Current Issue: 26
The South Issue
Mosey with us through the South, a region rich with history and culture -- and one that is vital to, but often overlooked in, Asian American history.
Winston Chou's posts
The Unwhitening of America
More than half of new births in the United States are nonwhite. So suggest the latest wave of 2010 Census Data, summarized here by William Frey of the Brookings Institution:
“The new Census results show 49.8 percent of infants under age one are members of a race-ethnic minority – up from 42.4 percent in 2000. Given this trajectory, and the fact that the Census was taken well over a year ago, it is almost certain we have now ‘tipped’ racially, and more than half of all national births are minorities.”
Unsurprisingly, these trends are driven mostly by demographic shifts in coastal and border states with large urban areas, like California, Texas, and Massachusetts. The interior of the United States continues to be predominately white, though the trends suggest this may soon change as well. And significant differences exist between groups – Asian American babies, for example, continue to hover at between 4% and 5% of new birth cohorts, while multiracial and “Hispanic” births constitute most of the ongoing diversification of American cities.
These trends will of course raise obvious and necessary questions about how we describe the racial composition of the United States. But, as Frey points out, they’ll also lead to questions about more than just how we talk about race: there is a significant “cultural gap” between the white majorities who came of age before 1965 and those who continue to come of age during an era of racial diversification and robust immigration and globalization
Now, I don’t so much mind that Frey (and surely many others in the future) uses the metaphor of a “cultural gap” to describe the different experiences of whites, or that his usage of this metaphor strangely frames the rapid diversification of the U.S. as a white-centric phenomenon. It’s important to explore how whites come to grips with their declining share (and national ownership) of the American population.
But it’s as, if not more important to remember that metaphors are inherently distorting, even in the hands of the most careful authors. Different races don’t have different “cultures” that map neatly onto their boundaries, and it’s more than a little Orientalist to assume that Latinos, Asian Americans, blacks, and the panoply of multiracial individuals that increasingly “fill in the blanks” between these groups possess tough “un-American” cultures that need to be chewed up and digested by the white majority. This assumption comes with an array of other, also implausible hypotheses: for example, that American culture is something stable and coherent that doesn’t change dramatically every generation, or that nonwhites aren’t part of the ongoing shaping of American culture.
So it’s important to scrutinize carefully the claim that the rapid “unwhitening” of the U.S. will somehow produce new cultural frictions. Americans, white and nonwhite alike, have been experiencing and adapting to the dislocations of time, generation, and culture for decades – if not centuries. Now, as then, there are vociferous struggles over national culture, and what it means (and takes) to belong to America. But now, as then, there will also be opportunities to invent new identities, to hybridize cultural practices, and to collaborate in the ongoing fashioning of American life.
More than half of new births in the United States are nonwhite. But it’s important to scrutinize carefully the claim that the rapid “unwhitening” of the US will inevitably produce new "cultural" frictions.
Inside the Outsourced Economy: Exploring Indian Call Centers
Undocumented immigration and outsourcing are perhaps the two most frequently mentioned culprits of the job heist. The imagery of theft is misleading, of course; undocumented workers aren’t “stealing” American jobs so much as working ogrish caricatures of them. As for those working outsourced jobs abroad? According to City University of New York sociologist Shehzad Nadeem, their roles couldn't, paradoxically, look more different from the very (American) jobs they’re meant to simulate.
DREAM Act Passes in House
News coverage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which passed by a thin margin in the House and will presumably be voted on today in the Senate, focused yesterday on the kind of polemical soundbites which have come to dominate public discourse on immigration. On the one hand, conservative senators called the bill a “nightmare act” that would further chip away at ordinary Americans’ tenuous economic footholds. On the other, liberals fruitlessly prodded their opponents with the provocative human element of the bill: at its core, the DREAM Act is meant to provide a path to citizenship for the several hundred-thousand undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
Of course, no representative thoughtfully considered the voices on the other side of the aisle and changed the vote they walked in the door with -- it’s pure naivete to think that any ever do.
Warriors Host Asian Heritage Night
No, we didn't land LeBron, Amar'e, or even Demarcus. But Golden State Warriors fans still have plenty to be excited about for the upcoming NBA season: new addition David Lee, rising star Steph Curry, and last season's sixth-leading scorer, Jeremy Li -- ahem, Monta Ellis.
Those of you who get all hot and bothered for independent Asian American periodicals and that wondrous article of clothing known as the "free T-shirt" can now add next Friday's Asian Heritage Night to that list.
Hilda Yao Donates $1.3 Million to California Schools
Thanks to Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Education Fund, thousands of teachers across California's starving public school system will no longer have to eat the cost of classroom supplies for the upcoming school year on their own.
Discovery Channel Gunman Slain After Police Standoff
James Lee, a 43-year-old Washington, DC, resident, was shot and killed by police following a four hour standoff at Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The Hyphenite's Social Calendar: 9/1 - 9/8
SAALT "Jazz and Justice" Fundraiser (Washington, DC)
Thursday, Sept. 2 from 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Poketo Unveils Exclusive Collection for Target
Angie Myung, co-founder of Los Angeles-based design company Poketo, is hitting the big leagues, people. I know what you're thinking -- it gets bigger than designing an early version of Hyphen's website?
Inception Gift Pack Giveaway
It's been a lucrative pair of weeks for Christopher Nolan. Inception, his new sci-fi dream-heist thriller, is perched atop the box office for the second straight week and -- no offense, Steve Carell and Zac Efron fans -- looks to hold that spot this go-around as well. The film, unlike most box office-rampaging mega-schlock, is no critical slouch, holding steady at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and ranking well with the director's other dark, brainy, critically-adored flicks.
Jeremy Lin Sets NBA Summer League Abuzz
Check out this highlight video of undrafted rookie Jeremy Lin holding his own against overall first pick John Wall.
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Digital Issue
The previous issue of Hyphen is available in its entirety for your perusing pleasure. Almost as good as having it right in your hands!
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