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A review by ameyawarde
The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee
5.0
This is a must read for non-Asian americans, imo. I knew about the racism against asian immigrants who worked on the railroad and who lived in San Francisco but that was about it-- Out of 50+ nonfiction educational books I've read this year, I felt like this is one i learned the most from. It got really hard to read in parts, because, how are humans such POS?? But it's absolutely important for us whose ancestors (or selves) didn't experience it to learn about it.
And, like, I didn't know a single thing about all the anti-asian racism in Mexico, and how Mexico literally ejected Asians from their homes overnight and tossed them over the border to America. And america was like "wow d*ck move Mexico, now we have to pay to deport them because we are also racists SOBs". Besides mentioning more than just the US specifically, I also liked how this book talked about the history of both immigration and racism (obviously you can't *really* seperate the two) among the different largest groups of Asian immigrants. What little I had learned of before was specifically anti-chinese and anti-japanese racism, but this book also covered immigration/racism against Koreans, Southern Asians, and Filipinos.
Even for those of us who thought we knew about Anti-asian hate/racism/systematic oppresion (and BOY was it institutionalized), there's SO much more here than even the "what they don't tell you in history class" type books don't get into.
And, like, I didn't know a single thing about all the anti-asian racism in Mexico, and how Mexico literally ejected Asians from their homes overnight and tossed them over the border to America. And america was like "wow d*ck move Mexico, now we have to pay to deport them because we are also racists SOBs". Besides mentioning more than just the US specifically, I also liked how this book talked about the history of both immigration and racism (obviously you can't *really* seperate the two) among the different largest groups of Asian immigrants. What little I had learned of before was specifically anti-chinese and anti-japanese racism, but this book also covered immigration/racism against Koreans, Southern Asians, and Filipinos.
Even for those of us who thought we knew about Anti-asian hate/racism/systematic oppresion (and BOY was it institutionalized), there's SO much more here than even the "what they don't tell you in history class" type books don't get into.