A Question of Loyalty

A QUESTION OF LOYALTY
By Ted W. Lieu*

"Are you in the Chinese Air Force?" the elegantly-dressed lady sitting next to me asked. For a moment I was left speechless. We were at an awards dinner and I was proudly wearing my blue United States Air Force uniform, complete with captain's bars,
military insignia, and medals. Her question jarred me and made me realize that even Air Force blue was not enough to reverse her initial presumption that people with yellow skin and Asian features are somehow not Americans. I wish this was just an isolated incident. Unfortunately, too many people today still view Asian Americans as foreigners in America.

I have been told countless times that I speak "good" English. I have had strangers come up to me and attempt to mimic the Chinese or Japanese language in a derogatory manner. I have been asked why a chink such as I would be interested in watching NFL
football.

The majority of the discrimination I have encountered all center on the view that I am a foreigner, that I am not part of this country, even though I grew up in Ohio, attended college in California, and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force in 1991. This presumption that I am a foreigner does not appear to apply to the same degree to other Americans. When we see someone of African, German, Hispanic, Irish, or Russian origin, for instance, we usually do not assume they are foreigners or tourists in this country. On any given day, if I walk around with a camera, I will be mistaken as a tourist from Asia.

Perhaps this "foreigner-syndrome" is so prevalent because it has deep historical roots. From the early days of our country's history, Asian Americans were thought of as foreign, different, and unable to assimilate. Over one hundred years ago, in 1889, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Chae Chan Ping v. United States, upheld the exclusion and expulsion of Chinese immigrants. The Court declared that Chinese immigrants "remained strangers in the land, residing apart by themselves, and adhering to the customs and usages of their own country. It seemed impossible for them to assimilate with our people[.]" The Court ruled that because "the United States . . . considers the presence of foreigners of a different race in this country, who will not assimilate with us, to be dangerous to its peace and security, their exclusion is not to be stayed[.]"

In 1912, then presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson announced, "In the matter of Chinese and Japanese coolie immigration, I stand for the national policy of exclusion. We cannot make a homogeneous population of a people who do not blend with the Caucasian race." In 1942, the United States government rounded up thousands of Japanese Americans and forcibly relocated them into internment camps based on the
irrational fear that Japanese Americans were somehow loyal to Japan, rather than the United States.

Even today, the struggle for acceptance of Asian Americans is not over. During the 1998 Winter Olympics, figure skater Michelle Kwan won the silver medal and Tara Lipinski won the gold. Ms. Kwan grew up in Southern California and is one of the
stars of the US Olympic Figure Skating team. Nevertheless, the headlines the next day on MS-NBC read: "American beats Kwan." In 1982, two autoworkers in Detroit beat a Chinese-American, Vincent Chin, to death with a baseball bat because they viewed him
as a Japanese foreigner who was taking away their jobs.

Sometimes the discrimination is more subtle than a blatant headline or a hate crime, but it can still be just as insidious. A few days after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy, a local news station sent a reporter to interview Chinese Americans to
get the Chinese-American response. It was clear by his questions that the reporter was attempting to elicit some sort of anti-American sentiment. The erroneous presumption, however, is that Chinese Americans are somehow linked to the government of China. Why would a Chinese American, like me, who has never even set foot in Beijing, have any different response to the bombing than, say, an Italian American? I also point out that after the tragic gondola accident in Italy, which occurred when a United States Marine jet accidentally severed the gondola cable, the same news station did not ask for the Italian-American response.

This subtle rationale linking Chinese Americans to the government of China, when carried to an extreme, is the same insidious rationale that justified the United States government's action of interning Japanese Americans during World War II. When a minority group is improperly linked to a foreign country, that linkage fundamentally calls into question their loyalty, their citizenship, their "Americaness." Unfortunately, Asian Americans, more so than many other minority groups, have been saddled with the burden of having to prove our loyalty to this nation.

Incidents involving a few isolated Asian Americans have unfortunately highlighted this burden and provoked a backlash against all Asian Americans. I do not know if Wen Ho Lee, the Chinese-American scientist who was fired from Los Alamos National Laboratory, is guilty of espionage or not. But I do know that the over 300,000 Asian-American scientists and engineers certainly are not guilty of anything more than having an Asian surname.

And their Asian surname has been enough to bring about heightened scrutiny, derision, and outright discrimination. A Los Angeles Times news article reported that an Asian-American lab employee was asked if he had "dual loyalties;" that snickering and
laughter broke out in a roomful of computer users when an Asian American was introduced to lead a session on computer security; and that many Asian-American scientists now express fear they will face obstacles to their career progression.

Similarly, the campaign finance scandal involving just a few Asian Americans led political parties and campaigns to question the validity of any donor with an Asian-American surname. I certainly do not condone those few individuals who broke campaign finance laws. But it is wrong to brand the over ten million hard-working, tax-paying, and deeply loyal Asian Americans in this country based on the actions of a few
individuals.

America is a nation founded by immigrants and built on the ideal that anyone can be an American if they believe in the principles and values of the United States Constitution. Indeed, the Vietnamese-American immigrant who does not yet speak
English that well, but is starting a small business and believes in freedom and democracy, is much more American to me than a fifth-generation midwestern Caucasian who blew up a federal building because he had a problem with federalism.

It is time to reverse the irrational and insidious presumption that Asian Americans are foreigners, have dual loyalties, or are somehow linked to the government of a foreign
country. As an officer in the United States Air Force, one day I may be called to give my life to my country. It would be a shame if some people still question what I mean when I say "my country."

* Ted W. Lieu is a Captain in the United States Air Force. The views expressed herein are his own and are not to be taken as the official views of the United States Air Force.

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Lieu says that, "America is a nation founded by immigrants and built on the ideal that anyone can be an American if they believe in the principles and values of the United States Constitution." Given the treatment of Lieu, is this merely an idealistic notion about what it means to be an American? Based on what you know about discrimination/acceptance of immigrants, what does being American mean to you? Has the definition of "American" changed over time?

For homework, you need to write a response to the question (one page, typed, double-spaced): What do you think it means to be "American?"