Contemporary Asian American Activism and Intergenerational Perspectives

Diane Fujino
Asian American Studies
UC Santa Barbara

Robyn Rodriguez
Asian American Studies
UC Davis

This project’s main objective is to narrate and analyze contemporary Asian American activism which has enjoyed little popular or academic attention. Its secondary objective is to place such activism within a historical context. Intergenerational continuity and rupture is important to analyze for the Asian American Movement that appears to be disconnected from earlier Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino activism as well as later forms of activisms. This disconnect can be traced to Cold War politics that both undermined previous US-based Asian radicalism and constructed the dominant model minority trope that promoted apolitical means to mobility and rendered invisible Asian American dissent. This project brings together academics, activists and artists protesting racism, intersectional racialized gender and heteropatriarchy, state violence by the police and US military, as well as supporting labor rights, immigration rights, fair housing, and ultimately greater democracy in society writ large.