Disgraced on Broadway!

Hi guys,

Some of you may remember the play that I presented to you last year in American Theatre class. I was just checking on it and saw that it is on Broadway now!!

"DISGRACED is the critically acclaimed play about the stories we tell our friends, the secrets we tell our lovers, and the lies we tell ourselves to find our place in the American Dream." -http://www.disgracedonbroadway.com

For those of you who do not know the play, it is called Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar who is "a new American voice who finds urgent dramatic connections that serious theatregoers crave” (The Washington Post). It won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It emphasizes on mostly identity as well as religion and assimilation. Feeling the obligation to change one’s identity creates alienation of self and fake-reality-balloon, which eventually bursts out. Tha play shows us the story of Amir Kapoor- who is a successful Pakistani-American lawyer who distances himself from his culture and hides his family's origin in order to adapt American society easily and live the American Dream. For quite a while, he lives that life on the Upper East Side with his beautiful American wife who loves Muslim culture more than her husband. However, after he attends his nephew's court, his secrets become apparent and with his secrets, his oppressed inner thoughts and believes also become obvious.

In this play, we see "looking like the part" and "acting like the part" ideas clearly. Amir is definitely acting like the part while saying he doesn't like Muslim belief or culture. We can definitely see post 9/11 ideas of an American person on Amir. Yet, still he is not really accepted since we see, later on in the play, how he is treated just because he attends to a court as a bystander.

I enjoyed this play a lot. It was short yet thorough. We can see multiculturalism, the life of a second generation of an immigrant family in America and Muslims as the foreign enemies instead of Asians. I've tried to find you the play online since I read it last year but I couldn't. However, I have the pdf, so if any of you is interested, tell me and I can send it to you.

For the Broadway production, the cast is awesome (at least I think so): Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire), Karen Pittman(The Bourne Legacy), and Hari Dhillon (Holby City)... It is directed  by Kimberly Senior. 

-Ezgi ULUSOY

"America, We Have A Problem"

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/25/opinion/granderson-ferguson-america-problem/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook

This article written by LZ Granderson, was published on CNN website yesterday. While reading, you will find examples of  some terms that we learned in our class, such as "racial profiling" and "colorblindness". Besides, it is important in terms of understanding what is going on in the USA currently.



Yasemin Öztemür

Dear White People Everywhere: How To Be An Ally Against Racism

Check out this article from The Root and think about how many of you are already taking the steps to be an ally against racism through the reading, thinking, writing, discussing, and questioning you are doing in this class!

12 Ways to Be a White Ally

White Americans Don't Get Why Black People Make A Fuss Over Shootings

Gente:

Check out this article which has some excellent statistical information and arguments about the relevance of the Ferguson incident and the police brutality in the black community in the USA:

Why Its Hard for Whites to Understand (from The Atlantic)

"A Jap Is A Jap"

       In March 1942, the American government interned 120,000 Japanese Americans in ten concentration camps all over the country. All persons of Japanese ancestry both aliens and non-aliens were included to these camps. It was one of the biggest racial profiling in the history of the United States of America. During these times the over all policy of the United States government was that “A Jap is a Jap” no matter their status within the country.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the American government passed a law called “Alien Enemy Act” which made it possible for the government to arrest 1,193 German and 264 Italian nationals along with 2,192 Japanese who were being investigated by the FBI for some time. The difference was however, that the Germans and the Italians who were arrested were individually selected for being a threat to government and they were released after some time, the Japanese prisoners were not. It was a bigger plot to involve more Japanese-Americans and Japanese immigrants into the internment camps in the near future. These included the entire political, social, cultural and business members of Japanese American Communities who were Buddhist priest, martial arts instructors, Japanese language teachers, members of theatre companies, chamber-of- commerce leaders, employees of Japanese companies and even leaders of Japanese Association of America.   

The general difference of the German and Italian captives was that their “loyalty” could be tested because of their Caucasian looks and heritage, but that was not possible with the Japanese because they were “entirely different” in both physical appearance and ethnic backgrounds. General John L. DeWitt argued after the evacuation of all the Japanese from the West Coast that the Japanese were “the enemy race” and claimed that the “racial strains are undiluted”. 

Internment, Culture And Loyalty 

WRA “War Relocation Authority” officials, in fact, did not believe that all Japanese were racially inclined to disloyalty that some of them practised the assimilation. During WWI, the German Americans were pressured into assimilation by the United States government with the usages of almost ritualistic practises and they were eventually accepted into the U.S. society. The same practises were also implemented onto the Japanese Americans, but under more radical conditions. However, they were not fully accepted like the German Americans. One of the other projects of the WRA included the assimilation of Philippine’s and Native Americans, who were considered as more loyal than the Japanese when it came to their inclusion into the American lifestyle and society. The reason behind this was that the Japanese were thought of being more disloyal to the U.S. because of their cultural tendency to be more loyal to their own culture and country. During the assimilation process, some groups believed that the Japanese Americans could be fully assimilated into the society, but there were many others who would believe the opposite, stating that they could never be fully integrated. 

       

    The conflict was that many Japanese Americans tended to be “cultural nationalists” rather than supporters of Japanese Militarism. The significance behind this is that the cultural nationalists had more affinity to the Emperor and his ways. They did not support the militaristic decisions of the Emperor, but only cultural aspects and belief systems of the Japanese society. 

                                             The Loyalty Questionnaire 

     The Loyalty Questionnaire was aimed by WRA to gain some basic information and judgements about the loyalty of Japanese. There were eighty questions that included religious affiliation, educational and occupational background etc. Some of the questions : 

• Will you conform to the customs and dress of your new home?
• Do you think you are “losing face” by cooperating with the U.S government?
• Do you believe in the divine origin of the Japanese race?
• What would you do if you found a shortwave radio set…. in your neighbours apartment?

There were some important questions directed only to the Japanese males:

• Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government power or organisation?
• Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?

All of the questions above were asked in order to determine whether the Japanese-Americans would comply in a state of emergency and their general loyalty to the United States of America.

Renunciation of Citizenship

In July 1944, the American congress passed an act called “Denationalization Act” which enabled the Japanese Americans to denounce their American citizenship and go back to their home country. Before this act was passed, it was prohibited for the Japanese Americans to do so because the government thought that the ones who renunciate their citizenship would aid the enemy during the war time. It was a bigger test than the loyalty questionnaire in the sense that it provided the government with “clear” answers about the devotion of the Japanese Americans to America.

• 5,500 internees applied to renounce their citizenship
• 85 percent of the Tule Lake population over the age of 17 renounced their citizenship to escape from the draft, to ensure repatriation and to avoid resettlement.

                 

                Questions

- If you were a Japanese American during WWII in an internment camp, would you return back to your country after the Denationalization act was passed, or would you remain as an American citizen?

- What might be the other reasons behind the Renunciation of the Japanese Americans from the American citizenship besides avoiding the military service and resettlement?

Related Videos and Websites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_WG96MAirI "Going for Broke: Japanese Americans in World War II"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mr97qyKA2s "Japanese Internment during WW II"

http://www.jaany.org "The Japanese American Association"

http://www.javadc.org "Japanese American Veterans Association"

Works Cited

Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects, chapter 5. Princeton University Press, 2004

We Hope You Enjoyed Our Blog Post and Presentation

                                                                   KAAN CAN OYMAN - HASAN BAYRAM 

Different Times, Same Story

Hey everyone,

Check out this article that compares President Obama's latest actions on immigration policies with other similar executive actions taken by presidents in the twentieth century:

http://pewrsr.ch/1HvoiHM

Racism is a social construct!

Hello everyone,
I just came across a video clip from the Colbert Report. His guest  is Toni Morrison and you can hear   her thoughts on race as a concept.

Hacer Bahar

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/guests/toni-morrison/9yc4ry/toni-morrison

"Impossible Subjects"? How Immigration Law Shaped Race in America

We're reading and learning about how the legal history of the USA, particularly laws regarding immigration and citizenship have created categories of racial meaning AND given racial meaning to categories of identity (such as "immigrant," "alien," "illegal immigrant" or "terrorist").

This week, we've read Angelo Ancheta's, "Looking Like the Enemy" and excerpts from Mae Ngai's book, Impossible Subjects.

Here are some key terms we've discussed:

outsider racialization: us vs. them element; even if you are born in the USA, you are perceived as an outsider / non-citizen

racial triangulation: combination of two axes (racial superiority and citizen vs. non-citizen); whites are citizens and superior; blacks are citizens but racially inferior; "other" groups are seen as non-citizens and fall somewhere in-between on the racial hierarchy.

Vincent Chin: Chinese American man severely beaten in Michigan (1982) because he was mistaken for a Japanese person.  The guys thought he was working for a Japanese automative company and accused him of "taking our jobs." The idea of a "foreign comeptition." The guys who killed Mr. Chin got 3 years probation charged apx $3,000 USD. The judge didn't see these men as "criminals."  Raised awareness in the larger community and rallied Asian American activists. The idea of a "pan-Asian" identity.  He looked "Asian" or different and that was enough to justify the violence.  

 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924: The comprehensive restrictive act embodied certain hierarchies of race and nationality; established a quota system for entry that favored Europe; based on white prejudice (Anglo-Saxon dominance); cultural nationalism of the late 19th century became racialized; all Asians excluded from immigration.  Latinos (Mexicans) not targeted in this law. 

“native stock”: U.S born citizens (implication is "whiteness"); can trace their lineage to founders of the nation

“immigrant stock": official given name for immigrants who came to the US after 1790

“nationality”: according to 1920, nationality didn't include: immigrants from Western Hemisphere and their descendants and aliens ineligible for citizens and their descendants and descendants of slave immigrants and Native Americans and their descendants; the country of your birth 

Francis Walker: He was a Nativist and Social Darwinist and believed in American racial superiority and he believed immigrants occupied less-skilled jobs; worried about population demographics changing and the disappearance of the "white race"; increasing birth rates troubled him

Joseph Hill  & “nation of origin”: Joseph Hill was an old white dude who added questions to 1910 and 1920 census; nation of origin and race are different; nation of origin is the basis for the quota system; implied racial hierarchy

Nationality Act of 1790: granted citizenship to "free white persons" of good moral character.

“white”: A racial category whose meaning changes over time in the USA; seen as racially and culturally superior; associated with cultural traits such as British heritage/ancestry, English language, Protestant religion and property ownership

Takao Ozawa v. U.S.: Japanese immigrant (as a child), studied in USA and assimilated and argued for his citizenship based on cultural beliefs of assimilation and "being American"; he argues that Japanese are "Causcasians" and Japanese are the most Westernized Asian country and are most assimilable. USA says "No!" You are an unassimiable alien--you are not white, Mr. Ozawa!

U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind:  South Asian immigrant who applies for citizenship because color/race should not define citizenship; he is from high-caste background and his family comes from the "Caucus mountains/region"; he also argues that he's "Caucasian." At first he's denied, and the Supreme Court says: "the average, well-informed citizen" would not recognize you as white.  No citizenship for you! 

And our discussion questions:

• What are the origins of the immigration restriction that emerged in the 1920s?

• How did immigration restriction help to create new racial categories?

•  How did the distinction between European and Non-European groups in the U.S. put these groups on different trajectories of racial formation and definitions of citizenship?

• What is the significance of the Ozawa and Singh Thind trials for ideas about what it means to be an American citizen and race?