Comparison of civil rights movements

[pikachupacabra]

***disclaimer*** I didn't want to make a poll because I don't think it's about numbers...and I don't have any real idea about the topic itself in terms of concrete opinions, so I'd rather hear what people have to say.


Anyways, in terms of civil rights movements, and, to a lesser degree, experiences as a POC/minority in the US, which group (African-American or Latino/hispanic?) do you think we as APIA share the most similarities with? Who's struggles reflect ours more closely, and who should we be looking to for parallels in our own communities? In terms of perception by the mainstream, we are our own entity, but do we share similar stereotypes and prejudices as one of the groups?

I've kept it between APIA, African-American, and Latino...didn't want to throw in too many groups so I just picked the largets number.

Personally...I'd say we resemble Latinos most. The language barrier is most what I'm thinking. But I don't actually know! I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[ism]

Latinos in the sense that a greater number chose to come here, and the subsequent immigration patterns and economic development. The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow puts the black diaspora in a situation with unique issues. They did spearhead the major Civil Rights advances which most POC agree with, but I agree that the immigrant experience is more binding for us.

The Spanish influence on Latin America and the Spanish-American war was parlayed into the White Man's Burden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden) of colonizing the Philippines. Latinos and Asians face immigration-based xenophobia. The Chinese Exclusion Act expanding to all Asians and Malays, repealed but replaced with the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act creating sufficient self-selecting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection) control, now shifting toward "alien" and "illegal" Latinos, refined by the 1990 Immigration Act and California's Proposition 187 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187_%281994%29).

Xenophobia forcing Asians and Latinos into ethnic enclaves and constraining them to certain employment such as agricultural workers even resulted in cross-racial unionization, especially in California, under Cesar Chavez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez). The NFWA became the United Farm Workers due to the integration of Filipinos. Intermarriage between Mexicans and Filipinos was not uncommon, and there was a good amount of Chinese-Mexican intermarriage historically.

I believe if Asians did not exist in America today, Latinos would be groomed to be the Model Minority -- our development is somewhat in parallel, if you're going by our exposure in media and educational patterns. But back to the Model Minority -- this is why it is important all POC work together on certain common goals. The existing power structure leverages us against each other.

[lethal]

The major difference between Latins and Asians is that Latins share a common language and most share a common religion. Asians come from a number of different countries, each with its own language and religious traditions.

It has led to what seems to be a more unified pan-Latin American community, at least from an outsider's point of view. I'm sure upon closer inspection, a Dominican will have as much in common with a Chilean (aside from language and maybe religion) as a Vietnamese and an Indonesian.

[golden_buns]

The major difference between Latins and Asians is that Latins share a common language and most share a common religion. Asians come from a number of different countries, each with its own language and religious traditions.

There's racial/social divisions among latin-americans too. caucasian latinos (usually the upper class in latin-america) don't sympathize much with darker latinos (usually lower classes).

I was once at a latin-american student group in college and when some chicano girl became president and more mexican-americans started to join in, the rest of the members (mostly caucasians) dropped out

[Craig]

There's racial/social divisions among latin-americans too. caucasian latinos (usually the upper class in latin-america) don't sympathize much with darker latinos (usually lower classes).

I was once at a latin-american student group in college and when some chicano girl became president and more mexican-americans started to join in, the rest of the members (mostly caucasians) dropped outDamn, it sounds like your old college sucks. Maybe you should do something productive, like burn it ... perhaps a nice burnt orange flame lighting the tower will work nicely ...

[golden_buns]

Damn, it sounds like your old college sucks. Maybe you should do something productive, like burn it ... perhaps a nice burnt orange flame lighting the tower will work nicely ...
yeah let's jihad UT tower.

If that place goes down my transcripts will be lost and I can claim I had a 4.0 GPA

[Craig]

yeah let's jihad UT tower.

If that place goes down my transcripts will be lost and I can claim I had a 4.0 GPAOne of my friends told me that he claimed a 4.0 GPA when he was interviewing (near graduation) & it got him the job he worked at (including sponsporship), ... and they never checked his GPA (which was really in the low 2 range).