Anti-Asian Violence in North America: Asian American and Asian Canadian Reflections on Hate, Healing and Resistance (Volume 7) (Critical Perspectives on Asian Pacific Americans, 7) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 074250459X ISBN 13: 9780742504592

Publisher: AltaMira Press, 2001

Synopsis

Violent and sometimes fatal acts of racial hatred are drawing increasing attention around the nation. For the first time, voices of Asian Americans and Asian Canadians have been brought together to discuss the multidimensional impact of racial crime in their lives and through their work as attorneys, teachers, community activists, students, or business professionals. The authors explore the relationship between the physical or verbal acts and issues of ethnic identity, civil rights of immigrants, Internet racism, sexual violence, language and violence, institutionalized racism, economic scapegoating, and police brutality. Because hate crimes span legal, social, and emotional contexts, many of the contributors write in a narrative style that blends personal experience with social theory or political commentary. They offer valuable perspective on combating hate crime in coalition building and community resistance, legal prosecution, police training, victim services, and racial justice movements. The depth, emotion, and intelligence of these compelling chapters make the book important reading in courses in Asian American studies, race and ethnic studies, sociology, criminology, and human rights, and for anyone looking to understand the ongoing struggle of racial violence and human rights in North America.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Wong Hall has been the director, president, and adviser for several Asian American groups for 14 years. She has been a professor, event planner, and diversity consultant. She is also an artist and a poet. Her fiction and non-fiction works have appeared in Asian Week, The Asian American Encyclopedia, Skin Deep: Women Writing on Color, Culture, and Identity, and other venues.

Victor M. Hwang is the managing attorney of the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, directing its Hate Violence/Race Relations project, and co-authoring its annual, national audit on anti-Asian violence.

Review

This is a necessary book and, in light of the recent wave of Asian migration to Canada, a timely one as well. The editors have assembled a collection of essays that tear away the theory and rhetoric to expose the human cost of racism whether it is directed against recent immigrants or those who have been here for generations. Anyone involved in human rights will read this book with feelings of anger, sadness, and ultimately, renewal of purpose. (Kuan Foo, President, Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians, and Equity and Diversity Program Coordinator for the Law Society of Briti)

This path-breaking anthology―which focuses on incidents ranging from death threats to murderous attacks in the U.S. and Canada―indicates why anti-Asian violence is systemic in North America. Raw emotions are courageously explored by the authors in terms of the psychological, social, and political impact of bein assaulted. The horrific cases report, count, and combat hate crimes of all kinds. (Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder)

Anti-Asian Violence in North America is compellingly written, authoritative, and essential. I was captivated by the chilling accounts of the anti-Asian experience which are novelistically told and make for fascinating reading. Each chapter is a reflective portrait expressing the sentiment of the fundamental miscarriage of justice that so many Asians feel but are often reluctant to acknowledge. (Craig Fujii, Civil Rights lawyer, Arizona)

This collection of essays is a unique contribution to North American history, telling the troubling story of violence, both in Canada and the United States, against Asian Americans. It is a story heretofore unknown and it is told as a fascinating series of personal experiences, rather than as a dry historical account. It deserves to be widely read. (Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and professor emeritus of Political Science, Boston University)

The fatal impact and consequences of anti-Asian violence should not be confined to knowledge for an elite group of individuals. By using a style that is accessible and not intellectually insulting to anyone, the editors and writers of this book have contributed much to the awareness and scholarship of anti-Asian violence. (Lorraine Dong, San Francisco State University Journal of American Ethnic History, (Fall 2002))

Provides welcome perspectives on the impact of prejudice and racism.... The authors...collectively offer a useful comparative view of anti-Asian violence in the U.S. and Canada. Suitable for general and academic audiences. (F. Ng, California State University, Fresno CHOICE)

Hall and Hwang's collection has value because it reveals the wide diversity of Asian ethnicities, cultures, social/economic conditions, and the myriad experiences of Asians in North America...I highly recommend this book. (Lupe Llorente Allen NACADA Journal)

About this edition

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 074250459X
• ISBN 13: 9780742504592
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Hall Patricia Wong, Hwang Victor M.