The sum of our parts : mixed-heritage Asian Americans

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The sum of our parts : mixed-heritage Asian Americans

edited by Teresa Williams-León and Cynthia L. Nakashima ; foreword by Michael Omi

(Asian American history and culture series)

Temple University Press, 2001

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-275)

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: cloth ISBN 9781566398466

Description

Largely as a result of multiracial activism, the US Census for 2000 offers people the unprecedented opportunity to officially identify themselves with more than one racial group. Among Asian-heritage people in this country and elsewhere, racial and ethnic mixing has a long but unacknowledged history. According to the last US Census, nearly one-third of all interracial marriages included an Asian-descent spouse, and intermarriage rates are accelerating. This unique collection of essays focuses on the construction of identity among people of Asian descent who claim multiple heritages. In the U.S., discussions of race generally center on matters of black and white; mixed heritage Asian Americans usually figure in conversations about race as an undifferentiated ethnic group or as exotic Eurasians. The contributors to this book disrupt the standard discussions by considering people of mixed Asian ethnicities. They also pay particular attention to non-white multiracial identities to decenter whiteness and reflect the experience of individuals or communities who are considered a minority within a minority. With an entire section devoted to the Asian diaspora, "The Sum of Our Parts" suggests that questions of multiracial and multiethnic identity are surfacing around the globe. This timely and provocative collection articulates them for social scientists and students. Author note: Teresa Williams-Leon is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge. Cynthia L. Nakashima is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Ethnic Studies at University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Foreword Michael Omi Acknowledgments Introduction: Reconfiguring Race, Rearticulating Ethnicity Teresa Williams-Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima Part I: Multiraciality and Asian America: Bridging the Hybrid Past to the Multiracial Present 1. Who Is an Asian? Who Is a Pacific Islander? Monoracialism, Multiracial People, and Asian American Communities Paul Spickard 2. Possibilities of a Multiracial Asian America Yen Le Espiritu 3. Servants of Culture: The Symbolic Role of Mixed-Race Asians in American Discourse Cynthia L. Nakashima 4. "The Coming of the Neo-Hawaiian American Race": Nationalism and Metaphors of the Melting Pot in Popular Accounts of Mixed-Race Individuals John Chock Rosa Part II: Navigating Sociocultural Terrains of Family and Identity 5. Factors Influencing the Variation in Racial and Ethnic Identity of Mixed-Heritage Persons of Asian Ancestry Maria P. P. Root 6. Alaska's Multiracial Asian American Families: Not Just at the Margins Curtiss Takada Rooks 7. The Diversity of Biracial Individuals: Asian-White and Asian-Minority Biracial Identity Christine C. Iikima Hall and Trude I. Cooke Turner 8. Black, Japanese, and American: An Asian American Identity Yesterday and Today Michael C. Thornton and Harold Gates Part III: Remapping Political Landscapes and Communities 9. A Rose by Any Other Name: Names, Multiracial/Multiethnic People, and the Politics of Identity Daniel A. Nakashima 10. Multiracial Comedy as a Commodity in Hawaii Darby Li Po Price 11. Doing the Mixed-Race Dance: Negotiating Social Spaces Within the Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde 12. The Convergence of Passing Zones: Multiracial Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals of Asian Descent Teresa Williams-Leon 13. Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Mapping Discussions of Feminism, Race, and Beauty in Japanese American Beauty Pageants Rebecca Chiyoko King 14. Mixed but Not Matched: Multiracial People and the Organization of Health Knowledge Cathy J. Tashiro Part IV: Asian-Descent Multiraciality in Global Perspective 15. "We Paved the Way": Exemplary Spaces and Mixed Race in Britain David Parker 16. A Dutch Eurasian Revival? Mark Taylor Brinsfield 17. Multiethnic Lives and Monoethnic Myths: American-Japanese Amerasians in Japan Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu 18. The Racial Politics of Being Dogla and of "Asian" Descent in Suriname Loraine Y. Van Tuyl 19. The Tiger and His Stripes: Thai and American Reactions to Tiger Woods's (Multi-) "Racial Self" Jan R. Weisman Bibliography About the Contributors
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9781566398473

Description

Largely as a result of multiracial activism, the US Census for 2000 offers people the unprecedented opportunity to officially identify themselves with more than one racial group. Among Asian-heritage people in this country and elsewhere, racial and ethnic mixing has a long but unacknowledged history. According to the last US Census, nearly one-third of all interracial marriages included an Asian-descent spouse, and intermarriage rates are accelerating. This unique collection of essays focuses on the construction of identity among people of Asian descent who claim multiple heritages. In the U.S., discussions of race generally center on matters of black and white; mixed heritage Asian Americans usually figure in conversations about race as an undifferentiated ethnic group or as exotic Eurasians. The contributors to this book disrupt the standard discussions by considering people of mixed Asian ethnicities. They also pay particular attention to non-white multiracial identities to decenter whiteness and reflect the experience of individuals or communities who are considered a minority within a minority.With an entire section devoted to the Asian diaspora, "The Sum of Our Parts" suggests that questions of multiracial and multiethnic identity are surfacing around the globe. This timely and provocative collection articulates them for social scientists and students. Teresa Williams-Leon is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge. Cynthia L. Nakashima is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Ethnic Studies at University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Foreword Michael Omi Acknowledgments Introduction: Reconfiguring Race, Rearticulating Ethnicity Teresa Williams-Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima Part I: Multiraciality and Asian America: Bridging the Hybrid Past to the Multiracial Present 1. Who Is an Asian? Who Is a Pacific Islander? Monoracialism, Multiracial People, and Asian American Communities Paul Spickard 2. Possibilities of a Multiracial Asian America Yen Le Espiritu 3. Servants of Culture: The Symbolic Role of Mixed-Race Asians in American Discourse Cynthia L. Nakashima 4. "The Coming of the Neo-Hawaiian American Race": Nationalism and Metaphors of the Melting Pot in Popular Accounts of Mixed-Race Individuals John Chock Rosa Part II: Navigating Sociocultural Terrains of Family and Identity 5. Factors Influencing the Variation in Racial and Ethnic Identity of Mixed-Heritage Persons of Asian Ancestry Maria P. P. Root 6. Alaska's Multiracial Asian American Families: Not Just at the Margins Curtiss Takada Rooks 7. The Diversity of Biracial Individuals: Asian-White and Asian-Minority Biracial Identity Christine C. Iikima Hall and Trude I. Cooke Turner 8. Black, Japanese, and American: An Asian American Identity Yesterday and Today Michael C. Thornton and Harold Gates Part III: Remapping Political Landscapes and Communities 9. A Rose by Any Other Name: Names, Multiracial/Multiethnic People, and the Politics of Identity Daniel A. Nakashima 10. Multiracial Comedy as a Commodity in Hawaii Darby Li Po Price 11. Doing the Mixed-Race Dance: Negotiating Social Spaces Within the Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde 12. The Convergence of Passing Zones: Multiracial Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals of Asian Descent Teresa Williams-Leon 13. Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Mapping Discussions of Feminism, Race, and Beauty in Japanese American Beauty Pageants Rebecca Chiyoko King 14. Mixed but Not Matched: Multiracial People and the Organization of Health Knowledge Cathy J. Tashiro Part IV: Asian-Descent Multiraciality in Global Perspective 15. "We Paved the Way": Exemplary Spaces and Mixed Race in Britain David Parker 16. A Dutch Eurasian Revival? Mark Taylor Brinsfield 17. Multiethnic Lives and Monoethnic Myths: American-Japanese Amerasians in Japan Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu 18. The Racial Politics of Being Dogla and of "Asian" Descent in Suriname Loraine Y. Van Tuyl 19. The Tiger and His Stripes: Thai and American Reactions to Tiger Woods's (Multi-) "Racial Self" Jan R. Weisman Bibliography About the Contributors

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