Asian American History 101

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 15! We're back with another installment of Most Forgotten Massacres. This week it's an all Washington State focus as we talk about The Tacoma Riot of 1885 and the Seattle Riot of 1886. What led to these incidents and how did the communities respond? We also take time to talk about some positive current events and end with a segment on Celebrations. We celebrate some sp...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 14! Most people like a good joke, but when it is harmful or demeaning, or there is a pattern of a specific target being laughed at instead of laughed with, then it can lead to reinforcing stereotypes and power dynamics. This is what has happened to Asian Pacific people in the U.S., and being the target of jokes desensitizing the impact with audiences and normalizes moc...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 13! Do you know why people born in the United States get birthright citizenship? Most textbooks point to the 14th Amendment as the reason for this, but the U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark ruling solidified this right. In this episode, we discuss the history of this landmark ruling and also share some positive current events. In our second segment, we bring back What Are We Liste...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 12! Do you know who the Chinese Marie Curie was? Chien-Shiung Wu was one of the greatest physicists ever and faced racism and sexism here in the U.S. in her professional journey. She overcame it to become a key physicist with research that helped the Manhattan Project goals as well as two other physicists who would win the Nobel Peace Prize. We also take time to do an...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 11! Did you know that the first professional basketball player who broke the color barrier was of Asian descent? That's right, it was Wataru "Wat" Misaka. He battled racism and discrimination to become a winner at the high school and college levels before getting a chance to play professional basketball. We start this episode by celebrating some accomplishments of NHL...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 10! It's time for another episode on food! This time we're going to focus on one of our favorites… Vietnamese food. It's interesting to examine the influences to Vietnamese food over the years that were a result of colonialism. Throughout all the occupiers, Vietnamese food has still had key flavors and ingredients used. We start this episode with some current events an...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 9! We begin with a few words on the Ukraine situation and our memories of trains. The main story is on something that will seem familiar to many U.S. taught students… The Chinese and the first Transcontinental Railroad. Chinese laborers were key in the building of the transcontinental railroad, all while facing discrimination and danger. We close out the episode with a...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8! February 19, 2022 marked 80 years since the signing of Executive Order 9066 that wrongly imprisoned over 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Of the ten concentration camps that the U.S. government created (and referred to as relocation centers), Tule Lake was the most brutal. For our main segment, we talk about the history of the Tule Lake Segregation Center. We...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 7! To celebrate Valentine's Day, we're going to talk about the history of Anti-Miscegenation laws that impacted Asian Pacific Americans. These were insidious laws passed by individual states in the U.S. that banned interracial marriages and disregarded the basic human right of love while propping up white supremacy. We also take time to celebrate Asian Pacific American...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 6! It's another installation of the Most Forgotten Massacres. This week we talk about the Hells Canyon Massacre and the Pacific Coast Race Riots. As always, it's important to learn about and never forget some of the less savory parts of U.S. history. On the more positive side, we're excited to support the athletes in the Olympics, so we also take time to highlight the...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 5! Happy Lunar New Year to all! It's the Year of the Tiger so we take time to ring in the new year by talking about some food traditions from China, Vietnam, Korea, and Tibet. We also talk about the Lantern Festival. Our main story is on the History of Ketchup which actually has Asian roots. No, Heinz wasn't the first… so where did it originate, what was it made of, an...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 4! We start by talking about Michelle Alyssa Go, the Asian American woman recently killed by being pushed on the subway tracks near Times Square in New York. It's another tragic death of someone in the Asian Pacific American community. Our main segment is on the impact of Asian Americans in the Fishing and Shrimping Industries. From the Chinese in Monterey to the Vietn...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 3!   We begin this episode with some current events, but we take time to talk about chocolate as well! The main segment is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as we focus on two more Asian Pacific American Civil Rights Leaders, Kiyoshi Kuromiya and Haunani-Kay Trask. Both were inspirational leaders with an   impact in the U.S. and across the world. We close out...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 2! It's time to talk about music again, and we focus on the Asian Americans making an impact in R&B. Pretty much anyone who follows R&B knows H.E.R. and Bruno Mars, but the start for Asian Americans in R&B actually can be traced back to Hiroshima in the 70s and 80s. We also mention some other great new Asian Pacific R&B musicians like Keshi and Raveena. There are so ma...

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1! We know that we have a lot of newer listeners, so this episode is a little bit of a refresher on our show and how our segments are set-up. We also take time to discuss some of our Resolutions and Hopes personally and for the podcast. What stories will you hear during Season 2? What interviews do we hope to do? To learn more, please visit our site at https://asianame...

Welcome to Episode 64! This is it… the end of Season 1. Whether you've been listening to us since the very beginning or just joined recently or anywhere in-between, we appreciate your support. What were some of your favorite episode topics and interviews? We share some of ours as well as some of the Asian American positive media we enjoyed reading and watching in 2021. Celebrate with us as you hea...

Welcome to Episode 63! It's still a few months away, but we're so excited about the Winter Olympics, so we take time to talk about the history of Asian Americans in figure skating. Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi are so well known, but we also take time to talk about Tiffany Chin. To open the episode, we take time to catch up and talk about the news on disaggregating Asian Pacific data. We also...

Welcome to Episode 62! It's time to bring back another episode on the history of an Asian Pacific American food. In this episode, we talk about the history of Japanese food in America. From sukiyaki to teppanyaki to sushi, Japanese food is one of the few Asian cuisines that is viewed as more refined and deserving of higher prices, but it wasn't always that way. We also bring back another segment o...

Welcome to Episode 61! Every December 7th we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor for good reason. Did you know that the Japanese military also executed coordinated attacks on three other U.S. Territories? For some reason, our K-12 history books don't mention these much, but the Imperial Japanese forces also attacked Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. All three were U.S. territories with milit...

Welcome to Episode 60! Sessue Hayakawa was one of the first Hollywood heartthrobs, but he was also a villain. The exotic way he was cast was indicative of the Yellow Peril driven Asian villain trope. From Fu Manchu to Ming the Merciless to so many others, Asians are often the villain in Hollywood created TV and films. In this episode, we talk about the history of those two key villains as well as...

Welcome to Episode 59! The Chinese Exclusion Act is one for the most restrictive laws that limited immigration. Although the majority of Chinese were barred from entering the country or becoming naturalized citizens, there was one loophole that allowed many Chinese Americans to claim citizenship and bring in additional Chinese. These were known as paper sons and daughters. We also talk about one p...

Welcome to Episode 58! Yes, we're geeks who like fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, comic books, music, food and more. You can also add musical theatre to that list of things we love. In this episode, we take time to talk about the history of Asian Americans in musical theatre. Although there aren't a plethora of Asian American stories being told on Broadway, there have been some notable indiv...

Welcome to Episode 57! Do you know the difference between the Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of Honor? We take time to explain it in this episode to honor Veterans Day. Our main segment recognizes three groups of Asian Americans to win the Congressional Gold Medal: The Filipino veterans of WWII, the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team who were all Japanese American So...

Welcome to Episode 56! There are Asian Pacific Islander Americans everywhere in the United States of America. But did you know there was a thriving Chinese community in the Mississippi Delta? In this episode we take time to talk about the history of the Chinese Americans in that area of the South. We also introduce a new recurring segment called Accidentally Asian Pacific Positive where we discuss...

Welcome to Episode 55! Ready for another episode on one of our favorite subjects? That's right, it's food time again! Today we talk about the history of Filipino food, one of the most unique foods around for its embrace of a variety of cultural cuisines that have influenced the ingredients and flavors over the centuries in the Philippines. From traders to colonialism, there are many influences to...