reporting on race and ethnicity. For the first time in U.S. history, the directive introduces the “Asian or Pacific Islander” as one of the nation’s five racial/ethnic categories along with black, White, Hispanic, and Native American and Alaskan Native.(7)

March 9, 1979—President Jimmy Carter Declares the Nation’s First Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week

In the first presidential proclamation (#4650) for Asian/Pacific Heritage Week, President Jimmy Carter addresses the significant role that several generations of Asian/Pacific Americans have had in shaping American social, historical, and cultural history. “We have not always fully appreciated the talents and the contributions which Asian-Americans have brought to the United States…. Yet, Asians of diverse origins—from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia—continued to look to America as a land of hope, opportunity, and freedom,” Carter states. “… Their successful integration into American society and their positive and active participation in our national life demonstrates the soundness of America’s policy of continued openness to peoples from Asia and the Pacific,” Carter expresses. Following the President’s proclamation, universities nationwide—including IUB in 1994—begin creating campus events dedicated to celebrating Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.(8)

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1980—1980 Census Expands to Nine Asian and Pacific Islander Response Categories

Thanks to the lobbying of Asian American advocacy groups and Asian American legislators, the 1980 Census uses nine detailed Asian and Pacific Islander response categories in the decennial census question on race: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Hawaiian, Guamanian, and Samoan.(9) The 1980 Census captures the Asian American population, totaling 3.5 million, or 1.5 percent, of the U.S. population.(10) Between the 1970 and 1980 Census, the Asian American population grows 104 percent.(11)

June 23, 1982—Vincent Chin’s Murder Sparks New Phase of Asian American Activism

Vincent Chin, a twenty-seven-year-old Chinese American engineer, inspires nationwide protests for Asian American civil rights. U.S. labor unions and politicians launch anti-Japanese campaigns after the 1978 oil crisis kills market demand for gas-guzzling American-made cars.(12) This anti-Japanese resentment culminates to the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, who is out on the town for his bachelor party. Robert Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz, exchange heated words with Chin in a Detroit bar. Witnesses claim that they heard Ebens call Chin a “Jap” and yelled, “It’s because of you motherf—ers that we’re out of work!” Ebens and Nitz then chase down Chin and beat him to death with a baseball bat.

Ebens and Nitz claim Chin’s death as accidental and plead guilty to manslaughter. When they receive only three years’ probation and a $3,800 fine with no jail time, Asian American civil rights group protest nationwide, sparking a significant phase of Asian American activism and political awakening.(13) As historian Shelley Lee writes, “An event like the Chin killing and trial were particularly powerful because it demonstrated not just the vulnerability of all Asians, regardless of their specific ethnic background, but also how devalued their lives were in the legal system.”(14)

An event like the Chin killing and trial were particularly powerful because it demonstrated not just the vulnerability of all Asians, regardless of their specific ethnic background, but also how devalued their lives were in the legal system.

1988—Congress Passes 1988 Civil Liberties Act

President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, offering a national apology for the U.S. government’s World War II-era removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Thanks to twenty years of Japanese American activism, Congress creates the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1980 to investigate and redress wartime injustices. The Commission concludes that wartime incarceration “was not justified by military necessity” but instead the result of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

Ronald Reagan signing Japanese reparations bill. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The 1988 Civil Liberties Act realizes the corrective actions recommended by the Commission: officially apologizing for the mistake, establishing an educational and humanitarian fund, and $20,000 paid to each survivor.(15)

Congress redresses two communities who are incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II. It pays $5,000 each for Japanese Peruvians who are deported by the Peruvian government and imprisoned in U.S. government incarceration camps. The Japanese Peruvian community continues to fight for more just redress since, after their release from the American camps, they are not allowed to return to Peru or to stay in the U.S. and their property in Peru remains confiscated. Congress passes the Aleut Restitution Act of 1988 that settles reparations for the Aleut people (native Alaskans) who are incarcerated in some 800 Aleut camps in Southeast Alaska in 1942.(16)

1989—Multiculturalism Influences National Demand for Asian American Studies

Nationwide, university students organize around multiculturalism—an educational approach that focuses on historically marginalized cultures and populations in the United States. Their demands include the addition of ethnic studies courses and programs to university curricula. The multiculturalism of the 1980s and 1990s fuels Asian American student activists’ demands, including ones from Indiana University Bloomington, for Asian American Studies courses and programs nationwide.

Since then, multiculturalism has attracted critics from the right and the left. Conservatives have accused multiculturalism’s proponents of undermining a coherent national identity and “traditional” cultural norms and moral (especially “Christian”) values. They view Ethnic Studies as unnecessary if not a threat to U.S. national pride and global dominance. Progressives distinguish between multiculturalism and racial justice. They argue that multiculturalism’s principles of “diversity and inclusion” are not enough to overturn deep racial inequities and other oppressive social hierarchies (gender, sexuality, class, disability, religion, and so forth) built into the structures of American life.(17)

1990s—Asian American College Student Enrollment Doubles Within a Decade

Asian American student enrollment at U.S. universities and colleges nearly doubles within a decade, jumping from 3% of the 1984 undergraduate population to about 6% in 1994. In 1996, Asian American undergraduate and graduate enrollment totals 828,200 at U.S. post-secondary institutions. This growing critical mass of Asian American student enrollment is a key factor propelling the increase of student activism for Asian American Studies during the 1990s.(18)

3%Asian American undergraduate student enrollment at U.S. universities and colleges in 1984.

6%Asian American undergraduate student enrollment at U.S. universities and colleges in 1994.

1990—National Asian American and Pacific Islander Population Doubles; Asian American Civil Rights Groups Protest Monolithic Racial Category

The Asian and Pacific Islander population doubles to more than 7 million, according to the U.S. Census.(19) Asian American civil rights groups protest the administration of 1990 U.S. Census, claiming that monolithic “Asian/Pacific Islander” racial category vastly undercounts Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. They argue that educational, socioeconomic, and health disparities exist between Asian ethnic groups, and accurately counting the Asian and Pacific Islanders is essential in the equitable allocation of federal, state, and local funding.(20)

President Bush signing the 1990 Immigration and Nationality Act. CSPAN

1990—1990 Immigration and Nationality Act Alters Asian Immigration Patterns to U.S.

Congress passes the 1990 Immigration and Nationality Act, resulting in an increased flow of highly skilled “guest workers” from abroad on temporary “H-1B” visas. U.S. companies actively recruit highly skilled workers from Asia to fill needed professional positions, especially within the high-tech sector. Ultimately, high-skilled Asian immigrants receive about three-quarters of H1-B visas.(21)

April 29-May 4, 1992—1992 Los Angeles Uprisings Highlight Anti-Blackness in Asian American Communities

Rebellions in Los Angeles erupt on April 29 following the acquittals of police officers who brutally beat African American motorist Rodney King. The violence against King comes on the heels of the high-profile murder of African American teenager Latasha Harlins by Korean shopkeeper Soon Ja Du in Los Angeles on March 16, 1991. The 1992 LA rebellion is a response to rampant anti-Blackness deeply rooted in U.S. history and society, including Asian American communities. It highlights the systematic social, economic, and political injustices against African Americans. Finally, the uprising focuses on the inability of the American justice system to punish police officers, other state actors, and individuals guilty of violence against Black people.(22)

Uprisings in Los Angeles during 1992 highlight systemic anti-Blackness in U.S. culture.

Fires in Los Angeles during the 1992 uprisings. Sevier, Dark. "LA Burns: From Nichols Canyon." Flickr, 1 Jan. 2008. Shared under CC (BY-NC 2.0).

2000—U.S. Census Bureau Disaggregates Asian American and Pacific Islander Population, Allows Individuals to Choose Multiple Races

The 2000 Census marks three milestones for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. First, the Asian and Pacific Islander population hits 11.9 million, or 4.2 percent of the US population.(23) Second, the U.S. Census Bureau splits the AAPI racial category into two groups: 1) Asian Americans; and 2) Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. It does this to address concerns from civil rights groups about lumping Asian American and Pacific Islanders under a monolithic racial group, a practice that often disadvantages Pacific Islanders who have historically lower rates of socioeconomic, educational attainment, and housing than Asian Americans.(24) Finally, the Bureau allows individuals to choose multiple races and write in their own ethnicities on the 2000 Census. Interracial organizations had lobbied the Bureau throughout the 1990s to count mixed race people to better represent and serve the country’s increasing multiracial population.(25)

Rally for Dreamers. Pickering, Victoria. “DACA Rally.” Flickr, 12 Nov. 2019. Shared under CC (BY-NC-ND 2.0).

2001—Undocumented Immigrant Inspires 2001 DREAM Act

Tereza Lee, a Korean Brazilian American, discovers that she is an undocumented immigrant when applying for music colleges. She contacts Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who is inspired by her story to co-writes the 2001 DREAM Act, the legislative effort to provide legal status to undocumented youth. As the original inspiration of the DREAM Act, Tereza Lee is one of an estimated 1.7 million Asian immigrants without status (approximately 15 percent of the total undocumented population) in the United States.(26) Asian American organizations and scholars cite the enormous visa backlogs and the limited H1-B visas from Asian countries for the rise of undocumented Asian immigrants.(27)

September 11, 2001—The 9/11 Attacks

September 11^th, simply known as 9/11, sparks an epidemic of Islamophobia, hate violence, and civil liberties violations targeting South Asians, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh American communities.(28) Al-Qaeda terrorists hijack and fly three American passenger planes into the World Trade Towers in New York City and into the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth—intended for the White House—crashes in Pennsylvania. Within days after 9/11, the South Asian Americans Leading Together organization reports 645 incidents of racial profiling, discrimination, and hate crimes against these ethnic South Asian groups.(29) 9/11 spurs the swift passage of the 2001 USA Patriot Act and other state measures that grossly disregards basic constitutional and civil rights of these communities.(30)

One egregious example is the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, implemented by the Department of Justice and a linchpin of the War on Terror between 2002-2016. NSSERS requires all non-citizen men at least 16 years of age arriving in the U.S. from one of 25 countries (nearly all with significant Muslim populations) to register with federal authorities. The Department of Justice mandates each registrant to check back in periodically and to report any changes of residence, employment, or school. Those who fail to register risk fines and removal. NSEERS does not produce any terror-related convictions. But more than 13,000 of the total 83,000 who comply end up deported on charges of immigration status violations.(31)

The 9/11 Memorial for the attacks in New York City

A view over the memorial to the 9.11 attacks in New York City. Baruchian, Graduate. "9/11 Memorial." Flickr, 19 Sept. 2011. Shared under CC (BY-SA 2.0).

2010—Asian Population Reaches 5.6 Percent in 2010 U.S. Census

The Asian population surges to 5.6 percent, or 17.3 million, and the Pacific Islander population grows to 0.4 percent, or 1.2 million, of the total U.S. population. In this Census, the Bureau categorizes 24 Asian ethnic groups under the “Asian” racial category.(32) For the “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander” racial category, the Bureau has four subgroups—Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, and “Other Pacific Islander.”(33) The multiracial Asian American population also increases by 32 percent from 6.8 million in 2000 to over 9 million (or 2.9 percent of the total U.S. population) in 2010.(34)

Protests for Trayvon Martin, 2013. Kantorova, Daniela. "The Movement." Flickr, 15 July 2013. Shared under CC (BY 2.0).

2013-2014—Launch of #BlackLivesMatters After Slayings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown

Since its inception, the #BlackLivesMatter movement inspires many communities, including Asian Americana, to end systematic violence and racism against Black people.(35) Three black women organizers—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi—launch #BlackLivesMatter after the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic man.

Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black high school student walking home from a trip to a convenience store on February 26, 2012. Originating as a social media campaign, #BlackLivesMatter morphs into a global movement against state-inflicted violence against Black people after Ferguson, Missouri crisis in November 2014. Local police respond with brute, militarized force on Black activists protesting the acquittal of white police offer Darren Wilson. Wilson murdered Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager, in Ferguson on August 9, 2014.

February-March 2020-Present—Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia during COVID-19 Pandemic

Anti-Asian racism swells during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus initially breaks out in Wuhan, China (although public health officials still do not know where and how the virus emerged) and spreads rapidly.(36) From March 19-25, two nonprofit groups—the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning and Chinese for Affirmative action—collect 673 reports of anti-Asian discrimination due to the heightened fears amidst the global outbreak. President Donald Trump and others describe COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus,” xenophobic phrases that further stigmatize Asian communities and amplify anti-Asian hate crimes. Nearly 200 organizations—with Congressional support from U.S. Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) as well as House Representative Grace Meng (D-NY)—demand that the White House form an AAPI Civil Rights Task Force.(37)

May 2020—The Murder of George Floyd Sparks Nationwide Protests

The murder of George Floyd fuels the Black Lives Matter global movement. Protests erupt in nearly 2,000 U.S. cities in all 50 states, 5 permanently inhabited territories, and nearly 60 countries after four Minneapolis police officers use excessive force while arresting George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man accused for using a $20 counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Despite pleas from onlookers and George Floyd pleading, “I can’t breathe,” a White officer keeps his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, choking him to death. Floyd’s death is an all too familiar reminder that law enforcement brutalizes and murders Black people, rather than “serving and protecting” them. Black Lives Matter supporters call for federal, state, and local governments to divest from police budgets and redirect money to social services. Many Asian American individuals and organizations, including IUB’s AAST, express their solidarity with Black people and vow to take action to dismantle white supremacy.(38)

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