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