Arif Dirlik’s article, “ Asian on the Rim: Transitional Capitol and Local Community and the Making of Contemporary Asian America,” they made an interesting argument about racism and interethnic conflicts that go beyond that of interracial conflicts. Especially the theory presented on the inventions of Orientalism “used against one another(‘s Asian ethnic group) in perpetuating their exploitation and oppression, a tactic employed by white capitol” (Dirlik 4), there is so much racism that creates this hierarchical dynamic, putting whites at the top and anybody of color under them. A major example is U.S. as a government of white folk controlling everyone else that is living in the country. During the times of Japanese internment, we see that there were serious institutional consequences that pushed everyone to want to dissociate from the Japanese. With hegemonic discourse coming from histories of oppression, there is a basis of ignorance instead of the actual experiences and self-image being used to define and shape. The Asian American Movement that is highlighted points out how we have separate struggles in history, but we need to band together with this united front showing how those struggles can and do make us a united community. These counter stories or counter culture movements developed during the student, civil rights, women and ethnic movements were crucial as they fighting started to reverse some deeply rooted eurocentric ideas and prejudice damage.
Question: With the U.S. war on Vietnam, can you expand on the type of “kinship with the Vietnamese” that the Asian Americans felt?
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