The Malleable Yet Undying Nature of the Yellow Peril Essay example --

The Malleable Yet Undying Nature of the Yellow Peril Racial stereotypes don't die; they don't even fade away. Though Asian Americans today have "achieved" model minority status in the eyes of the white majority in America by "pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps" through our supposedly quiet, dignified demeanor and gritty, "overachieving" work ethic, the terms of the racial discrimination we face remain the same today as they have since the first Asians began settling en masse in the United States more than a century and a half ago. At the root of this discrimination is the idea of a "Yellow Peril," which, in the words of John Dower is "the core imagery of apes, lesser men, primitives, children, madmen, and beings who possessed special powers" amidst a fear of invasion from the sleeping giant of Asia. Since its inception in the late 19th century, the idea of the Yellow Peril has colored the discourse regarding Asian Americans and has changed back and forth from overt, "racist hate," to endearing terms of what Frank Chin describes as "racist love." In times of war, competition or economic strife, Asian Americans are the evil enemy; in times of ease, Asian Americans are the model minority able to assimilate into American society. What remains the same is that the discrimination, whether overt or not, is always there. The Yellow Peril first became a major issue in the United States in California in the 1870s when white working-class laborers, fearful of losing their jobs amidst an economic decline, discriminated against the "filthy yellow hordes" from Asia, leading to the national Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which not only prohibited immigration from China but forbade legal residents from becoming citizens. According to t... ...e always is an issue and I was simply naà ¯ve for thinking anything different. Works Cited Chin, Frank and Chan, Jeffrey Paul. "Racist Love." In Richard Kostelanetz, Ed. Seeing Through Shuck. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Minear, Richard. Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodore Seuss Geisel. New York: New Press, 1999. Petersen, William. "Success Story, Japanese-American Style." The New York Times. January 9, 1966. "Success Story of One Minority Group in U.S." U.S. News and World Report. December 26, 1966. Wu, Frank H. Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.