Asian Americans have a reason to celebrate Black History Month

Artists: Alex Chiu & Viva La Free

A mural at the Portland Chinatown Museum reads "We are hee as immigrants because Black freedom fiighters in the Civil Rights Movement fought for us to exist in this land."

If you’ve ever looked at the vibrant, diverse tapestry of Asian America today and wondered, "How did we get here?"—the answer isn't just found in a travel agency. It’s found in the streets of Selma, the lunch counters of Greensboro, and the halls of a Congress finally forced to reckon with its own soul.

To put it plainly: The 1965 Immigration Act wouldn't have happened without the Black Civil Rights Movement. And Asian Americans would not be the fastest growing ethnic group in the US, according to the US Census. Roughly 68% of Asian American adults are first generation immigrants.

February has been designated Black History Month and all communities of color, including th AANHPI communities are indebted to the Civil Rights Movement led by Black icons like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John Lewis, Rosa Parks and so many others who literally bled on the streets to gain those rights so many take for granted today.

Here is how the fight for racial justice at home cracked open the door for millions of  immigrants from Asia.

The Hypocrisy of the "Golden Door"

Before the mid-60s, the US immigration system was, frankly, a mess of institutionalized racism. Since the 1920s, we had a "national-origins quota" that was designed to keep America as white as possible. If you were from Great Britain or Germany, the door was wide open. If you were from Asia? You were essentially persona non grata.

But as the Civil Rights Movement gained steam, the optics became impossible to ignore. How could the US claim to be the leader of the "Free World" while enforcing Jim Crow at home and "Europeans Only" at the border? The movement stripped the mask off the idea that discrimination was just "the way things are."

In 1965, the same momentum that gave us the Voting Rights Act gave us the Immigration and Nationality Act (also known as Hart-Celler). It did something revolutionary for the time: it abolished those racist quotas.

Instead of looking at your skin color or your country of origin, the law shifted to two main pillars:

• Family Reunification: If you had family here, you could bring them over.

• Specialized Skills: If you were a doctor, engineer, or scientist, the US wanted your talent.

The Wave Nobody Saw Coming

When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, he actually downplayed it. He said it "is not a revolutionary bill" and wouldn't "reshape the structure of our daily lives."

He was wrong.

Free from the old bans, Asian immigration didn't just grow; it exploded. We're talking about a 663% increase in just the first decade.The "Brain Drain": Highly educated professionals from India, the Philippines, and South Korea rushed to fill gaps in the American workforce.

Those higly educated professionals with specialized skills then used the "family" provision to bring their siblings, parents, and cousins.

Within the new law were provisions that eventually allowed for the influx of Southeast Asian refugees following the Vietnam War.

Before the 1960s, Asian Americans made up only 0.5% of the US population. The Act allowed for a massive increase in immigration, especially from South and Southeast Asia, growing the community to approximately 7% of the population today.

Why It matters today

It’s a powerful reminder of how interconnected our struggles are.

The Asian American community as we know it—our Chinatowns, our Manilatowns, K-towns and Japantowns, and Little Saigons, our suburban enclaves in Jersey City, Daly City and the San Gabriel Valley—those ethnic enclaves, originally born out of racial biases meant to corral us in and keep us out of other parts of the cities, are now sources of cultural pride and worthy of preservation and growth.

We are direct beneficiaries of the courage shown by Black activists who demanded that America live up to its promise of equality.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, while primarily focused on African Americans, provided legal protections against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin that applied to all people of color, including AAPI individuals. This set the stage for challenging discriminatory practices in employment, education, and public accommodation

Inspired by the Black Power movement and the fight for racial justice, young Asian Americans in the late 1960s began to unite across diverse ethnic lines (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, etc.) to form a cohesive "Asian American" identity. This movement focused on fighting against racism, imperialism, and for social justice.

The era spurred the creation of ethnic studies programs, Asian American community organizations, and health centers, as activists demanded representation and resources tailored to their needs.

The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws banning interracial marriage, benefited AAPI individuals who faced legal restrictions on marrying outside their race.

Unfortunately, today there are those in America feel threatened by immigrants of color. Encouraged and led by the regime of Donald Trump, the push for mass deportation isn't simply following the law; the aggressive enforcement

in too many cases federal authorities have expanded the list of "undesirable immigrants" to include those who are here legally or who are following the proper steps to eventuallly become citizens. Even US citizens have been victims of the regime's dragnet, detained for hours or months before ICE realizes its error.

There are conservative forces who would do away with the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. The US Supreme Court, once the champion of civil rights, has weakened the Voting Rights Act so that it is a shadow of itself and allowed conservative lawmakers to impose new Jim Crow-like barriers to voting. 

The Civil Rights Movement didn’t just change the law for Black Americans; it changed the very definition of who gets to be an American. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

MLK DAY: Asian Americans and African Americans have been linked in struggle for civil rights.

The Hawaiian leis were a sign of solidarity with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.

OPINION

AT THIS TIME, when Asian Americans and African Americans are questioning and exploring their relationship in their common struggle for justice and equality, this holiday celebrating Martin Luther King, we take time to reflect that there was a time when the bond was unquestioned.

Today, a confluence of attitudes and movements that make us re-examine how AAPI fit in with other civil rights movements currently in play. Generated by the heated rhetoric of President-elect Donald Trump against Muslims (including Asian Muslims), spurred by the killings of unarmed African Americans by law enforcement resulting in the Black Lives Matter movement, and vigorously stirred by the rise of white supremacists combined by the fact that immigration from Asia has surpassed immigration from South of the Border, it's good we look back when the question was more stark - more black and white - if you will.

Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Asian Americans joined African Americans in the streets. The newfound activism amongst AAPI communities resulted in strikes and demonstrations on behalf of California farmworkers for better working conditions; college students seeking ethnic studies and a strong sentiment against the Vietnam War.

King sought to link the struggle for rights in the U.S. with the movement against the war in Vietnam, which he viewed as imperialism. 

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‘The war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home \," he said. "We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.'”

In his 1967 speech, "Beyond Vietnam," King proposed that the United States stop all bombing of North and South Vietnam; declare a unilateral truce in the hope that it would lead to peace talks; set a date for withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam; and give the National Liberation Front a role in negotiations.

AAPI politicians and civil rights activists, small in number, sided with other African/American activists. Although barely noticed because the attention was rightfully focused on King, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, Asian Americans were there in the streets and in the hallways of Congress.

RELATED: Talking about race - Ferguson, America is in the heart

Most notable were the mysterious Hawaiian leis that King and march leaders word in Selma,

The garlands were sent to King as a symbolic action of support and solidarity with his movement’s cause by the Rev. Abraham Akaka, the older brother of U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), I wrote about the leis and King last year on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday when demonstrators marched across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Read more here.

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The African and Asian American fight for justice and equality are inexorably linked to affirmative action and immigration, two important issues facing the AAPI community, as much as they are linked to Black Lives Matter and voting rights. 

New Americans and young supporters of Bernie Sanders need to know this history to know that they are not the first to speak out against discrimination or experience the sting of hate so that they can build on what has preceded them and learn from the past. 

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EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.