Restitution for A Past Trauma: The Asian American Case
In a June 2014 article, Ta-Nehisi Coates put forward a comprehensive case calling for financial restitution to Black Americans for the country’s century-long mistreatment of the community. Some knowledge of Asian American history would show the overlapping experience of past injuries between America’s Black and Asian communities. Over a century of coolie labor work, exclusion, and racial attacks still traceable today, the Asian American story certainly qualifies for a reparation scheme, too, if it were to exist. However, the question arises in whether or not financial support is the best way to repay the community for the past injuries it experienced. Although cash reparations appear to be a moral and feasible solution, reparation schemes should focus on increasing the exposure of Asian American history in media and public education. Indeed, the definition of a “past injury” of the Asian American community lies in the ignorance the group experienced in America’s history and mainstream media rather than structural financial difficulties.
Admittedly, a financial reparation scheme resembles a reasonable suggestion with ostensible benefits. For communities struck hard by severe structural poverty from past injustices and segregation, an injection of funds would be imperative to fulfill the people’s basic needs and close down gaps of inequalities. As Coates states in his article, “plunder in the past makes plunder in the present efficient.” Discussion over reparations for the African American community revolves around financial solutions because the group was virtually denied all forms of economic advancement until recent decades. More funds would allow more schools to educate the young, local businesses to expand, or basic pension support to flatten the high curve of crime rate due to poverty. In this case, monetary funds open up a door of opportunity that would otherwise be closed and address one of the African American community’s fundamental challenges. Such a solution, however, would fail to address Asian Americans’ ultimate expectation from reparations.
The Asian American community has a comparatively lower demand for cash reparation because it avoided structural restraints on economic opportunities primarily due to the stable influx of new immigrants. Among the groups that experienced the most racial discrimination and injustices, such as Chinese Americans and the Japanese American population, figures would show their average income today of $90,000 as well above the national figure. It is true that segregation-like anti-Asian laws such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War once significantly barred Asian Americans’ financial and political status. But the community’s population consists of a fluid flow of new people and wealth from abroad, which minimizes the economic impact of structural racism over time and serves as a fundamental factor that separates the group’s case from others. Wealthy Asian households and the middle class attracted by the “American dream” were never absent from a greater immigration movement from Asia across the pacific ocean. The arrival of wealth from abroad and the gradual disappearance of anti-Asian laws saved the community from a cycle of economic hardships like that in the African American community’s case. Financial reparations, therefore, do not stand as one of the biggest expectation of the Asian American community.
The most needed restitution for the Asian community in America would be increased media exposure for the group’s past and current struggles. How many people in America have ever heard of the term “coolies” and understand the slavery nature behind it? And how many would relate the term to Chinese immigrant workers who gave up their liberty for minimum wage jobs to feed their families? The Asian American story is an untold story. As Olivia Waxman puts in her article, “anti-Asian crime is always related to history.” Ever since the first pioneer set foot on American land, the Asian community has been ignored, misunderstood, and pushed out. From the late 18th century “yellow peril” period to the term “Kung Flu” during the covid outbreak, the lack of understanding in the Asian American people, their past, and their place in the American society leads to more injustices and hatred. Rather than financial support, therefore, it is paramount to provide the descendants of those brave men and women who traveled across the pacific ocean for a place in America a platform to tell their forefathers’ stories — the Asian American story.
It would further help if the history of Asian Americans could be acknowledged and taught in the public education system. Every kid in American classrooms has learned about the civil rights movement or has heard about the mistreatment of Native Americans — these injustices are openly acknowledged facts. However, the history of Asian Americans is largely missing from public school textbooks. As Olivia Waxman discusses in her article, “a complete version of the history would include a deeper look at anti-Asian discriminations.” On top of that, “milestones in American history achieved by people of Asian descent” should also be included. This again proves an Asian American image missing in the country’s classroom. Neither the traumatic past nor the community’s achievements are generally acknowledged and taught at school. If Asian American stories can break on a public education level, a more enhanced understanding of the group would be the best restitution for the forefathers who were pushed out and alienated.
It needs to be taken into consideration that the condition and expectations of different groups are not unanimous when we talk about reparations for descendants of those who used to be oppressed. As David Fumm puts in his article, a reparation scheme argued by Coates is “an assumption that America’s racial composition is binary.” It is important to acknowledge that American history isn’t just a white majority inflicting sufferings on a black minority. Many groups, including Asian Americans, suffer from oppression and injustices. There shouldn’t be just one solution to the “reparations,” therefore, but rather a set of restitution schemes uniquely tailored to every group based on their history and current needs. The Asian American community needs acknowledgment; an official, public recognition of the community’s struggles and past would mean more than a bucket of cash. Such a demand might be different from other groups like the African American community, so careful consideration would have to be taken.
Despite the benefits of a financial reparation scheme introduced by Coates, the idea of restitution would have to be more sophisticated in the case of Asian Americans. Without severe financial hardship due to economic oppression throughout time, the Asian American community needs a more qualifiable reparation scheme rather than a quantifiable one. To give more attention to the Asian community’s past injuries and achievements at American schools and on mainstream media is what the community most needs after two centuries of ignorance and repression. Amid the recent rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, a little more understanding between parties would be the best for everyone.
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