The Concept of Racial Triangulation - Essay Example

Triangulation We get racial triangulation has occurred in relation to the white and blacks or has been found in the racial positions taken on these two groups. The concept of racial triangulation comes about through two processes which are linked and simultaneous and take the form of relative valorization in which case a dominant group A comprised of whites does valorize the group B or Asian Americans considered subordinate and this is done in relation to the subordinate group C which is Black.

These valorizations occur on the basis of cultural and racial perceptions so that the whites could dominate the two other groups considered subordinate. Civic ostracism thus comes into play. The dominant white group subordinates Asian Americans and brands them foreigners and inassimilable when it comes to the white culture and race with the aim of ostracizing them from politics and any form of civic membership (Aoki and Hayakawa 2-28). The exclusion Act marked the climax of over 30 years in which progressive racism was practiced.

We had the anti-Chinese sentiment that started with the great immigration out of China at the time of the gold rush. In this period of the gold rush, miners of white descent and other prospectus did impose strict laws and taxes that were meant to inhibit any form of success by the Chinese people. We had increased racial tension propagated by Chinese emigration, job occupations, and a high level of competition within the job market. Chinese were banned from immigrating (Lee 89-116). Triangulation approaches of going beyond black and white took the form of different trajectories and this involved racialization where there existed the characterization and creation of categories of races which took the form of an open-ended approach.

These variables did play out differently when the two groups that have been subordinated are taken into perspective. This is a distinct group that is also independent. In this case, Native Americans were largely killed in genocides, the blacks faced racial slavery, the invasion and colonization of Mexicans took place and Asians did undergo exclusion. A mapping of multifarious formulations of what could be termed historical racism took place. The other example is the racial hierarchy where the emphasis is placed on the ordering of groups to make a single scale of stratified status and creation of privilege where whites are placed on top, other groups at the middle, and the blacks at the bottom of the strata.

This could be stressed by the argument that Asian Americans are taken as an intermediate group when it comes to the bipolar racial scale and the other being that these Asian Americans do make up a group of the racial bourgeoisie. The mandate for one to go beyond what is black or white could still be based on one’s judgment. The trajectory approach actually imputes mutual autonomy when we actually have constitutive mutuality. Asian Americans have always been racialized in relation to and by use of interactions found between whites and blacks.

In this case, the racialization trajectories of whites and blacks are explicitly interrelated with each other. In the hierarchical example, the problem arises in the sense that the whites are seen to have ordered the other groups of race to follow two historical dimensions. Asians have been considered outsiders and thus aliens while blacks are thought of and branded inferior to the other races (Aoki and Hayakawa 2-28). This triangulation by race did affect the movements of Asian Americans in the 60s and 70s.

This was because the Asian Americans believed that they were indeed white despite their argument being taken as illogical and inconsistent by the whites. Civic ostracism and other forms of relative valorization did play together in triangulating the Asian American immigrants through racial positions. There was a secure supply of cheap labor and this hindered the formation of a permanent second degraded class or caste that sought participation in politics and civil membership. This issue did leave the Asian immigrants and the Native Americans very much vulnerable to the cycles that encompassed white aggression.

The issue of triangulation of whites and blacks leading to aggression resulted in the anti-imperialism and anti-racism notions within the Asian American groups. For that reason, movements broke out in protest of the brutal treatment of these subordinated groups. Calls for equal treatment and inclusion in national activities became the order of the day. This led to the issue of the renaissance of the minority myth where which came into coincidence with the vigorous push to bring back civil rights, redistricting, affirmative actions, and revitalization of the social welfare programs that were seen after the 60s and 70s.

The governments that came in place tried to create a color-blind society through racial retrenchments. Asian Americans have always fought to get back the white privileges from the encroachment of blacks. The lamping together of all Asian Americans led to the production of a double elision which resulted in the formation of distinctions among the subgroups of Asian Americans and Asians. Affirmative action does however produce Asian victims and black villains given that conservatives did pursue the concept of racial retrenchment while at the same time concealing racism since they did not appear as racists (Lee 89-116).