Racial Formation and Asian American Panethnicity

Posted: August 13th, 2013

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Racial Formation and Asian American Panethnicity

In both readings, the focus goes to racism and ethnicity. Racism manifests in the treatment received by other races from the whites-race in the United States. The Asians continuously migrated into the country and perceived as a different race until the incremental of their population led to their generalization despite hailing from different cultures. In racial formation, racial paradigms identified include; nation, class and ethnicity. These identify the role of race in the identity, territory and inequality. Existence of racism in the 90s cannot be overruled since it appeared as one of the major causes of conflict among the citizens. That led to the emergence of the ‘Asian’ term used on all the immigrants from Asia despite their ethnic differences. The immigrants of Asian origin have conflicts in terms of religion, culture and linguistics since they originate from different communities. The ascription ‘Asians’ used on them encouraged anti-Asian attitudes and promoted violence against them. Racism is the grouping of people of similar origin in terms of culture and geographic regions, which often reflects on the skin colour of a person. Ethnicity is the sharing of a similar culture; beliefs, norms and sometimes religion.

Winant argues that race emerged due to political activities. These activities continue their existence in the society making racism a constant phenomenon. Racism demonstrates its effects in political activities such as civil rights movement. Therefore, racism remains a common feature of our social institution. Winant’s arguments are effective in the explanation of the emergence of racism in the society. Even with many years having passed since this period, racism remains a key issue in the society. Citizens and the government have made great efforts in its elimination but the fruits of these efforts are far from realization. The social analysis takes the form of blacks, whites, Asians and other races showing the identity provided by race. Therefore, whether one is a citizen or not, the identity in terms of race continues its manifestation in the treatment given to them by other.

However, the view of racism as a political cause does not express all of its aspects. Overruling racism as a social problem is impossible since it is an issue that originates from the treatment of the individual. The discrimination of a person based on their race cannot be a purely political issue. Participation of citizens on an individual level appears as the most efficient way to eliminate racism. The Civil Rights Movements formed based on racial characteristics do not only show a political aspect of racism but also reveals a social grouping of people from the same race. This is because the oppression occurred in the social institutions and not only the political institutions. Sharing similar problems led to the formation of the movements.

The information gathered is an insight in viewing people from a particular race as individuals. Evidently, people from the same race possess different personalities just as they originate from different culture. The knowledge of the panethnicity associated with American- Asians assists in reduction of the alienation of the group and the generalization of the community when dealing with negative aspects of a few individuals. This information changes my perspective on the American- Asian community and helps in the understanding that groupings based on race deny the individuals a chance to identify themselves as individuals since their identity manifests in terms of race.