Dec 1997

Lies, Damn Lies & Immigration Policy

We all know there are lies. Then there are damn lies. And then there is immigration policy. The history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in this place, now called the United States of America, stretches back into the mists of time. Peoples of the Pacific have an ancient sea-faring tradition which includes pre-European contact around and across the ocean between red and yellow people in terms of recorded history.

Hawaiians came to work in the gold fields here at the same time as the Chinese in the mid-1800s. Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos worked back-breaking labor in farming and on the railroads to help build this nation. There is a famous photograph taken at Promontory Point in Utah when a silver spike was driven into the final piece of track to link railroad service across the United States. If you look closely at this picture, you will see that there are no Chinese included among the workers, even though Chinese were an integral part of building that railroad, suffering more than their share of deaths in performing harsh and dangerous work. The term "Chinaman's chance"-which means no chance at all- comes from that time. A Chinese worker would be lowered in a basket to set explosive charges into the side of a cliff. He would pack in the charge, light a long fuse, and then-maybe-get hauled back up before the explosion went off.

My father was born in Japan in 1903 and came to this country as a teenager. He proudly became a naturalized citizen in the mid-1950s at the very first opportunity to legally do so. For up until the mid-1950s Japanese were prevented from applying for U. S. citizenship. Let me repeat that. Up until the mid-1950s, Japanese were prevented-by law-from applying for U.S. citizenship.

This policy was used against us in one of the many lies spread during World War II. We were accused of having lived here for decades and still remaining citizens of the nation of Japan. Lies like this-and outright racism-allowed us to be sent to U.S. concentration camps during World War II. And it wasn't just Japanese immigrants who were sent to prison. Two thirds of us were born here. That's right-born here-which made us United States citizens by birth! So you know how big the lies are. It doesn't matter if you are a citizen. What matters is the color of your skin. What matters is the class you occupy. What matters is whether your particular group has been singled out to be the scapegoat of the time.

We were held prisoners in our own country for four years. We lost our homes, our businesses and personal possessions. We were stripped of our freedom. We were stripped of our constitutional and civil rights. Internees were shot and killed for getting too close to the barbed wire fence, and guard towers-staffed by rifle-carrying U.S. soldiers-surrounded us in desert camps where we were forced to live. You remember what they called us, the "yellow peril," slant-eyed, buck-toothed, disloyal, cunning, inscrutable "gook" saboteurs who breed like rats! "The only good Jap is a dead Jap" and, besides, "they value life differently than we do"! But wait, something happened in the last several decades-right around the time the Civil Rights movement and the Black Power struggle gained momentum. Asians in general and Japanese in particular were suddenly reclassified. No longer were we treated like pariahs in this country. No, we were suddenly anointed as hard-working, industrious, polite, gracious, quiet, malleable, deferential, acquiescent, undemanding nerds with pocket-protectors in engineering students' shirts!

And why were we re-classified-going from yellow peril to yellow pearl? Because the now dominant society thinks they can use us once again. Because we satisfy all of the affirmative-action guidelines. Because we allowed ourselves to be led into concentration camps by fellow Japanese who collaborated with the U.S Government. Because the now dominant society thinks we will be the latest in a long line of colonized people, who have been used as overseers to help them oppress other people of color.

But we are not stupid. We know what has been done to us in the name of democracy, and we will not allow a wedge to be driven between us and our allies As they seek to keep more and more of the wealth at the expense of scape-goated immigrants and minimum wage workers, we will tell the truth. Immigrants did not cause the U.S. to become the largest debtor nation in the world. Immigrants did not cause the Savings&Loan debacle which ended in a multi-billion dollar bailout. Immigrants did not cause massive layoffs in industrial cities. These are all products of greed in a society manipulated by those who have always exploited this country's' resources, whether it be those who live upon it or the earth herself. It was Filipino workers already out on strike who were joined by Cesar Chavez to form the farmworker movement. It is that same kind of alliance among all people of color and the working class which will bring true justice and true democracy to this land. We know who the real enemy is: the real enemy tells lies, damn lies and makes current immigration policy.
-Reprinted from Montelibre Monthly, Nov. 1996

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