Kim 1999

Main argument: Asian Americans have a unique position within the racial hierarchy of the United States, where they are benefiting from and being victimized by the racial triangulation between Whites and African Americans

History:

Asian Americans have been subjected to racial triangulation from the middle of the 19th century, and in the years following 1965
Racial triangulation was openly culturally-racial before the civil rights era while in the post-civil rights era, it happened in a coded manner and became culturally divorced from overtly racial assertions
However in both periods, racial triangulation has functioned as a blueprint for what each group should get, in turn, reproducing patterns of white power and privilege

Open racial triangulation: 1850-1950

California was faced with a dilemma when they joined the union as a “free” state because they were not receiving the same amount of economic growth as slave states were
However when they saw Chinese immigration, they determined that the labor they provided could be used as a solution that would help the state grow economically
Racial triangulation reconciled the need for labor by furthering White dominance
- It made Asian immigrants seem superior to African Americans yet unassimilable to Whites
Categorizing Asian Americans as “Mongolian” or “Asiatic” was constructed as a way to reconcile a labor system with the ideal of a pristine White polity