Week 10_Miguel Flores_ASA 114

Asian Diaspora – the running joke in class: “What is Diaspora!?” is essentially the context of the readings that we read for this week—defining diaspora as a framework in evaluating the conditions and status of the Asian American Diaspora and their deep connections to their homeland. The term diaspora as Parenas and Siu discussed their chapter in the book Asian Diaspora as an aspect in the study of Ethnic Studies; as interconnections between different diasporas are becoming more apparent and complicated, it calls for a deep analysis of these entanglements and how it affects the way we as a society become globalized part of our communities. The term and the study of the diaspora is a process towards how hybrid cultures are made and how events from the homeland and here in the United States affect our interactions and the makeup of our realities. It diverges into many subjectivities that elaborate our understanding of the formation of communities and how their beliefs, traditions, cultures, politics, and economy affect what is happening here and in their homeland.

            In academia, Robert Lee in his chapter in the book Displacements and Diaspora it reinforces our preconceived notions as effects of circumstances that may have affected our understanding of people, cultures, and beliefs. Lee refers to the example of “war or terror” and how that ideology lingered in the minds of the people and perpetuated intensified racialization and extreme racism towards Muslim Americans. It formed Islamophobia and it radicalizes the faith of Islam as negative and counters to the patriotic beliefs of American citizens. Such circumstances call for the study of the Muslim American diaspora, a study that investigates these interconnections and negative sentiments towards the diaspora of Muslim Americans. Nancy Abelman, on the other hand, uses the ideology of diaspora in her study of the Korean Americans and “Korean Koreans” and the perpetuation of the concept of “intra-ethnic othering.” Through her ethnographic research and her utilization of the diasporic ideologies, she was able to complicate our understanding of othering and how within an ethnic group, the act stereotyping is enacted. It is interesting to witness and learn how the study of Diaspora diverges into different conversations. Professor Valverde is an expert in Diaspora, and it would be interesting if this could become a major because it is such an expansive concept. But for now, as students of Asian American Studies, what other ways of understanding can you think of when you hear the term “Diaspora?”

Reference:

Anderson and Lee. “Crossing Borders of Disciplines and Departments.” Displacements

“Diaspora matters: Kingsley Aikins at TEDxVilnius” YouTube. uploaded by TEDx Talks, 25 February 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ_y5LgM7D0

Nancy Abelmann. “Anthropology, Asian Studies, Asian American Studies.” Displacements

Parrenas and Siu. “New Conceptions, New Frameworks.” Asian Diasporas