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1975 shot of a victim of police brutality. Photo by Corky Lee.

The Chronicler of Asian America: On Photographer and Activist Corky Lee

“We await our moment, in pursuit of the picture that Corky envisaged, a portrait of a community that is too large and too brilliant.”
"A Grain of Sand" record

Charting the Music of a Movement

Galvanized by an act of racial violence, the band A Grain of Sand brought a new version of Asian American activism and identity to the folk music scene.
Torn photos juxtaposing the face of a Black man and an Asian woman.

A New Theory of Race in America

How white-dominated racial power produces inter-ethnic group conflict.
Winnifred Eaton

The First Asian American Screenwriter

The woman with the pen name Onoto Watanna had a stunningly productive literary career as a cookbook writer, novelist, and screenwriter.
A phot taken by Corkey Lee of an Asian woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty in front of a diamond store with a Statue of Liberty mural.

Corky Lee and the Work of Seeing

Lee's life and work suggested that Asian American identity did not possess—and did not need—any underlying reality beyond solidarity.
Collage of documents and photographs relating to Younghill Kang.

Younghill Kang Is Missing

How an Asian American literary pioneer fell into obscurity.
Illustration of Vincent Chin on red background surrounded by smaller illustrations of videographers, protestors, and grieving people

The Many Afterlives of Vincent Chin

Chin’s killing, 40 years ago, has inspired documentaries, young-adult books, and countless works of scholarship. What do we want from his story, and the people who tell it?
Flowers and signs laid out at a makeshift memorial for the March 19th Georgia shooting.
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Teaching Asian American History in its Complexity Can Help Fight Racism

Asian Americans have been both the victims and perpetrators of racial discrimination.
Colorful illustration of two groups of people in pink boxes. The people on the left have brown skin, and those on the right have lighter skin.

Inventing the “Model Minority”: A Critical Timeline and Reading List

The idea of Asian Americans as a “model minority” has a long and complicated history.
Image of an Asian American face obscured by visual effect that it has been sliced and distorted

Searching for Coherence in Asian America

In “The Loneliest Americans,” Jay Caspian Kang asks whether Asian American identity can be rescued from people like him.
A Asian-American store

Why A New Law Requiring Asian American History In Schools Is So Significant

"By not showing up in American history, by not hearing about Asian Americans in schools, that contributes to that sense of foreignness."
Yuri Kochiyama holding a sign during a protest in support of waiters

Behind This Photo Is the Story of Two Asian American Folk Heroes

Remembering Asian-American activists Corky Lee and Yuri Kochiyama.
A diverse group of school children saluting the American flag in a classroom.

Why the Asian-American Story Is Missing From U.S. Classrooms

Educators say that anti-Asian racism is directly linked to how the AAPI community is often depicted in U.S. history lessons .
Representatives Young Kim and Michelle Steele
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What the Election of Asian American GOP Women Means For the Party

While American conservatism remains largely White, it has slowly but surely become less so.

Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype

Generations of Asian Americans have struggled to prove an Americanness that should not need to be proven.

The Asian-American Canon Breakers

Proudly embracing their role as outsiders, a group of writer-activists set out to create a cultural identity—and a literature—of their own.
Peeling paint.

On “White Slavery” and the Roots of the Contemporary Sex Trafficking Panic

The ruling class used false claims about white women’s sexual virtue to regulate sexuality. But the “white slavery” panic was also about race, class and labor.
Kamala Harris waving to the audience in front of American flags.

What Does Caste Have to Do With Kamala Harris?

This election year, two women of South Asian descent—Kamala Harris and Usha Vance—take center stage. What can their identities tell us about their approach?
A kickline of five Asian American dancers at the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco.

Americanism, Exoticism, and the “Chop Suey” Circuit

Asian American artists who performed for primarily white audiences in the 1930s and ’40s both challenged and solidified racial boundaries in the United States.
Asian women opera performers dressed as entertainers holding fans

A Reimagination of 'Madama Butterfly' Isn't Radical, Says Artist Phil Chan

The famed opera has been criticized for its racist portrayals of Asian-Americans.
Martial arts fighting scene from Warrior.

Bruce Lee’s “Warrior,” and the Politics of Kung Fu

The Max series makes a radical argument for what constitutes American history.
Demonstrators with signs supporting affirmative action.
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Why the Supreme Court Endorsed, Then Limited Affirmative Action

The Supreme Court considers new arguments challenging admissions practices that colleges use to select a diverse student body.
Torn photos of Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor, split by the Grutter decision.

What Justice John Paul Stevens’ Papers Reveal About Affirmative Action

Twenty years ago, Sandra Day O'Connor's deleted draft opinion rejected favoring white applicants over Asian Americans. Why did Clarence Thomas adopt it?
A man with a raised fist poses by a portrait of Vincent Chin.
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The Crime That Fueled an Asian American Civil Rights Movement

The 1982 attack against Vincent Chin redefined hate crimes and energized a push for today’s stronger legal protections.
Nikki Haley speaking at the White House.
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The Asian American Presidential Nominee Who Blazed a Path for Nikki Haley

What the differences between Hiram Fong and Nikki Haley tell us about changes to the GOP.
Mike Masaoka speaking at a Dies Subcommittee hearing on July 6, 1943, in black and white.

Asian Americans Helped Build Affirmative Action. What Happened?

The idea of proportionality has roots in midcentury Japanese American advocacy.
Black and white photo of San Francisco's chinatown in 1960s.

“Making It” in America: Vanessa Hua Addresses the Myth of the Model Minority

My Chinese-immigrant parents dreamed big for me, their American-born daughter whom they raised in the suburbs east of San Francisco.
Photo of Vincent Chin superimposed on "Stop Anti-Asian Attacks" Protests.

Remembering Vincent Chin — And The Deep Roots of Anti-Asian Violence

40 years after Vincent Chin’s murder, the struggle against anti-Asian hate continues.
An Chang Ho, Kap Suk Cho and other workers at Riverside orange orchard, California USC Digital Library. Korean American Digital Archive.

The First Koreatown

Pachappa Camp, the first Korean-organized immigrant settlement in the United States, was established through the efforts of Ahn Chang Ho.
Illustration of Asian woman surrounded by flowers

Sex, Death, and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women

The line from America’s earliest empire in the Philippines to Japan, Korea, Vietnam—and anti-Asian violence at home—is straight, clear, and written in blood.

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