Amerasians

[kimpossible]

Link to amerasianworld.com. A political organization concerning Amerasian movement separate from hapa movement.

All About Amerasians
Proud to be an Amerasian
Amerasians are unique group and should not be linked with the popular Eurasian and Hapa movements. In the past, there have been considerable research and news coverage on the plight of Amerasians in Vietnam and the Philippines. One can even find research on the older Japanese and Korean Amerasians (though the younger Japanese and Korean Amerasians seem to have been forgotten). With the age of the internet, you see a large proliferation of multiracial Asian web sites devoted to people who consider themselves either as Eurasian or Hapa. With the exception of David Krum's, The Amerasian Page in the mid-90s, there were no current web sites devoted just to Amerasians (excluding the various nonprofit organizations and schools whose aims are to help the Amerasian plight in Southeast Asia and Okinawa. See Amerasian Links for these web sites).

Common Definition of an Amerasian
What is an Amerasian? According to one common definition, an Amerasian is a person of American and Asian descent, especially one whose mother is Asian and whose father is American. Furthermore, according the correct usage of this term:

Amerasian is not a synonym for either Asian American or Eurasian. The word dates to the early 1950s and has been used primarily with reference to children fathered in Asia by American servicemen. Since American servicemen are of varying backgrounds, there is no particular racial or ethnic connotation to Amerasian apart from the fact that one parent, generally the mother, is an ethnic Asian. In contrast, Asian American is typically used of a person whose parents are both ethnic Asians but who by birth or naturalization is an American citizen, while Eurasian designates a person of mixed Asian and European, or white, parentage. Though many Amerasians are, ethnically speaking, also Eurasians, in practice the two terms do not overlap very much, with Amerasian continuing to be restricted in usage to the historical context of the American military presence in East and Southeast Asia.

[rice cracker]

Not that I've read it in depth yet, but according to this site I'm an Amerasian. I always thought Amerasians were older, and sprang from the American military occupation in SE Asia. We live and we learn, I guess.

[Chester]

"Amerasian" -- such a silly, indistinct term.

I propose we use "asiancaucasian" or "caucasianasian" or, perhaps, "naisacauccuacasian".

[rice cracker]

What's indistinct and silly about it?

[Chester]

Originally Posted by rice cracker

What's indistinct and silly about it?

Well...because it mixes up nationality and ethnicity. What they really mean to use is: "caucamerasian" or maybe "unitedstatesasiancaucasian" or maybe "caunitedamerasian" or maybe "caucnorteamericanasian."

[rice cracker]

Uh, but service men stationed overseas fathering these children with Asian women are of all different races. They're Americans, not just whites.

Take, "Eurasian." Is that a silly and indistinct term as well? Even more indistinct: hapa.

To someone looking to label the product of such a union, well, "Amerasian" rolls off the tongue. "Caunitedamerasian" does not.

[Chester]

Originally Posted by rice cracker

Uh, but service men stationed overseas fathering these children with Asian women are of all different races. They're Americans, not just whites.

Yeah, but then it should be "Ameri-Japanese" or "Ameri-Korean" or whatever. And I've seen people use the term to describe hapas of parents who are both Americans. Consistency, god-damn it! Nobody has any respect for semantics anymore!

Take, "Eurasian." Is that a silly and indistinct term as well?

Yeah.

To someone looking to label the product of such a union, well, "Amerasian" rolls off the tongue. "Caunitedamerasian" does not.

That's true. (And I was totally goofing with those stupid terms.)

You were being facetious, but I think your question in the second post of this thread was totally legitimate.

[rice cracker]

Well, the definition still stands, I guess. And it makes sense to me. One parent from the Americas, one parent from Asia.

I hit it, and I split it. The thread, that is. http://forums.yellowworld.org/showth...422#post294422

[Chester]

Originally Posted by rice cracker

I hit it, and I split it. The thread, that is. http://forums.yellowworld.org/showth...422#post294422

Sweet. I was just worried that you might delete my proposal for the use of "naisacauccuacasian". I feel very strongly about that.

[rice cracker]

Originally Posted by Chester

Sweet. I was just worried that you might delete my proposal for the use of "naisacauccuacasian". I feel very strongly about that.

Chester, I would never.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Chester

Well...because it mixes up nationality and ethnicity. What they really mean to use is: "caucamerasian" or maybe "unitedstatesasiancaucasian" or maybe "caunitedamerasian" or maybe "caucnorteamericanasian."

not so. there are offsprings of black servicemen and Asian women that call themselves Amerasian.

[Kuchana]

Originally Posted by SunWuKong

not so. there are offsprings of black servicemen and Asian women that call themselves Amerasian.

what about blasian? or is that something completely different?

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by Kuchana

what about blasian? or is that something completely different?

i believe Blasian specifically refers to offsprings of a black parent and an Asian parent. therefore someone may be both Amerasian and Blasian - if a person so feels like it to identify himself/herself as such.

[rice cracker]

Here is a super long article (haven't read it yet, but plan to) Vietnamese-Amerasians: Where Do They Belong? and another article The American Response to Amerasian Identity and Rights.

Edit: I'm now reading the second article I listed. It's intensly interesting.

Originally Posted by excerpt

II. The Amerasian Experience in Asia



In Korea, as in many Asian countries, a record is made of all births and deaths in one’s hometown. If a child is born out of wedlock, especially to a foreign soldier who has disappeared, the mother may not register the child. However, this means that the child does not have a legally documented existence—he or she is stateless and cannot attend Korean schools. Typically, these children are forced to work around the bars, join gangs and engage in illegal activity. Most women are unable to track down the children’s fathers. When they do—few fathers are willing to acknowledge their children. (Kim, 1997: 11)



This portrait of Korean Amerasians informs us about how certain aspects of Amerasians’ parentage structure their marginal existence. While this writer focuses on Korean Amerasians, her comments are appropriate for Amerasians elsewhere because the common obstacles for Amerasians render one group similar to the others. Being the illegitimate children of foreign soldiers, these individuals encounter myriad forms of legal, social, and economic discrimination throughout their lives.



A. Problematic Legal status of Amerasians
“At present, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam views Amerasians as U.S. nationals. The U.S. Government views Vietnamese Amerasians as SRV [South Republic of Vietnam] nationals” (Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy, 1982: 67): this statement points to the problem of Vietnamese Amerasians’ nationality. Fathered by foreigners and born out of wedlock, Amerasians face extreme difficulties in establishing their legal identities under the laws of the Asian countries of their birth. In the modern configuration of nations and states, most individuals are born with a concrete legal identity. However, Amerasians’ paternity renders the basic foundation for their legal existence ambiguous and problematic.

In Vietnam, it is customary for fathers to claim legal paternity, register births, and take care of school enrollment (DeMonaco, 1989: 641, 648). Legal discrimination of illegitimate Amerasians has even excluded Amerasians from “many basic government services, such as medical care, welfare, and education” (Levi, 1993: 461). From difficulties in registering birth to the hardships of navigating one’s existence in a society where the father mediates all public affairs, being an illegitimate child of a foreigner plagues Amerasians with numerous social and economic disabilities.



B. The Material Consequences of Amerasians’ Illegitimacy and Pariah Status
The inability to establish a legitimate legal identity severely restricts Amerasians from fully participating in mainstream society. Their exclusion from mainstream society begins at an early age, when Amerasians are often prohibited from entering schools. This places them on a path of poverty, since education is usually a prerequisite for financial stability. Even when they manage to enroll in schools, many Amerasians find the harsh treatment from students and teachers unbearable and subsequently stop attending (DeBonis, 1995: 123; The Women Outside, 1995; Camp Arirang, 1995). Even with a proper education, one Amerasian states that he will “not be able to get a job because [he is] not pure Korean” (Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy, 1982: 48). The net result of the multiple layers of discrimination and limited resources is that an overwhelming majority of Amerasians in Asia struggle for survival through low-skilled, unstable, and often illegal work (DeBonis, 1995; The Women Outside, 1995; Levi, 1993).



C. Amerasians’ Negative Self-Perception: Internalization of Stigma and Non-Belonging
Perhaps the most destructive dimension of the Amerasian experience is that Amerasians often internalize the negative attitudes directed at them. Bombarded from childhood with comments and actions that point to their subordinated difference, many Amerasians display extremely negative conceptions of themselves. While collecting oral histories of Amerasians at the Philippines Refugee Processing Center, Steven DeBonis noticed that an alarmingly significant population of Amerasians had dramatic scars on their bodies:



Self-inflicted burns and slashmarks are common among Amerasians, but never had I seen them to this extent. The young man’s torso, arms, and legs had been terribly mutilated. Raised lines of scar tissue overlay his body, one slash criss-crossing into the next. (1995: 98)



What accounts for such traces of self-inflicted violence among Amerasians? Their voices give testimony to how the discrimination they face from birth saturates their self-perception, and how they externalize the resulting mental distress through self-mutilation.

One individual explains his scars: “You want to know about these scars on my arms and my legs? Well, in Vietnam I was suffering and depressed, and I would take some pills and take a razor and just cut myself. I was just feeling sad and disappointed” (DeBonis, 1995: 75-76). The source of this anguish can be traced to his lack of a secure national identity—“I don’t know what nationality I am. I’m Amerasian” (DeBonis: 1995, 76). Thus we see a direct correspondence between his ambiguous national identity, his sense of non-belonging, and the expression of that anguish in the form of self-inflicted razor cuts.

Another individual gives similar testimony:



All my life people despised me, they called me a “bastard,” a “nigger.” I didn’t care about myself, I wanted to die. So I took a razor and slashed myself all over. People see my scars and they think, “Oh, he’s a tough guy, he’s a trouble maker.” They judge me. But it’s not like that, I just wanted to die. (DeBonis, 1995: 7)



It becomes apparent in this statement that this individual’s Amerasian identity was a source of stigmatization and discrimination. Fatherless (“a bastard”) and with an obviously racialized identity (“a nigger”), his self-mutilation is an expression of his emotional pain. A lifetime of being ostracized and punished because of one’s parentage—an unchangeable aspect of one’s identity—takes its toll on Amerasians’ self-perception. Self-mutilation and suicide attempts are the most severe symptoms of their internalization of how mainstream society perceives them.

[sandra]

i'm working on an immigration case (yet another immigrant Asian woman battered by her white husband), and the INS form defines Amerasians generally as those fathered by American servicemen or American civilian employed abroad. If the father is neither, a lengthy explanation is required.