Heroes, Heroines, and History
By Charlie Chin
When I went to elementary school some fifty years ago, information about Asian Americans in history textbooks could be summed up in just two sentences. The terse comment that the Chinese had participated in the California Gold Rush of l849 and an even shorter note that some Chinese men had worked on the Transcontinental Railroad from l865 to l869.

Though I didn't realize it at the time, these two short sentences had a tremendous affect on my perspective of the Asian American community and by extension, my image of myself. Because I had no knowledge of what had happened before I was born and very little contact with other Asian groups, I never questioned the conventional idea that Asians were foreigners who had recently arrived in America. I grew up believing that we as a people had very little to do with the history of the United States.

When European Americans and African Americans joked in fun or jabbed in hate with comments like "If you're not careful, we're going to deport you back to where you came from," and "You speak pretty good English for a Chinese guy." I bit my lip and said nothing. I accepted comments like, "You're lucky to be in this country," and "Not you Charlie, only real Americans are invited," by swallowing my pride, grinning, and laughing along with my tormenters. It never occurred to me that by doing so, I was diminishing myself, other Chinese Americans, and the Asian American community in general.

The mainstream society had imprinted me with the belief that I was a member of a group of people who should be slavishly grateful that we were allowed to come to this county, that because of the color of our skin, no matter how long we had been here, we could never be real Americans, and that our existence in this country was possible only because of the liberal tolerance of those in power, a tolerance which could suddenly end at anytime. I accepted all of this. Believe me, to be ignorant is terrible, but not to know that you are ignorant is even more terrible.

I was 24 years and a grown adult in the l969 when something happened to put me on a different path. In that year I came across a dusty book in a used bookstore titled, "America's Concentration Camps," by Jess Stern. It was about the internment of the West Coast Japanese Americans during World War ll. I was shocked. Concentration camps in the United States? How could it be that I had never heard of these concentration camps before? I began to w onder. Was there more Asian American history that I didn't know about? By hunting the library shelves, buying books by Asian American historians, tracking down volumes long out of print, I was able to slowly fill in the huge gaps in my knowledge. Things began to fall into place.

When I was a child, the Asian American population in the United States was very small. We're still only about 3% of the total population. The study of history told me why. I learned about the Chinese Exclusion Act of l882, the Japanese Exclusion Act of l924, and the Tydings-McDuffie Act of l934 that limited the number of Filipinos entering the United States to fifty persons a year. A review of American labor laws and union rules showed me that historically Asians had been carefully legislated out of most mainstream occupations. For generations, laws that restricted housing and land ownership to "Whites Only" had kept us in marginalized in J-Towns, Chinatowns, and Little Manilas.

In l965, like most Americans I had welcomed the Civil Rights Acts signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, but I had not foreseen the profound affect it would have on the Asian American community. When the United States began to make illegal discrimination based on race, color, or country of origin illegal, it brought to light that most immigration laws concerning Asians, and for that matter Hispanics, were discriminatory. By the l970's when the immigration quotas for Asians were normalized to the same numbers given to other groups and the racist laws that had prevented Asians from joining most professions and buying houses in restricted areas were struck down, a new Asian America began to emerge.

And in that new Asian America there were young people who questioned the mainstream version of American history. New research discovered that the contributions made by Asians to American history and culture had often been omitted, selectively forgotten, or in some cases, purposely hidden. This recovered information was invaluable in helping young Asian Americans develop a positive self-image. When it was learned that that Asian and Pacific Islanders have been on this continent before there was a United States, that Asians have served and died in its armed forces since the War of l812, that Asians have contributed in every major area and most of the minor ones of American cultural, science, and the arts, it allowed young Asian Americans in l980's and l990's to stand proudly and go on to contributing even more to this country and its society.

Sadly, because of a lack of interest, when it comes to knowing about their history in this country, many Asian American youths today are no better off than I was fifty years ago. One of the purposes of this booklet is to make you aware of just a few of the many examples of Asian American heroes and heroines.

Personally, my real heroes and heroines are not necessarily the people whose accomplishments are considered exceptional, but rather, the everyday folks who did what they had to do, in the face of discrimination, racist laws, and physical danger. Most of these hardworking, loyal, and responsible men and women will remain nameless in the pages of history. They were the generations before us who quietly worked and sacrificed so that their children and grandchildren would have a chance for a better life. In my estimation, they are the community's true heroes and heroines.