Asian Americans in Rural California: A Critical Race Theory Historical Perspective

Overview: The history of the Sacramento River Delta as a key driver of California’s agricultural wealth neglects the stories of Asian American low-wage laborers. Counter-narratives of descendants of early immigrant laborers are analyzed through critical race theory. Results show that severe racism was combatted with mutual-aid, community building and cultural identification.Proposal text: Background and

Purpose: Asian Americans are portrayed in terms of both their success and incidents of discrimination. Recent news ranges from Asian American groups opposing affirmative action due to perceived harm in elite college admissions (Park and Liu, 2014) to “Asian hate” incidents during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic (Borja, et al, 2020; Cheng 2020; Tessler, Choi and Gao, 2020). The persistence of the model minority myth complicates perceptions and racialized treatment of the diverse Asian American community (Wu, 2015). Asian American Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an analytic lens providing more nuanced perspectives of their diverse and complex history (Chang and Gotanda, 2006). The long history of Asian Americans in the U.S., including their contributions to agriculture and rural communities, are lesser known, but foundational in terms of its importance to current social issues.

This oral history project investigated the stories of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino Americans in the Sacramento River Delta. With over 130 years of history in the area, these groups have rich stories of building community, contributing to the agricultural growth in the area and surviving intense poverty and discrimination. By overcoming such racist policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Alien Land Laws, and the World War II Incarceration of Japanese Americans, families in the area showed resiliency, strength and endurance.

Three CRT tenets are highlighted as especially relevant to this story: racism as ordinary, the importance of counter-narratives and differential racialization (Delgado and Stefancic, 2013).

Methods: This on-going oral history project uses grounded theory methods to analyze data collected from 13 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Asian Americans from Locke, Walnut Grove and Isleton. Participants were between 60 and 76 years old.

Findings: The results are organized by key tenets that are highlighted within Asian American CRT. First, the idea that racism is ordinary is evidenced by two themes: negotiating exclusionary immigration and citizenship laws and experiencing blatant discriminatory acts. Second, the importance of counternarratives is emphasized by these themes: families struggled to make a living on farm-worker wages while maintaining a perseverance to improve the opportunities available to their children; and community-building and mutual-aid were central to their survival. Third, the concept of “differential racialization” was experienced by the participants – one the one hand they recognized the extreme racial oppression faced by their parents and themselves, on the other they found opportunities outside of the rural community through education and occupational pathways available to them in the 1960s and 1970s.

Conclusions and Implications: Uncovering the complex history of Asian Americans in the U.S. can assist social work scholars, educators and practitioners in determining the appropriate response to current struggles in the community. The findings suggest that Asian American CRT is a powerful lens to incorporate Asian Americans into the larger discourse of race and oppression in the U.S. Finally, by uplifting the voices of individuals from these communities, social workers can learn to support community-based models, to find vibrant examples of mutual-aid and cross-ethnic solidarity which alleviate poverty conditions in rural areas.