A Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Testimony: In Search of the “Place” in Displacement
This documentary was produced/directed by Rojelio Vo, Long S. Le, and Aaron Hedge. The documentary is based on the lived-experience of a Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian, Khanh Le.
Documentary Featured on Visions “ Channel 13/ABC
Interview with Visions will be posted at: http://www.visions.abc13.com/. Segment 2, September 5, 2009.
Watch the Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kjZL4Og2Ig
Documentary’s Synopsis
“If the individual black self could not exist before the law, it could, and would, be forged in language as a testimony at once to the supposed integrity of the black self and against the social and political evils that delimited individual and group equality.” – Professor Henry Louis Gates
Khanh Le is a Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian, fathered by an African American serviceman during the Vietnam War. Khanh has no information about his father, and his mother abandoned him when he was an infant. He was raised by a surrogate family. As a “half-breed” black child (con den lai) and a child of the enemy (con cua ke thu), Khanh did not exist before the law in Vietnam. His displacement experiences entail physical, cultural, psychological, and intellectual of which he suffered humiliation and discrimination. His search for a “place” came in 1986 when he arrived to the U.S. through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP). The ODP allowed Amerasians to bring their mothers but restricted surrogate or extended family members. Thus, at the age of ten, Khanh came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, living with foster families and later in sheltered homes for Amerasian young adults.
Coming home to their fathers’ country, Amerasians had escaped the “dust of life” (bui doi), referring to their lived experiences in Vietnam as the poorest of the poor. Yet, after arriving to the U.S., many Amerasians felt that once again they had been abandoned. That is, the U.S. was only responsible to get Amerasians here and not responsible for whether Amerasians’ adaptation would be successful. Some Amerasians couldn’t handle it — joining gangs, becoming prostitutes, committing crimes, and abusing alcohol and drugs.
For Khanh Le, he has been able to “survive twice.” His life in the U.S. has been about “living in the middle,” not (and will never be) fully accepted as an African American, as a Vietnamese, or an American. But he has been resilient. His testimony speaks of his biological father and mother, his childhood in Vietnam, his experiences in foster homes and shelter homes in the U.S., his attempts of balancing various cultures, his relations with his common-law wife and her family, his relations with his daughter, his Katrina experience, and his thoughts about one day returning to Vietnam.
The documentary was conducted in Houston –two weeks after Khanh Le evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005. The documentary was recorded live at Hong Kong City Mall in the office of BoatPeople SOS which was initially the key outreach center for Vietnamese Katrina evacuees.
The Vietnamese Amerasian Experience
The term “Amerasian” was coined by Pearl S. Buck in 1964, referring to Korean children fathered by American servicemen during the Korean War. The term today has come to apply to the more than 2 million displaced mixed-race children born in such countries as the Philippines, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Estimates of Vietnamese Amerasian children born to U.S. soldiers/civilians and Vietnamese mothers during the Vietnam War range from 40,000 to 100,000. Contrary to the image of Amerasians being the product of Vietnamese bargirls’ one-night stand with young American soldiers, a study for the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement found that most mothers were poor young women who worked on or near U.S. bases in order to contribute to the support of their families. When they became pregnant, these mothers attempted to create a support system for their children, but such a system was tested when the fathers were departed back to the U.S. Moreover, the stereotype that mothers of Amerasians were prostitutes made in difficult for them to go home in which their families or neighbors would look down on them; and in a patrilineal society if they were not married their children would be stigmatized from birth.
For Pearl S. Buck, the Amerasian represents “neither East nor West purely, he will be rejected of each, for none will understand him. But…if he has the strength of both his parents, he will understand both worlds, and so overcome.”
There are indeed stories of living in and making sense of both worlds, as illustrated by Brandy Lien Worrall’s “Stories from Home.” Brandy is a second-generation Vietnamese American college student at UCLA, who was born and raised in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania and whose father was an American serviceman during the Vietnam War. On the one hand, traversing different worlds — her biracial/bicultural identity and her mother Vietnamese identity — led Brandy to learn Vietnamese. “Now when I talk to my mom in Vietnamese…[I remember] when she said sadly, ‘I wanted you to learn Vietnamese, so you can love me better,’ I knew what she was talking about.” On the other hand, her mother confessed to Brandy that she had “abandoned” Brandy’s older, half-brother, Hieu, when she came with Brandy’s father to the U.S. in 1971. “Hieu’s cries of his sister [Hieu's younger sister and Brandy's older, half-sister] leaving him and going to America, of she being the one who was allowed to be known in the face of his mother’s new lover [Brandy's father]…[Hieu was] brave when that man became his mother’s and sister’s ticket out of Vietnam and away from him.” At the age of twelve while living with his grandparents in Vietnam, Hieu committed suicide.
Originally, the term “Amerasian” was to carry a positive connotation because it raises American cultural consciousness about the displacement of countless mixed-blood children. In reality, most Vietnamese Amerasians were “abandoned” by their American fathers, and some were also abandoned by their Vietnamese mothers and subsequent caretakers. For years after the Vietnam War, the U.S. government saw Amerasians as Vietnam’s responsibility and took no interest in what became of them. As noted by Kien Nguyen’s The Unwanted, most people knew Vietnam through movies — like Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July — which gave the impression that U.S. involvement ended after 1975, but that life for Amerasians after the war was as profound as the war itself. Meanwhile, the new communist regime saw Amerasians as “children of the enemy” (con cua ke thu) in which history classes and texts decried America’s role in the destruction of Vietnam. Mothers of Amerasians were denounced for having consorted with the enemy and, in turn, most destroyed any pictures, letters, or official papers that contained information of their children’s fathers. Notwithstanding, many along with other “collaborators” of the former “puppet regime” were sent to and given little to start a new life in desolate, remote, and sparsely populated “New Economic Zones.”
As for Amerasians, they were routinely humiliated and discriminated against: ‘You go back to America, you dirty American. You lose the war already, go back.’ Consequently, most Amerasians were kicked out or dropped out of school and were kept from jobs, forcing them to the streets. Thus, Amerasians were called the “dust of life” (bui doi), an expression referring to the poorest of the poor in Vietnam. Amerasians without stable, continuous family or surrogate support experienced various mental-health problems. Moreover, according to a U.S. General Accounting Office’s study, 48 percent of Amerasians had less then five years of schooling in Vietnam, while 39 percent had 6-8 years, 13 percent had 9-12 years, and none attended college. Researchers on Amerasians also found that the overwhelming majority of Amerasians are virtually illiterate and arrive with no transferable job skills. Thus, the implications are clear: Amerasians are a high-risk population and would require more intensive special services than any other Southeast Asian refugee group. This would help to prevent Amerasians from falling into a cycle of poverty, gang membership, and welfare dependency in the U.S.
While clearly Amerasians have a lot of strikes against them, it is noted that Black Amerasians in contrast to White Amerasians have experienced heavier doses of discrimination and hardship. A black Amerasian female, named Pha, testified to that:
“I didn’t go to school [in Vietnam], I was embarrassed of my skin…the students always insulted me, called me ‘black girl.’ People always talked bad about me because I was black…My family didn’t love me, they didn’t love my mother. Before [the fall of Saigon] it was not so bad, but after ’75 [under communist rule], the family didn’t want to keep me at home. They were sacred of the VC [Viet Cong], they wanted to send me away where nobody could see me.”
According to Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, “Vietnamese, much like other Asian groups, look down on dark skin, which equate with the lower peasants class or ethnic minorities.” As a result, Black Amerasians often exhibit more anger, anxiety, depression, and self-hatred. In fact, during the Vietnam War, in 1972, the Martin Luther King Home for Children, established by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was being built in Saigon. Such an effort was due to the noted problems of racism, which made it difficult for children of African American servicemen and Vietnamese women to get an education, job, or even to build friendships. However, the funding to operate the Martin Luther King Home for Children was not sustainable. Although there is great diversity among Amerasians (e.g., height, physique and skin color, and variety of personal histories), they see each other as their tightest bonds.
The opportunity to put back the “place” into displacement came in 1982 when Amerasians were qualified to enter the U.S. That is, the first U.S. Amerasian Act of 1982 allowed Amerasians to qualify in the first preferential category of immigrants as children of U.S. citizens, but did not establish their U.S. citizenship. Family members of Amerasians did not receive preferential immigrant status. Thus, Amerasians had to choose between emigrating to the U.S. or to stay with their families in Vietnam. Though through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP), Amerasians were able to bring their mothers, while others came alone or as unaccompanied minors. According to the U.S. State Department, approximately 4,500 Amerasian children and about 7,000 accompanying immediate relatives came to the U.S. through the ODP from 1982 to 1988.
But it was not until the Homecoming Act written in 1987 with broader provisions for Amerasians to emigrate with their extended (or surrogate) family members that a significant number of Amerasians found a way to their fathers’ country. Yet the Homecoming Act can only be considered a success if success is defined narrowly by the numbers moved here. By 1994, about 28,000 Vietnamese Amerasians and about 67,000 of their relatives had arrived to the U.S. But the U.S. government closed the program the same year due the prevalence of fraud in which the program was used to traffic Vietnamese or “fake” Amerasians into the U.S. In large part, the problem was due to the fact that the registration process relied solely on the Vietnamese government to generate applicant lists. Moreover, the Vietnamese government imposed “official” fees (e.g., obtaining government forms in order to get a permission to leave) and “unofficial” fees (e.g., bribes to local officials to get included on an interview list and transportation costs to the interview site in Ho Chi Minh City). A 1992 report by U.S. General Accounting Office which was based on Amerasians’ interviews at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (approved Amerasians and family members were housed at the Center for six months before arriving to the U.S.) found that the median “official” costs were about $350 and median “unofficial” costs were about $250. By comparison, Vietnam’s per capita income in 1990 was $230.
Many Amerasians could not meet the above fees due to remote location in rural areas, illiteracy, homelessness, and poverty. This created exploitation and victimization opportunities, including “traffickers” who hoped to immigrate to the U.S. by claiming to be relatives. With underfunding and the problems seriously underestimated, the U.S. embassy and consulate officials could not put in place a new system of processing, protecting and securing the emigration of Amerasians to the U.S. For example, they could not persuade the Vietnamese government to allow Amerasians to register directly with the Orderly Department Program in Vietnam, knowing that “fraud” would have to require the complicity of local Vietnamese government officials. As a response, U.S. officials began to implement more stringent measures to prevent fraud from occurring. But such measures resulted in a high rate of rejection among applicants with risks that valid applicants have been turned away.
Although the homecoming program closed in 1994, there was still processing of Amerasians to the U.S. However, the number was relatively low. According to U.S. Office Refugee Settlement, only 67 Amerasians and their family members arrived in 2003 compared to over 17,000 in 1992. Meanwhile, Time Magazine in May 2002 reported that more than 100 files of Amerasians may have been unfairly rejected by the U.S. resettlement program because they either had submitted falsified applications or had been involved in previous fraud cases. In part, because Amerasians were not seen as “victims of fraud” there was no more new processing of Amerasians by the end of 2003. With time the political support for Amerasian resettlement program was plagued by immigration fraud, as well as the cynical views by some US officials toward anyone claiming to be Amerasian. By some accounts, about 500 to 10,000 Amerasians are still in Vietnam.
There is a consensus that the Homecoming Act was about a philosophy of ‘let’s get them here,’ and not on successful adaption of Amerasians — who are known to be at high risk of becoming permanently underprivileged. That is, the “welcome mat,” without genuine services and opportunities to “make it” in America, resulted more often than not in Amerasians being “abandoned” or “disenfranchised” again.
Scholars like Robert McKelvey and John Webb found that Amerasians, compared to their non-Amerasian siblings and like-aged Vietnamese immigrants, report more traumatic childhoods and less education in Vietnam; and once settled in the U.S., Amerasians report more present use of alcohol, hospitalizations, and continue to suffer more symptoms of trauma and depression than their counterparts. Similarly, Fred Bemak’s and Rita Chi-Ying Chung’s survey completed in 1992 found that some 14 percent had attempted suicide and 76 percent wanted, at least occasionally, to return to Vietnam. Importantly, Amerasians’ cognitions about their biological American father were significant predictors of both psychological distress and self-destructive behavior. In the same survey, most Amerasians were eager to find their fathers but only 33 percent knew his name and only 3 percent found their fathers. Interestingly, on the one hand, Amerasians in Vietnam who had high hopes for their future lives in the U.S. were generally less depressed than those with low expectations. On the other hand, when these Amerasians were subsequently reevaluated in the U.S., those who had high hopes for a better life in the U.S. were much more depressed than those who had expected little or had no high hopes.
Initially, Amerasians were dispersed to 50 cities or cluster sites across the U.S., encompassing 31 states with then 10 percent going to California. The cluster sites were managed by non-governmental organizations, and who were under contract with the U.S. government. However, most cluster sites were quickly overwhelmed. For example, a cluster site — the Welcome Home House in Utica, New York — was awash in scandals and whose residential director and most of the staff have either been fired or quit by fall 1992, according to accounts in Thomas Bass’ Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home. Moreover, many Amerasians felt really out of place in the initial cluster sites — because of cold weather and separation from relatives and friends. Thus, many undertook “secondary migration,” particularly California and Louisiana which have warmer climates and larger concentrations of Vietnamese. However, most Amerasians are not fully integrated into the Vietnamese American community, either culturally or economically. As testified by Luong Huong: “Vietnamese here, especially the higher-educated Vietnamese, do not allow their children to make friends with black Amerasians like me.”
Amerasians typically receive about eight months of government assistance along with the expectation to improve English proficiency and some job training. But because many lack family support, their priority was to find jobs to support themselves and find affordable housing. Most often they worked in low-paying jobs, lived in poor neighborhoods, and were not able to obtain health care. Due to the lack of English proficiency and inability to pass the required interview and civics test, more than 60 percent of Amerasians have not been naturalized. In 2003, a Citizenship Bill was proposed in order to establish citizenship status for Amerasians, which would make them eligible for federal and airport-security jobs as well as work on Gulf Coast shrimp boats that requires 75 percent of such jobs be filled by citizens. The bill did not pass.
Perhaps under different settlement policies, Amerasians might be making more advancement and might already be reaping the benefits of American citizenship. Instead, many (and, by some accounts, disproportionately Black Amerasians) are still struggling daily against poverty, mental health, social isolation and discrimination. On the one hand, there is an agreement of “too little and too late.” That is, when U.S. soldiers do not bear the responsibility for their children, it is the responsibility of the U.S. government to welcome their Amerasians and their mothers who wanted to come to the U.S. during and after the war. According to Robert McKelvey’s The Dust of Life, “the decision to bring the Americans home, in their teens, twenties, and thirties, was the right thing to do” but “the harm has been done, and Amerasians’ potential for growth and development has been severely limited by time and neglect.”
On the other hand, Amerasians are survivors or have survived twice; though surviving twice implies those who did not survive, as noted by Trin Yarborough. In fact, Amerasians have started to carve out a cultural identity for themselves based on survival, fellowship, and pride. “Amerasian Voice” has emerged to promote and preserve the human rights of Amerasians both in the U.S. and in Asia. Amerasians are holding themselves accountable for their own advancement, but they are not about to excuse governments’ practice of neglect regarding Amerasian issues. Through Amerasian Independent Voice of America, they are advocating for the U.S. government to allow the remaining Amerasians in Vietnam who want to emigrate to the U.S. They are also calling for the passage of the Amerasian Paternity Act that would grant citizenship to Amerasians born in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or Thailand.
Lucious, Bernard Scott. “ In the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements,†in Wanni Anderson’s and Robert Lee’s Displacements and Diasporas (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press), 2005.
- What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
- What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
- What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
- Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
- Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
- Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
Posts
1. What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black testimony is one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism and the experience has been traditionally believed to be exclusive to the African diaspora. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian experience challenges black testimony as it expands the concept to the Asian diaspora rather than just the African diaspora. For these people, the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian testimony can be understood as a critical practice that bears witness to one’s struggle against anti-black racism in Vietnamese culture. The Vietnamese Afro Amerasian testimony represents a critical departure from black testimony: they testify about the displacement of black bodies in the “Black Pacific†beyond the African diaspora.
2. What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism refers to the prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color. A contrast is made between people who are “light skinned†and dark skinned.†However, this definition mostly focuses on the colorline in African-America and ignores what is happening to Afro-Amerasians. The testimony of Afroamerasians expand this definition to a broader context away from “home†and moves from a black-white to a black-yellow racial dialect. Vietnamese Afro Amerasians do experience colorism, but it is compounded by discrimination towards black skin, mixed blood, and foreignness. For Vietnamese Afro Amerasians, black skin made them physically conspicuous and these characteristics made them stand out as the Vietnamese are a relatively homogeneous society. Many Vietnamese look down on darker skin within their own race as many other Asian groups do, leading Afro Amerasians to be discriminated against.
3. What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Contact zones are social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths. Also, the term contact zone can refer to the individual body rather than just between nations. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices. The black body is displaced by racism or more specifically, in the case of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians in Vietnam, colorism. Contact zones related specifically to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements are located in three primary contexts: corporeal, national, and international.
4. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
In the corporeal context, the contact zone emerges as the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ physical body itself; the displacements herein bring about a physical dislocation and violate the black body. Colorism permeates individual Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians bodies; herein discrimination literally pierces and enters the flesh itself.
5. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
In the national context, the contact zones appear within Vietnam’s national border, at the margins of society, the displacements herein push the black body aside, into the periphery of the Vietnamese-Afroamerasians’ homeland. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society.
6. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
In the international context, the contact zones extend across the Vietnamese national border, into other countries; the displacements herein move the black body from the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ native culture into a foreign culture. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians enter into the international context voluntarily, hoping to escape Vietnamese discrimination.
1. Black testimony is the distinctive literature of the African diaspora. Others describe it as a practice in which one tells their stories of survival and coping with antiblack racism. It relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because they had the first hand experience of encountering antiblack racism growing up in Vietnam. These Amerasians were looked down and experienced racism from their own families.
2. Colorism is the preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color. It refers to the hostility when individuals of the same group perceive others who have lighter or darker skin. It relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because colorism is compounded by a great discrimination toward black skin, mixed blood, and foreignness. Black skin was highly discriminated because the Vietnamese equate it with lower peasant class. Also, foreignness appeared as antinationalist which also brought down Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians.
3. Contact zones are the social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other in relations like colonialism, slavery and aftermaths. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are the cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism with practices of name-calling, abandonment, and displacement. These Amerasians are displaced in an antiblack world which places them into a zone of nonbeing along with racism that places them into a zone of racism.
4. The Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context emerges as the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ physical body itself. Colorism which results in discriminations literally pierces and enters the flesh. Some of the Afro-Amerasians had self inflicted cuts, burns, or carvings in their skin to show the pain that they experienced with discrimination and not having a father or a real mother’s love.
5.
The national context describes the contact zones that appear within Vietnam’s national border at the margins of society. The second, third, fourth, and fifth contact zones appear within the national context. They encounter socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society. The displacement within the home place stems from the family’s internalization of colorism and social shame. In return, these Afro-Amerasians are abandoned or abused. Many of the Amerasians resulted in living on the streets and doing anything for money. They were also displaced in classrooms which resulted in physical and verbal abuse which caused them to drop out of school.
6.
The international context describes the contact zones extend across the Vietnamese national border into other countries. The sixth and seventh contact zones appear in the international context in which Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians enter voluntarily hoping to escape Vietnamese discrimination. The sixth contact zone was the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. The Afro-Amerasian are easily accepted into Cambodia as a Khmer because their skin is dark and they are liked instead of on Vietnam. They regard this as an act of survival to cross borders. Also, America legalized an act that allowed the black and white Amerasians to be airlifted from Vietnam to America. They feel less displaced and looked down upon when they are in America.
1. To put it simply black testimony is an individual’s unique struggles against antiblack racism. At first it was recognized distinctively in the African diaspora, but the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian challenges these testimonies. Afro-Amerasian reveal that black testimonies must also be recognized as a distinctive literature on the Asian Diaspora.
2. Colorism refers to the hostility that exists among individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are perceived. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line-the relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia and Africa.” For Amerasians colorism is a black-yellow color-line problem, it has multiple complex forms of discrimination such as black skin, mixed blood, and foreignness.
3. Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement. Contact zones specific to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are located in three primary contexts: corporeal, national, and international.
4. In the corporeal context, the contact zone emerges as the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasins’ physical body itself; the displacements herein bring about a physical dislocation and violate the black body.
5. In the national context, the contact zones appear within Vietnam’s national border, at the margins of society; the displacements herein push the black body aside, into the periphery of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ homeland.
6. In the international context, the contact zones extend across the Vietnamese national border, into other countries; the displacements herein move the black body from the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ native culture into a foreign culture.
1. Black testimony has many definitions. Natasha Tarpley defined it as “a critical practice in which one tells a story about one’s survival and endurance of anitblack rasism and that it is a story that opens a discursive space for learning about, accepting, affirming, and loving one’s blackness.†Black testimony is important to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because they are looked upon, by Vietnamese people as illegitimate children and therefore use black testimony as a “practice of legitimization, which ‘affirms the legitimacy of interracial affairs and interracial identities in Vietnam.â€
2. Colorism is the hostility that exists among individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are perceived; usually a contrast is made between people who appear to be either lighter-skinned/darker-skinned or racially pure/racially mixed. It relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because in Vietnam they are discrimated against not only because of their black skin but also because of their mic blood and foreignness. They are looked down upon for their skin color because Vietnamese equate dark skin with the lower peasant class or ethnic minorities. They are discriminated against for their mixed blood because they are caught between two conflicting ideas of citizenship; jus sanguis which bases citizenship on the nationality of the father and jus solis which bases citizenship on the territory where the child is born. These Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians end up being a citizen of neither countries because Vitnam favor jus sanguis while the American prefer jus solis.
3. A contact zone for the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians is the location where the black body is masked or territorialized by racism and unmasked of reterritorialized by antiracism. In Vietnam, Afro-Amerasians are discriminated against and dehumanized because of their skin color, which is the masking part. The unmasking part is when they seek liberation from racism by exploring new zones of being, or new zones of transcendence.
4. The corporeal contact zone refers to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ physical body and how they are voluntarily and involuntarily abused and scared. The voluntary side has to do with Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians scarring themselves as a way to externalize their inner turmoil. Ritual scarification signifies externalizations of despair, sorrow, anger, and shame which are the consequence of colorism. The involuntary side involves Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians being taken advantage of because of their skin. One example is how female Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are taken advantage of sexually by pure blooded Vietnamese male.
5. The national contact zone refers to the displacement where the black bodies are pushed aside into the periphery of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ homeland. The national contact zone consists of the second, third, fourth, and fifth contact zone. The second zone refers to the alienation of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians by their own family. The third contact zone has to do with displacement in the street of Saigon. This displacement signifies the transgression of a social border; the body is displaced into a public domain and therefore is denied a private domain. The fourth contact zone deals with the displacement of black bodies away from school. This displacement signifies the transgression of an educational border; being displaced outside of the institution of learning denies them a formal education. The fifth contact zone is the displacement of the black body into the labor camp which signifies the transgression of an economic border: forced and condemned into labor camps which are the excess of Vietnam’s economy.
6. The international contact zone involves the sixth and seventh contact zones. The sixth contact zone is the voluntary crossing across the Vietnamese-Cambodian borderland. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians migrated to Cambodian to escape Vietnamese discrimination. Their skin is similar to the Khmer, the indigenous black racial minority of Cambodia, so they are accepted there. The seventh contact zone is the migration from Vietnam to America. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians flee to America to seek employment and education opportunities in America, to reunite with their fathers and form new families, and especially to escape discrimination in Vietnam.
1. “Black testimony†which bears witness the personal struggle of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians as they’re the ones that have experience the heaviest loads of discrimination in Vietnam. These testimonies are symbolic as these individual recalls their story of survival and endurance in the face of anti-black racism. Through these recollections and the opportunity to express their feelings, it has helped these individual to learn to embrace, affirm and accept loving one’s inner blackness. All in all, “black testimony†has significantly helped these Afro-Amerasians to readily accept who they really are; bring forth a voice to others like them and to give them a “place†in their displacement.
2. “Colorism†is a prejudice or preferential treatment within people of the same race and ethnicity by solely judging an individual by the color of their skin even though they’re of the same nationality. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians experience the most discrimination, a large part is due to their black skin, mixed blood and foreignness which makes them stand out physically in the midst of a yellow skin homogeneous society. These individual do not feel a sense of belonging as they are neither accepted as African American nor Vietnamese because they border-line these two ethnicity. As research shows, black skin carry a bigger stigma than white skin in Vietnam and these black skin individual have been linked to having risk factors associating with “significant psychological distress.†Although many left their Vietnamese homeland in hoping to escape the discrimination, they too are encountering this problem abroad as it continues to influence and hinder every aspect of their lives.
3. “Contact zones†is the distinct separation of “social spaces†in which cultures meet, clash and grapple with one another in order to be in charge and find a sense of belonging. It’s known as the zone of nonbeing because these individual are being discriminated by their own people due to the color of their skin. This zone has two oppositional processes: the masking and unmasking of the black body which the black bodies is dehumanized as a “nonbeing†because of their blackness but then the black bodies eventually breaks out and ultimately is liberated from racism. Many acts of “discursive practices†comes along with this such as name-calling, abandonment and being displace culturally and physically from one’s own nationality and not being able to fit in. The “contact zones†is suppose to be a distinct differentiation between the black-white color line but these individual do not fit in these exact category as they’re not fully black or fully Vietnamese which furthermore enhance the feeling of displacement within this particular group of people.
4. Corporeal context is within the first contact zone and it’s the discrimination of the physical black body itself. It originates from the outer layer of the black skin and into the inner layer and then throughout the physical body. As a result of colorism, the discrimination digs deep into one’s inner flesh as oppose to just the outer self. Many of the testimony from individual such as Hung and Mai Linh, they recall the practicing of “ritual scarificationâ€. It’s a practice in which these individual self-inflict wounds and scars onto their bodies in times of extreme depression and the feeling of being despised and being called “bastardâ€, “nigger†all of their lives. These self-inflicted slash marks and burns externalize these individual’s feeling of anger, despair and shame as a consequence of colorism. Due to a sense of despair and isolation these individual feel as if they have nowhere to turn and the discrimination only heighten the fact that these Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are of black skin, mixed and of foreign blood.
5. The national context is consist of the second, third, fourth and fifth contact zone in which the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacement and the feeling of neglect within the Vietnamese society. Within the second the contact zone the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians feels a sense of abandonment and alienation in their “homeplace†in which they should feel the most wanted and love but it has proven otherwise. They’re seen as a threat within the home and a disgrace on the sacred ground of the Vietnamese ancestors due to color of their skin and are often time abuse or abandoned at birth by their families. As a result, many are homeless and left to fend for themselves and displace along the streets of Saigon which is the third contact zone. Many turn to drugs and gangs for a sense of belonging and deem it as a “business†in order to survive the harsh street life. The last two zones which is the fourth and the fifth within the national context is displacement in the school and labor camp environment. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians suffer many form of abuse within the school atmosphere. The abuse varied such as name-calling, taunting and the feeling of worthlessness that cause many to withdrawal from their schooling very early on in their educational career. Lastly, many of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians and their mothers were forced to work in the “New Economic Zones†by the government. These individual endure daily hardship in the labor camps such as clearing land, digging holes with no cash payment for their hard and laborious work. Only small portion of food was served and an overwhelming feeling of being trapped as it was nearly impossible to escape as all sides are surrounded by water enclosing these individual within.
6. International context consist of the sixth and seventh contact zones which is the hope of many Afro-Amerasians to escape Vietnamese discrimination. The sixth contact zone is the black body displacement in the Vietnamese-Cambodian borderland. This borderland is a space conjoining and overlapping Vietnam and Cambodia in which many Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian are able to freely cross is due mainly to the ability to “pass†as a Khmer. Many of these Amerasian were mistaken as Khmer which help them to cross freely and felt less discrimination for their mistaken identity than it was in Vietnam. Lastly, the final contact within the international context is a transnational space that conjoins Vietnam and America. Many of these Amerasian leaving their homeland country behind and entering Vietnamerica yearn for a better life in America. These Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians crossing the national-imperial border is evidence of their survival and endurance to move from the periphery of Vietnam and legally entering America.
1. Black testimony is the witness which bears one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism and it has been understood in the African literature diaspora. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian testimony can be understood as a witness of one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism in the Vietnamese culture. The one that lived-experience of blackness in the Vietnamese culture, and represented to testify about the displacement of black bodies within their own culture and beyond the African diaspora.
2. Colorism refers to the prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color, usually a contrast is made between people who appear to be either lighter-skinned or darker-skinned. Colorism sometimes called intraracial color discrimination. In the Vietnamese culture, dark-skinned presents the lower class, workers, or minorities. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians have to suffer to fit in with their race, however, the Vietnamese do look down and discriminate because of their skin and mixed blood.
3. Contact zones are the social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other in relations like colonialism, slavery and aftermaths. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians contact zones are cultural spaces where they interact with colorism. They were displaced by the anti-black racism community in Vietnam.
4. In the corporeal context, the Vietnamese Amerasians’ physical body is the contact zone. The discrimination is based on the colorism within the black body which results in self cuts, burns, or carving into their skin to some of the Vietnamese Amerasians.
5. The national contact zone refers to the displacement where the black bodies are pushed aside into the periphery of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ homeland. In the national contact zone, this divides into sub-contact zone. The Vietnamese Amerasians has been pushed aside by their families, schools, society. Most Vietnamese Amerasians did not have the basic education when the discrimination against the black body in Vietnam. Labor camp is another contact zone when they are forced to work unwillingly.
6. In the international context, the contact zones have been pushed toward the Vietnamese national border. Some Vietnamese Amerasians migrated to other neighbor countries to escape the anti-black discrimination in Vietnam. They were migrated or were helped from United States to seek a better life where society does not look down or discriminate base on their skin color.
1. Black testimony is the struggles one has to face against anti-black racism. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian challenges these testimonies. The black testimony helps the Afro-Amerasians to accept who they really are.
2. Colorism refers to the discrimination among individuals when one’s skin color is different to those of same racial group, usually a contrast between lighter-skinned or darker-skinned. For Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians, it is a kind of discrimination based on their skin color; black-yellow color. They were discriminated based on their mixed blood and different look. They were stuck in between, unsure of where they come from.
3. Contact zone are the social spaces where culture meets. Individuals are discriminated against by their own people and this is known as the zone of nonbeing. These Afro-Amerasians are neither fully Vietnamese nor fully black. This cause a feeling of displacement for the Afro-Amerasians.
4. Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context is the discrimination of the physical black body. They are either voluntarily or involuntarily abused, and this digs deep into their body which results in anger, self cuts into their skin.
5. In the national context, the contact zone refers to the displacement which pushed aside the black bodies to the outer boundary of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ homeland. Most Vietnamese Amerasians are forced to work, and did not have the basic education.
6. In the international context, the contact zone extend into other countries, where these people no longer feel discriminated against and were helped by other countries. From here they were no longer be judge based on their skin color.
What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
The witness in which one bears witness to the struggles of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians. They experienced the anti-Black racism while growing up in Vietnam. Being part black has its own discrimination especially being looked down by everyone.
What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism is preference of people of the same race/ethnicity by judging the color of the skin even if they are the same nationality. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians have dark skin while the color for Asians are yellow. Generally the dark skinned Asians are lower class. They aren’t accepted too much as either Vietnamese or black.
What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Social spacer in which diparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each in many subjects such as slavery and aftermaths. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians contact zones are where they could come in contact with colorism.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
The corporeal context emerges as the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians itself. There are self inflicted wounds and involuntary abuse. Self cuts and burns are an example of wounds inflicted upon their bodies.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
The national context, the Vietnamese Amerasians are pushed out near the Vietnam border. They have nothing for themselves and no education to get them anywhere. They then are desperate and do anything for money to get by.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
In the international context, the Vietnamese Amerasians contact zones are extended into other countries. The Vietnamese Amerasians then feel less on their shoulders as they aren’t discriminated as heavily as they were in Vietnam.
1. One of the definition of Black testimony is: “a critical practice in which one tells a story about one’s survival and endurance of anitblack rasism and that it is a story that opens a discursive space for learning about, accepting, affirming, and loving one’s blackness.†And black testimony also know as one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism and the experience has been traditionally believed to be exclusive to the African diaspora. They experienced the anti-Black racism while growing up in Vietnam.
2. Colorism is a form of discrimination in which human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color. Usually between lighter-skinned or darker-skinned. Afro-Amerasians experienced colorism because they have dark skin color. And they were not accepted by black or even Asian people.
3. Contact zone also know as the non-being zones are the social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other in relations like colonialism, slavery and aftermaths. It also know as the non-being zone because they do not know where they belong to. They are being discriminated by their own people because of the color of their skin. The contact-zone is tobe for white and black but Afro-Amerasians are not exactly black, they also do not look Asian.
4. Corporeal context is in th contact zone and it’s the discrimination of the physical black body and how they are voluntarily and involuntarily abused and scared. As a result of colorism, the discrimination digs deep into one’s inner flesh as oppose to just the outer self.
5. The national contact zone refers to the displacement where the black bodies are pushed aside into the periphery of the Vietnamese border by their own family, society. They can not do anything, even for themselves. They have no education, no money. And because of that, most of them were forced to work and take advantages of.
6. International context consist of the sixth and seventh contact zones that many Afro-Amerasians hopes to escape Vietnamese discrimination. The sixth contact zone is the voluntary crossing across the Vietnamese-Cambodian borderland. The Afro-Amerasian are easily accepted into Cambodia as a Khmer because their skin is dark.
1. “Black testimony,†which bears witness to one’s personal struggle against antiblack racism, has traditionally been understood as a distinctive literature of the African diaspora. That distinction, however, is challenged by Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian testimonies, which reveal that black testimonies must also be recognized as distinctive literature of the Asian diaspora. The emergent testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are first-person accounts that provide provocative glimpses of the lived-experience of blackness within postwar Vietnam, and in a much broader context, throughtout postconial, postimperial, and postwat Asia. For Natasha Tarpley, the black testimony is a critical practice in which one tells a story about one’s survival and endurance of antiblack racism.For Henry Louis Gates, the black testimony is the critcal practice of inscribing one’s individual “race history†in language, and thereby adding to a “collective history of the race.â€
2. The term, “colorism,†as defined by Alice Walker, refers to the prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color. It refers to the hostility that exists among individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are perceived: usually, a contrast is made between people who appear to be either lighter-skinned/darker-skinned or racially mixed. The testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians like Mai Linh’s extend the scope of Walker’s observation of colorism by shifting the focus away from “homeâ€- from African-America- to Asia. More specifically, Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians call attention to the need to reconsider the question of colorism, transnationally, racially, and culturally, by observing the lived-experience of blackness in Vietnam. For Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians, colorism is compounded by discrimination toward black skin, mixed blood, and foreignness.
3. The concept of the contact zone has multiple resonances. Mary Louise Pratt coined the term “contact zone†to invoke the “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths.†James Clifford, on the other hand, extends Pratt’s concept of the contact zone by shifting the focus from the periphery back to the center, and from foreign to domestic spaces; he calls attention to the location of contact zones within the nations and empires. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement. The testimonies reveal that the contact zones specific to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements are located in three primary contexts: corporeal, national, and international. In addition to the three primary contexts, the locations of the contact zones are marked further by two critical dimensions intrinsic to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements: trajectory and transgression.
4. In the first contact zone, which appears within the corporeal context, colorism permeates individual Vietnames Afro-Amerasians bodies: herein, discrimination literally pierces and enters the flesh itself. The black body’s displacement is located at the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian body itself. The displaced black body’s trajectory in this corporeal contact zone can be traced from one layer (the outer layer) of the black skin to the other (inner layer), throughout the physical body. It originates on the surface of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ black skin and then continues its path downward, piercing the flesh, under the black skin. The implosion of the black skin, along the trajectory between its outer and inner layers, causes both voluntary and involuntary displacements.
5. The second contact zone of the black body’s displacement is located at the “homeplace.†The path of the displaced black body’s trajectory in this national contact zone originates inside the Vietnamese homeplace and then continues beyond the family nucleus, sometimes outside. Whether through abandonment or abuse, the displacement of the black body away from the homeplace, in the national contact zone, signifies the transgression of an ancestral-familial border: the presence of the black family member in the Vietnamese household brings about a disruption within the homeplace, consequently leading to the disavowal of the black body away from the sacred grounds of the Vietnamese ancestors and family.
6. The third contact zone of the black body’s displacement is Saigon’s street culture- the streets of Saigon. The path of the displaced black body’s trajectory in this national contact zone originates from the Vietnamese Fro-Amerasians’ streets of Saigon, into a collective, impersonal, public space. Homeless Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians resort to living on the streets, often as adolescents or teenagers desperately seeking ways to earn money. The displacement of the black body into the streets of Saigon, in the national contact zone, signifies the transgression of a social border: the body is displaced into a public domain and therefore is denied a private domain.
1. “Black testimony,†which bears witness to one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism, has traditionally been understood as a distinctive literature of the African diaspora. That distinction, however, is challenged by Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian testimonies, which reveal that black testimonies must also be recognized as distinctive literature of the Asian diaspora. The emergent testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are first-person accounts that provide provocative glimpses of the lived-experience of blackness within postwar Vietnam, and in a much broader context, throughtout postconial, postimperial, and postwat Asia. For Natasha Tarpley, the black testimony is a critical practice in which one tells a story about one’s survival and endurance of antiblack racism.For Henry Louis Gates, the black testimony is the critcal practice of inscribing one’s individual “race history†in language, and thereby adding to a “collective history of the race.â€
2. The term, “colorism,†as defined by Alice Walker, refers to the prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color. It refers to the hostility that exists among individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are perceived: usually, a contrast is made between people who appear to be either lighter-skinned/darker-skinned or racially mixed. The testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians like Mai Linh’s extend the scope of Walker’s observation of colorism by shifting the focus away from “homeâ€- from African-America- to Asia. More specifically, Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians call attention to the need to reconsider the question of colorism, transnationally, racially, and culturally, by observing the lived-experience of blackness in Vietnam. For Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians, colorism is compounded by discrimination toward black skin, mixed blood, and foreignness.
3. The concept of the contact zone has multiple resonances. Mary Louise Pratt coined the term “contact zone†to invoke the “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths.†James Clifford, on the other hand, extends Pratt’s concept of the contact zone by shifting the focus from the periphery back to the center, and from foreign to domestic spaces; he calls attention to the location of contact zones within the nations and empires. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement. The testimonies reveal that the contact zones specific to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements are located in three primary contexts: corporeal, national, and international. In addition to the three primary contexts, the locations of the contact zones are marked further by two critical dimensions intrinsic to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements: trajectory and transgression.
4. In the first contact zone, which appears within the corporeal context, colorism permeates individual Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians bodies: herein, discrimination literally pierces and enters the flesh itself. The black body’s displacement is located at the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian body itself. The displaced black body’s trajectory in this corporeal contact zone can be traced from one layer (the outer layer) of the black skin to the other (inner layer), throughout the physical body. It originates on the surface of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians’ black skin and then continues its path downward, piercing the flesh, under the black skin. The implosion of the black skin, along the trajectory between its outer and inner layers, causes both voluntary and involuntary displacements.
5. The second contact zone of the black body’s displacement is located at the “homeplace.†The path of the displaced black body’s trajectory in this national contact zone originates inside the Vietnamese homeplace and then continues beyond the family nucleus, sometimes outside. Whether through abandonment or abuse, the displacement of the black body away from the homeplace, in the national contact zone, signifies the transgression of an ancestral-familial border: the presence of the black family member in the Vietnamese household brings about a disruption within the homeplace, consequently leading to the disavowal of the black body away from the sacred grounds of the Vietnamese ancestors and family.
6. The third contact zone of the black body’s displacement is Saigon’s street culture- the streets of Saigon. The path of the displaced black body’s trajectory in this national contact zone originates from the Vietnamese Fro-Amerasians’ streets of Saigon, into a collective, impersonal, public space. Homeless Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians resort to living on the streets, often as adolescents or teenagers desperately seeking ways to earn money. The displacement of the black body into the streets of Saigon, in the national contact zone, signifies the transgression of a social border: the body is displaced into a public domain and therefore is denied a private domain.
1. Black testimony is a critical practice in which one tells a story about one’s survival and endurance of antiblack racism. Through this definition we can see that Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians relates in black testimony because they have to struggle against antiblack racism in Vietnamese cultures. They represent a critical departure from the tradition of balk testimonies imagined and they testify about the displacement of black bodies in the Black Pacific, beyond black communities and cultures traditionally linked to the African diaspora, throughout cultures of Asian diaspora. The black testimony also relate to Vietnamese Afro Americans through the post war and through a Vietnamese diasporic culture. In the post war, Vietnamese Afro Americans have to face the racism of majority of Vietnamese people through their skin colors and the background of their mothers. This lead to the national displacement in which the Vietnamese Afro Americans feel unrooted and have to leave Viet Nam.
2. Colorism is the prejudicial or preferential treatment of same race people based solely on their color. This relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because after the fall of South Vietnam 1975, Americans left behind between 30000-80000 Amerasian children. These children were denied both Vietnamese and American citizenship because many of them were born illegitimately, outside of marriages. But through a Amerasian Homecoming Act, many Amerasian left their Vietnamese homeland and hoping to escape discrimination and poverty.
3. Contact zones is invoke the social spaces where disparate cultures meet,clash and grapple with each other. The relates of Vietnamese Afro Amerasian are culture spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorist and its may discursive practices( such as name calling,abandonment, or displacement).
4. The color of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian is a corporeal context that separate them with the Vietnamese. This is also the first contact zones of the black body’s displacement. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian had been through a lot of suffer and misery because of the skin color. Many of them got sexual molestation, and got left out from the community. This is a sad image for the Viet Nam country, because no matter what skin color they are, they still have a blood of Vietnamese and deserve to be treat in a better way.
5. Vietnamese Afro Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacement within the national context. They feel displacement at their someplace, many of them have to leave their house from the fear of VC. They got abandonment and abuse by people around them. They have to earn their living on the street and start living a street life. Their black bodies got displaced from the family, the school, classmate.
6. Vietnamese Afro Amerasian hoping to escape from Vietnamese discrimination is the international context. They escape by the borderland of Viet Nam and Cambodia, and the second case is from the Amerasian Homecoming Act. The borderland is a way of Vietnamese Afro trying to get away from the country and attach to the new life with Khmer people. The Homecoming Act is a heaven door that lift the mix blood Vietnamese to be gold children, give them the ability and the ticket to go to the U.S. and starting a new better life
*What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to
Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black Testimony is a testimony in which “bears witness to one’s personal struggle against antiblack racism that has been traditionally understood as a distinctive literature of the African Diaspora.” That distinction is a challenge amoung Afro-Amerasian testimonies in which it shows that black testimonies must also be understood as the distinctive literature of the Asian Diaspora instead of just the African Diaspora. In the U.S., Afro-Amerasians have given their testimonies of their emotions and personal feelings of feeling displaced by their culture.
*What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism refers to the “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.” It also refers to the “hostily that exist amoung individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are percieved.” Usually its a discrimination between the contrast made between people who are light-skinned, dark-skinned or racially pure or racially mixed. The conflict of the twenty-first century is that the color-line in relations of lighter to darker people of the same race of men and women affects how racism takes place within different groups. Colorism “omits what is happening to Afro-Amerasians displaced throughout Asia, away from “home” beyond the United States”
*What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Contact zones are “cultural spaces where Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are confronted by colorism. The problem of colorism that confronts Afro-Amerasians by their compunded black skin, mixed blood, and foregn blood, has become “so pervasive that it reveals itself through the multiplicity of black body’s displacement: it can be traced throughout several contact zones, within and beyond Vietnam.” Afro-Amerasians contact zones are “cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement.” There are three primary contexts of Afro-Amerasian displacements: corporeal, national, and international. And in addition to these contexts, the contact zones are marked by “two critical dimensions intristic to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements: trajectory and transgression.
*Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
The corporeal appears in which “colorism permcates individual Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians bodies; herin, discrimination literally pierces and enters the flesh itself.” Afro-Amerasians hurt themselves because of the displacement or discrimination that makes them dislike their physical appearance.
*Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
The national context appears in which “Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society.” “The path of the black body’s trajectory in this national contact zone originates inside the Vietnamese homeplace” in which continues furthermore within the family and sometimes outside of family. Usually, displacement within the homeland “stems from a family’s internalization of colorism and social shame” but often it usually “stems from fear of punishment by the Vietcong.”
*Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
The international context appears within “Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians enter voluntarily, hoping to escape Vietnamese discrimination.” One contact zones of the black body’s displacement lies within the Cambodian borderline in which Afro-Amerasians go to to try to blend in as a dark skinned cambodian or a racial minority-a Khmer. The crossing of the border became a strategic act of survival of living and also it makes them feel more accepted by the Khmer people who had similar skin tones. And another contact zones included leaving behind their Vietnamese homeland and entering into the U.S. Amerasians wanted a better life and their testimonies revealed that they hoped to seek employment and education opportunities, reunite with their fathers and make new families, and most of all to escape discrimination in Vietnam.
OPPS… I read the last question wrong. Here’s my answer for #6. Please disregard the answer above. Thanks!
6. The sixth and seventh contact zones, appearing within the international context, Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians enter voluntarily, hoping to escape Vietnamese discrimination. The displacement of the black body across the Vietamerica, in the international contact zone, signifies the transgression of a national-imperial border; Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians leave behind their homelands, crossing both the Vietnamese border and the American border.
1. What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians? Black testimony is personal anti-black racism, which also lead the racism into the Vietnamese culture when a Vietnamese person who is mixes with black. The black testimony is to help those Afro-Amerasians to except to be who they are.
2. What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians? Is the discrimination of one skin color that is different from the same racist. The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian discriminate by the skin other of their own race just because the other one’s has a black color of skin they look at them differently and didn’t really except them to be part of their group.
3. What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians? Afro-Amerasian contact zones are the cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism with practices of name-calling, abandonment, and displacement.
4. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context. When the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian hurting themselves by cutting and burn themselves to shown the burden and wound of being isolate and discriminate by their color.
5. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context. When a black person being push aside, with no education and force to work in place where they sometime could not earned any money.
6. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context. Black who try to escape away from the Vietnamese discrimination were cross over the border to Cambodia where people with dark skin color willing except their skin color.
Online Assignment:
1. Black testimony is defined in many ways but one of which is ” a testimony in which bears witness to one’s personal struggle against antiblack racism, has traditionally been understood as a distinctive literature of the African diaspora”. This relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because based on this definition, the Vietnamese Afro Amerisians testimony can be understood as a critical practice that bears witness to one’s struggle against antiblack racism in Vietnamese cultures.
2. Colorism as defined refers to the prejudical or preferential treatment of same race people based solely on their color. This relates to Afro Amerisians because they experienced more discrimination due to black skin, which made them physically conspicuous in Vietnam’s largely homogenous society.
3. Contact zones is defined as ” social spaces where disparate culture meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths”. As stated in the text, testimonies reveal that the contact zones specific to Vietnamese Afro Amerasians displacements are located in three primary contexts; corporeal, national, and international.
4. In the corporeal context, colorism permeates individual Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians bodies; herein, discrimination literally pierces and enters the flesh itself. The Vietnamese Afro Amerasians’ black skim becomes wounded and violated, due to burning, slashing, or penetration. The voluntary and involuntary displacements of the black body under the black skin, in the corporeal contact zone, signify the transgression of a racial border: the displace black body crosses a racial border during the ritual scarification and the sexual molestation-because it is black and devalued in Vietnam.
5. In the national context Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society. The homeplace is a contact zone in which the Vietnamese family displaces the Vietnamese Afro Amerasians away from their home. This alienation by family members usually takes the form of either abandonment or abuse.
6. In the international context, Vietnamese Afro Ameasians enter voluntarily, hoping to escape Vietnamese discrimination. The contact zones extend across the Vietnamese national border, into other countries; the displacements herein move the black body from the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian native culture into a foreign culture.
1.Black testimonies are different accounts on one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism. This includes the complexities of the lived experience of blackness in Vietnam. Those who contributes to the black testimony reveals that they encountered more challenges throughout their everyday life because of their confused ethnicity. Because they were raised in Asia countries, they were accustomed the traditional ways of Asian cultures. However, their appearance segregates these Afro-Amerasians from their own people.
2. Colorism is defined as prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color. It refers to the hostility that exists among individuals within the same racial group with skin color differences are perceived. This term relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because Afro-Amerasians are judged upon their appearances not their true identity. Psychological studies have shown that skin color and phenotypic features leads different racial groups to discriminate against each other.
3. Contact zones is a term use to invoke the social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often during colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths. It relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because the contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its racial gestures such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement.
4. Within the corporeal context, Vietnamese Amerasians involves heavily on colorism because it pertains to the individuals who has been discriminated in ways that have physically scared them for life. An example of corporeal zone is given when DeBonis talked about a man’s body who was an Amerasian captive in Chi Hoa prison. Denonis described his abused has left him with burnt marks that define the length of his right arm in neat, grisly rows of three. The man’s arm has been slashed into a mass of scar tissue. On his ankle is a tattooed that messaged “ Life is unjust, hatred everlastingâ€. This shows how despair and hateful the Afro-Amerasians have become of their environment.
5.National context is made up of 5 contact zones: the second, third, fourth and fifth. The second zone is where Afro-Amerasians feels displaced because they do not fit in with the people and the culture around them. To the people the Vietnamese, Afro-Amerasians are considered as inferior to their race. Afro-amerasians are treated unfairly because of the way they look. For this reason, the Afro-amerasian often feels abandoned from their only known society.
6.International context is made up of the sixth and seventh contact zones where Afro-amerasians tries to escape from the Vietnamese discrimination by entering other borders nearby. For example the sixth contact zone is black body in the Vietnamese-Cambodian borderland. Ameriasians were able to blend in with the Khmer and for that reason, discrimination was not as greatly endured as in Vietnam. This help bring hope into the Amerasians society and inspired many others to continue to strive through the challenges of being an Afro-Amerasian.
1/ Black testimony is one’s story about how struggle, what he/she goes through, how he/she copes living with anti-black racism. Black testimony at first was recorded within the African Diaspora, but not only African American experiences that particular of feeling, of being racist and push out. Vietnamese Afro Amerasians endures the more terrible challenge of anti black racism. Their black testimony must be also recognized as a part of Vietnamese Diaspora as well.
2/ “Colorism†is preferred to how one discriminate others solely depend on other skin color. Not only perceiving that light skin person is rather supreme than dark skin, but also the ruling of racially pure blood over racially mixed. “Colorism†is surely related to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians. On the first layer, they are discriminated by their black skin, within their own Vietnamese community, as well as outside in the U.S. Secondly, they are discriminated by their mixed blood. None communities accepted them as their own member. Lastly, they are discriminate as a foreigner.
3/ contact zones are the social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other in relations like colonialism, slavery and aftermaths. With Vietnamese Afro Amerasians, the contact zones is where they are discriminated, calling named, territorialized, displaced etc by their own people or by the people outside the community.
4/ In the corporeal context, the contact zone emerges as the Vietnamese Afro Amerasians on physically level. The displacements appear by physical dislocation and body violation. It results in pierces and mark on the skin or flesh. Some of them had self cut, burn, carvings on their skin to show the pain they have been through.
5/ In the national context, the contact zones is not within one self but spread out to Vietnam’s national border or at the margins of society. The Vietnamese Afro Amerasians are discriminated by their own people, and are pushed aside to the margin of society. Lot of families are looking at their children, who appears to have black skin, wavy hair as the disgrace and bringing embarrassment to the family. These Afro Amerasians are commonly abused and left alone by their family. Later they are forced to be out of family and get into the society. Then once again, they are discriminated, abused, calling named and push to a side.
6/ International context contains the contact zones where Vietnamese Afro Amerasians was pushed over the Vietnamese border and into other county in order to escape national discrimination. Some of them migrated to neighbor country such as Cambodia. Most of them fled to U.S. On general, for whatever reason, they meant to seek for a better life where they are not discriminated by their skin color.
What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black Testimony as discusses in the book has several definitions. Henry Louis states that “it is the inscribing of ones individual race history. However, for Natasha Tarpley it is a story about the racism one has endured and how they survived. For black Amerasians it is a way for them to identify who they are culturally. The Asian community sees these children or adults as primarily illegitimate and consequently they tend to be outsiders. This black testimony helps to identify a culture that they can relate to.
What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism refers to the preferential treatment or prejudice of same race people based entirely on the color of their skin. This relates to Afro-Amerasians because the darker your skin in Vietnam the more you are looked down upon. The Afro -Amerasians are also looked down upon because they were thought of as foreigners and had mixed blood so they were not entirely Vietnamese.
What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Mary Louis states the contact zone is an area where disparate cultures meet clash and grapple. These in between cultures are a result of colonialism and disputes among countries. Inevitably the people that have no control over the situation are targeted, such as afro-amerasians. The term nonbeing refers to the discrimination of these people by their own. These people are often discriminated and endure name calling throughout their life.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
The corporeal context is the first of the contact zones. It is said to start with the black skin itself and move throughout their body. The most common type of displacement practiced by black amerasians is that of self inflicting wounds. This is a way for them to show their feeling or how depressed they were.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
The national complex zone appears in the 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th contact zones. The national complex zone is the area or zone in which the occupant has no nation or is wanted by no one. One woman stated that her family didn’t want her to stay around because they were afraid of what the VC might do if they found the black amerasian. This is where the home place is the contact zone where the family displaces the amerasian.
Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
The international context lies within the 6th and 7th contact zones. The afro amerasians enter the Cambodian brother land hoping to escape the discrimination in Vietnam. In Cambodia the people that inhabit that area are generally darker so the black amerasians tend to fit in very well. They look at this area as a sanctuary where they can work and have a normal life.
1. Black Testimony is defined in the article as one’s personal struggle against anti-Black racism. This relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because in Vietnamese culture people of darker skin color, especially blacks are generally discriminated against and looked down upon. Even though they are part Vietnamese this is still true.
2. 1. Colorism defined by Alice Walker is the prejudicial or preferential treatment of people of the same race based solely on their color. This relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because in Vietnam they tend to really discriminate against the darker skin or lighter skin mixed Vietnamese. A lot of this comes from the war because many children were born from American fathers in the military. This created a stereotype that these children were all the children of bar girls or prostitutes.
3. 1. Mary Louis Pratt said contact zone was “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of dominations and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermathsâ€. For Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians they clash because of Colorism and some of the tools used listed are name-calling, abandonment, or displacement.
4. 1. The corporeal context is more personal and physical and has two displacements. The first is the physical body itself. An example is the injuries and scars acquired from being Amerasian. They are hated against so much they experience abuse such as the example of people putting their cigarettes out on them and it shows through the scars obtained. Also there is self inflicted abuse such as cutting themselves as an escape. This is an example of voluntary. An example of involuntary is sexual molestation. The sexual molestation shows how little they value the lives of Amerasians because of their skin color.
5. The national context is about the socioeconomic problems of Amerasians and how they are neglected in Vietnamese society. This starts in at home in their families. They are pushed to the side because of how their skin color will make their family look to the rest of the society causing families to abuse or abandon them. The zone within the national context is the street life. Many Amerasians in Vietnam live on the streets and find ways to survive there whether it be working, begging, or gang life. The next contact zone is the school life. The children are highly discriminated their by the other full blooded Vietnamese children which often leads to Amerasians dropping out. The last contact zone is the labor camps. The labor camps are tough already but then Amerasians are seen as the children of the enemy.
6. International context contains the last two contact zones. The international context contains those Vietnamese Amerasians who tried to escape or have escaped discrimination form the Vietnamese society. The first is those who went to Cambodia. The Afro-Amerasians generally fit in better here because the Khmer have a darker skin tone than the Vietnamese and the Afro-Amerasians could be mistaken or taken as Khmer. The last contact zone is the Amerasians coming to America. This is sort of a homecoming act because America enabled them to come to America because they were the children of U.S. soldiers. They came to America to escape discrimination and seek to create a better life for themselves. Many have taken this opportunity to be apart of a society where many different skin tones have an equal opportunity.
1. What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black testimony is the witness of the struggle of African descendent against anti-black racism. Black Vietnamese amerasian suffer severely because of Vietnamese culture and stereo type. Moreover, stereo categorized amerasian as children of women worked in night bar. With these combination, amerasian suffer discrimination and disfranchise routinely and because of that they often withdraw to themselves. Most Vietnamese amerasian quit school very early to avoid discrimination and/or hide from shame bring to the family. Without education and often support from relative, the vicious cycle of poverty begin or continue. Overall, they are subject to hard life, constant discrimination and unnamed shame, and a little future.
2. What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism is the hierarchical discrimination based on skin color-line and usually lighter complexion is more favorable whereas darker complexion is being more discriminated. Colorism can exist within a family structure, within the same ethnic group, within a society, and extended to transnational framework. For Vietnamese Afro-amerasian, colorism exist the reason of black skin, mixed blood and foreignness. Like many other culture, people look down on dark skin and colorism manifest more in Vietnam because it is a more or less “homogenized†society. Sometime even within a Vietnamese family, children with lighter complexion become parent’s favorite over darker complexion children. Vietnamese Afro-amerasian are subject to daily name calling such as being mixed-blood. Instead of being recognized for having the best of two cultures, they are being look-down for being half-breed. The article “In the Black Pacific†did not mention that many Vietnamese label Vietnamese Afro-amerasian as mean, hostile and extremeness which imply that these people should be avoid and excluded. Since Vietnamese tradition heavily emphasized on against invader throughout its history, it is easily making amerasian target for criticism. This aspect of the issue manifest even more after the Fall of Saigon, they become “children of the enemyâ€.
3. What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Contact zone is where highly asymmetrical social clash. Contact zone can exist within a nation, social group and within an individual. Colorism in Vietnam discriminate Afro-amerasian emerges two working process working against each other. The masking process of black such as name calling, discrimination, and abandonment displace black to as nonbeing, while the unmasking process is the rebel against the masking process to liberate from racial terrorization. In the case of Vietnamese Afro-amerasian, it is the black-yellow color line.
4. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
The corporeal layer or the physical layer without spiritual contact zone either voluntary or involuntary. Self-inflict scarification and drinking is a form of voluntary corporeal that many Vietnamese afro-amerasian uses especially when they are depress or they are in prison. The involuntary corporeal contact zone included being sexually exploit for many women.
5. Explain Vietnamese Amerasian within the national context.
At the national level, context zone exist at four places. First is at the home place. With the combination of being afraid of VC after the Fall of Saigon and shame, many mother either hide their afro-amerasian kids at home, send them to relative, or abandon them all together. Second national context contact zone is at the street of Saigon. Many Afro-amerasian displace from they home and become homeless on the street of Saigon (this also happened in other major city of south Vietnam such as My Tho, Vung Tau, Nha Trang). They have to survive on their own in a already hard to survived inviroment. Many have to resort to being beggar, joining gang, or peddlers. On other national contact zone is at school where they suffer both verbal and physical abuse from other children and teachers. This lead to withdrawal from school and they are being displace from education. Other national context contact zone that can ultimately displace Vietnamese Afro-amerasian to poverty, homless, prostitution, and criminal is the New Economic Zone. They were to abandon their home and relocated to develop a isolated area with almost no resources. Many die before of hungry and disease. For those of escape the Zone and return home normally find themselves homeless and end up living on the street.
6. Explain Vietnamese Amerasian within the international context.
Within the International context, living across borders between Vietnam and Cambodia is mean to for some Vietnamese Afro-amerasian to live a better life. They were able to be more blend in because of they may have similar look with the Khmer whose complexion is darker than the majority Vietnamese (Nguoi Muong). Another International context contact zone is after the Amerasian Homecoming Act pass and a generation of Vietnamese Amerasian migrate to the US. After the displacement, many found better life in the US, but not without hardship.
1) The “black testimony†bears witness to one’s personal struggle against discrimination with antiblack racism and understood as a literature of African Diaspora. In the Vietnamese Afro-Ameriasians have their own distinctions with the testimonies as an apart of the Vietnamese Diaspora with one’s emotional and physical survival was challenged more as a Afro-Ameriasian.
2) “Colorism†is refer to as prejudice or preferential treatment of same-race people based soley on their color of their skin. People in Asia are very bias against the darker or lighter of the color of the skin. Vietnamese Afro-Ameriasians have live-experience of the blackness of their skin can control their future as a Vietnamese citizen who is discriminated against.
3) The “contact zones†refer to as the social stigma of the disparate cultures meet or clash with the colorism, slavery, or their aftermaths. Vietnam with the black skin, mixed blood and foreign blood have many black body displacements with different struggles with society. Their culture spaces wihere the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as abandonment and name calling.
4) Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context is the first contact zone where colorism permeates individual bodies of discrimination that literally enters the flesh itself. The displacement of the actual physical body and the black skin are traces of the Vietnamese Ameriasians.
5) Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context encounter the socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society. Vietnamese Ameriasians are displaced from their own families in the homeplace by aliening them of abandonment or abuse. Also they are being displaced in schools with the teachers and the children by teasing them of their race integration.
6) Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context is the hope of escaping the discrimination from the Vietnamese society.
1. What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black testimony is the personal experience and stories of struggles with anti-black racism. This relates to the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians because of their struggles in Vietnam for being half black.
2. What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Colorism is defined as prejudicial or preferential treatment of same race people based solely on their color. It relates to the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian because even though they are Vietnamese, their skin color is dominantly black or darker than the normal Vietnamese race, therefore they are looked down upon and disciminated in the Vietnamese society.
3. What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Contact zones are social spaces that occurs within an individual or between nations, where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths.
This relates to the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians becasue of the name calling and discrimination against their skin color for they are not truly black or yellow skinned.
4. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context happens when they have no acceptance for who they are which leads to physical harms to oneself such as self cuts and burns. This mostly happens when they feel out of place, having no where to turn to, and depressed.
5. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
Nationally, the Vietnamese Amerasians have no where to belong and no source of education or job. They are often pushed aside along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia where they try to blend in with the Khmers who had similar skin tone to make a living and being able to achieve the feeling of acceptance.
6. Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
Internationally, they hope to escape Vietnamese discrimination by migrating into another foreign country with more opportunities to lead a better life.
1What is “black testimony†and how does it
relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
Black testimony is the witness of the struggle of African descendent against anti-black racism. Black Vietnamese amerasian suffer severely because of Vietnamese culture and stereo type. Moreover, stereo categorized amerasian as children of women worked in night bar. With these combination, amerasian suffer discrimination and disfranchise routinely and because of that they often withdraw to themselves. Most Vietnamese amerasian quit school very early to avoid discrimination and/or hide from shame bring to the family. Without education and often support from relative, the vicious cycle of poverty begin or continue. Overall, they are subject to hard life, constant discrimination and unnamed shame, and a little future.
2 Colorism as defined refers to the prejudical or preferential treatment of same race people based solely on their color. This relates to Afro Amerisians because they experienced more discrimination due to black skin, which made them physically conspicuous in Vietnam’s largely homogenous society.
3 The concept of the contact zone has multiple resonances. Mary Louise Pratt coined the term “contact zone†to invoke the “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths.†James Clifford, on the other hand, extends Pratt’s concept of the contact zone by shifting the focus from the periphery back to the center, and from foreign to domestic spaces; he calls attention to the location of contact zones within the nations and empires. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement. The testimonies reveal that the contact zones specific to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements are located in three primary contexts: corporeal, national, and international. In addition to the three primary contexts, the locations of the contact zones are marked further by two critical dimensions intrinsic to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian displacements: trajectory and transgression
4 The color of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian is a corporeal context that separate them with the Vietnamese. This is also the first contact zones of the black body’s displacement. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian had been through a lot of suffer and misery because of the skin color. Many of them got sexual molestation, and got left out from the community. This is a sad image for the Viet Nam country, because no matter what skin color they are, they still have a blood of Vietnamese and deserve to be treat in a better way.
5 Nationally, the Vietnamese Amerasians have no where to belong and no source of education or job. They are often pushed aside along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia where they try to blend in with the Khmers who had similar skin tone to make a living and being able to achieve the feeling of acceptance.
6 Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context is the hope of escaping the discrimination from the Vietnamese society
• What is “black testimony†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
I. Black Testimony according to the text one of the definitions is “which bears witness to one’s personal struggle against anti-black racism.†The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians struggled against anti-black racism in the country they considered to be home. The Vietnamese did not accept a mixed baby from an African. This struggle was something they had to overcome just like blacks that come from Africa and other places around the world.
• What is “colorism†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
I. As defined by Alice Walker it refers to the “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.†It refers to the hostility that exist among individuals within the same racial group when skin color differences are perceived: (Scott,131). The Afro-Ameriasians are looked down upon in Vietnam because their darker skin is considered to be a lower class than the lighter skin Vietnamese. They were constantly targeted by other Vietnamese since they stood out due to their relatively dark skin. They were called names like “black skin, mixed blood, and foreign blood.â€
• What is “contact zones†and how does it relates to Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians?
I. According to the text contact zones invoke “ social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clask, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination-like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths.†“Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian contact zones are cultural spaces where the black body comes in contact with colorism and its many discursive practices (such as name-calling, abandonment, or displacement). (Scott, 139)
• Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the corporeal context.
I. In the corpeal context they are referring to the physical body. The Afro-Ameriasians are harmed in two way: voluntarily and involuntarily. The Afro-Ameriasians will sometimes harm themselves in ritual ceremonies. Other time the Afro-Ameriasians are beaten or raped.
• Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the national context.
I. Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians encounter socioeconomic displacements and are pushed aside to the margins of Vietnamese society. (Scott, 142) The Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians are not welcomed by their family, and are pushed away. This causes them to run away and become homeless.
• Explain Vietnamese Amerasians within the international context.
I. This is the last two contact zones. This refers to the borderlands that the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians voluntarily go to. This is a place where they are more respected because they tend to blend in more. There are two in Vietnam, and since they are mixture of two countries the dark skinned Vietnamese are not so uncommon.
Interesting reading:) Thanks.
[...] Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Testimony: In Search of the “Place†in Displacement [...]
I am actually going to be taking a class this semester covering these topics. I was doing some research and came across your site! Very glad I did! I think this will help me a bit.
Great blog you got here…keep up the good work.
Thank you for this!
I would love to locate children i father in vietnam,don’t know how to do that.