Ethnic studies / Ethnicity Books

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Book SynopsisBetween 1760 and 1902, more than 200 book-length autobiographies of ex-slaves were published; together they form the basis for all subsequent African American literature. I Was Born a Slave collects the 20 most significant “slave narratives.” They describe whippings, torture, starvation, resistance, and hairbreadth escapes; slave auctions, kidnappings, and murders; sexual abuse, religious confusion, the struggle of learning to read and write; and the triumphs and difficulties of life as free men and women. Many of the narratives—such as those of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs—have achieved reputations as masterpieces; but some of the lesser-known narratives are equally brilliant. This unprecedented anthology presents them unabridged, providing each one with helpful introductions and annotations, to form the most comprehensive volume ever assembled on the lives and writings of the slaves. Volume Two (1849–1866) includes the narratives of Henry Bibb, James W. C. Pennington, Solomon Northup, John Brown, John Thompson, William and Ellen Craft, Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Jacob D. Green, James Mars, and William Parker.

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Book SynopsisTen slaves—all under the age of 19—tell stories of enslavement, brutality, and dreams of freedom in this collection culled from full-length autobiographies. These accounts, selected to help teenagers relate to the horrific experiences of slaves their own age living in the not-so-distant past, include stories of young slaves torn from their mothers and families, suffering from starvation, and being whipped and tortured. But these are not all tales of deprivation and violence; teenagers will relate to accounts of slaves challenging authority, playing games, telling jokes, and falling in love. These stories cover the range of the slave experience, from the passage in slave ships across the Atlantic—and daily life as a slave both on large plantations and in small-city dwellings—to escaping slavery and fighting in the Civil War. The writings of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Keckley, and other lesser-known slaves are included.Trade Review"Reveal[s] what it was like to come of age under such cruel conditions. Stirring." -- The Seattle Times

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Book SynopsisAmong the many changes that have occurred in our country in the last forty years, few have been as significant as those heralded by the Supreme Court's decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954. By declaring racially segregated public schools unconstitutional, the court set in motion forces that resulted in the dismantling of the legal structure of Jim Crowism. The impact of the Brown decision was national in scope, but in no other region was its impact more far-reaching and traumatic than in the South. In Arkansas, as in other Southern states, racial segregation was not merely a well-stablished way of life, it was firmly imbedded in law. While school desegregation generated much noise and some violence elsewhere in the South, the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas confronted the issue and resolved it with a good deal of dignity and grace, becoming the first Southern city to accommodate the Brown decision. Through this fascinating collection of interviews with those who were involved in the desegregation process—students, teachers, administrators, civic leaders, and members of local groups—we learn of the determination of citizens to obey the law of the land and to see that freedom and equality took priority over their commitment to a school system that patently discriminated against one group of citizens. In our continuing efforts to create a society in which all races and cultures can coexist, Civil Obedience is a story worthy of our full attention.

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Book SynopsisFrom the expeditions of de Soto in the sixteenth century to the celebrated work of such contemporary writers as Maya Angelou, Ellen Gilchrist, and Miller Williams, Arkansas has enjoyed a rich history of letters. These two volumes gather the best work from Arkansas's rich literary history celebrating the variety of its voices and the national treasure those voices have become.

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Book SynopsisWhen Aaron Henry returned home to Mississippi from World War II service in 1946, he was part of wave of black servicemen who challenged the racial status quo. He became a pharmacist through the GI Bill, and as a prominent citizen, he organized a hometown chapter of the NAACP and relatively quickly became leader of the state chapter.From that launching pad he joined and helped lead an ensemble of activists who fundamentally challenged the system of segregation and the almost total exclusion of African Americans from the political structure. These efforts were most clearly evident in his leadership of the integrated Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation, which, after an unsuccessful effort to unseat the lily-white Democratic delegation at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, won recognition from the national party in 1968.The man who the New York Times described as being “at the forefront of every significant boycott, sit-in, protest march, rally, voter registration drive and court case” eventually became a rare example of a social-movement leader who successfully moved into political office. Aaron Henry of Mississippi covers the life of this remarkable leader, from his humble beginnings in a sharecropping family to his election to the Mississippi house of representatives in 1979, all the while maintaining the social-change ideology that prompted him to improve his native state, and thereby the nation.

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Book SynopsisAt an event honoring Daisy Bates as 1990's Distinguished Citizen then-governor Bill Clinton called her ""the most distinguished Arkansas citizen of all time."" Her classic account of the 1957 Little Rock School Crisis, ""The Long Shadow of Little Rock"", couldn't be found on most bookstore shelves in 1962 and was banned throughout the South. In 1988, after the University of Arkansas Press reprinted it, it won an American Book Award. On September 3, 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to surround all-white Central High School and prevent the entry of nine black students, challenging the Supreme Court's 1954 order to integrate all public schools. On September 25, Daisy Bates, an official of the NAACP in Arkansas, led the nine children into the school with the help of federal troops sent by President Eisenhower - the first time in eighty-one years that a president had dispatched troops to the South to protect the constitutional rights of black Americans. This new edition of Bates' own story about these historic events is being issued to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Little Rock School crisis in 2007.Trade ReviewThis is a book which I hope will be read by every American. It is simply told and easy to read, but not pleasant. - Eleanor Roosevelt, from the foreword to the first edition (1962) ""Daisy Bates' vivid memoir illuminates one of the key events of an historic freedom struggle.... Her story will serve as a source of inspiration for future participants in the long struggle for human freedom."" - From the afterword

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Book SynopsisThis book presents one woman's drive to eclipse race and gender boundaries. In this fascinating biography set in nineteenth-century Savannah, Georgia, Janice L. Sumler-Edmond resurrects the life and times of Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, a free woman of color whose story was until now lost to historical memory. It's a story that informs our understanding of the antebellum South as we watch this widowed matriarch navigate the social, economic, and political complexities to create a legacy for her family.In the spring of 1842, Aspasia entered a secret trust with a white man whose help she needed to become a landower. Sumler-Edmond's research of Aspasia's family and this trust arrangement, the outcome of which was determined by a dramatic three-party trial that went to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1878, provides new perspectives on the African American experience and on American history while telling the memorable story of a remarkable woman.Trade ReviewA valuable addition to the scholarship of the antebellum South. Through the author's research into little known historical territory, scholars can understand better how free black people operated in a southern city. "- Diane Batts Morrow, author of Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860"A study that will make a timely contribution to the scholarship of antebellum and post-bellum life in a southern city. The amplification of the struggles and successes of the free black Cruvellier and Mirault families reveals much that is new about the evolution of urban stratification in a slave society." - Billy Higgins, author of A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a comprehensive study of Arkansas's racial legacy. From the Civil War to Reconstruction, the Redeemer period, Jim Crow, and the modern civil rights era to the present, ""Ruled by Race"" describes the ways that race has been at the center of much of the state's formation and image since its founding. Grif Stockley uses the work of published and unpublished historians and exhaustive primary source materials along with stories from authors as diverse as Maya Angelou and E. Lynn Harris to bring to life the voices of those who have both studied and lived the racial experience in Arkansas.Topics range from the well-known Little Rock Central High Crisis of 1957 to lesser-known events such as the Elaine Race Massacres of 1919 and the shocking yet sadly commonplace attitudes found in newspaper reports and speeches. Through the words of the most powerful Arkansans such as racist Arkansas Governor Jeff Davis (1901-1906) to the least powerful, including an unflinching look at the narratives of former slaves, readers will come away with increased awareness of the ways that race continues to affect where Arkansans live, send their children to school, work, travel, shop, spend leisure time, worship, and choose their friends and life partners.Trade ReviewAn important and useful contribution to the literature on Arkansas history and to general readers elsewhere who see Arkansas as an important locus of Southern race relations over the past two centuries. Readers will find the book compelling because of how it sets race at the center of much of the state's formation and image since its founding. - Adam Green, author of Selling the Race: Culture and Community in Black Chicago, 1940-1955 and Time Longer than Rope: Studies in African American Activism: 1850-1950

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Book SynopsisThis work focuses on dedicated Quaker missionaries in post-Civil War Arkansas. In 1864 Alida and Calvin Clark, two abolitionist members of the Religious Society of Friends from Indiana, went on a mission trip to Helena, Arkansas. The Clarks had come to render temporary relief to displaced war orphans but instead found a lifelong calling. During their time in Arkansas, they started the school that became Southland College, which was the first institution of higher education for blacks west of the Mississippi, and they set up the first predominately black monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in North America. Their progressive racial vision was continued by a succession of midwestern Quakers willing to endure the primitive conditions and social isolation of their work and to overcome the persistent challenges of economic adversity, social strife, and natural disaster. Southland's survival through six difficult and sometimes dangerous decades reflects both the continuing missionary zeal of the Clarks' and their successors as well as the dedication of the black Arkansans who sought dignity and hope at a time when these were rare commodities for African Americans in Arkansas.

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Book SynopsisA complete text of this key document in the history of Western racial thought. The book includes a substantial biography of Gregoire and an analysis of the historical context in which he wrote and the impact of his work.

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Book SynopsisThis historic novel about blackface minstrels explores below the surface. Eric Lott, writing for African American Review, described it as ""A novel of ideas devoted to exploring the complex fate of black and white Americans caught, as ever, in a racial history they can neither surmount nor escape"".

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Book SynopsisAn initiative known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) strives to improve education by examining and assessing classroom interaction. This collection presents research by professors who adopted SoTL methodology to study their classrooms at Gallaudet University, an institution employing American Sign Language and written English. Their study intends to create an engaged learning community that investigates, reflects upon, and documents strategies that enhance learning for linguistically diverse, visually oriented populations.

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Book SynopsisLatin America's growing evangelical movement sparks political and social changeTable of ContentsIntroduction: Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America -- David Stoll 1. Struggling Against the Devil: Pentecostalism and Social Movements in Urban Brazil -- John Burdick 2. The Crentes of Campo Alegre and the Religious Construction of Brazilian Politics -- Rowan Ireland 3. Brother Votes for Brother: The New Politics of Protestantism in Brazil -- Paul Freston 4. Protestantism in El Salvador: Conventional Wisdom versus the Survey Evidence -- Kenneth M. Coleman, Edwin Eloy Aguilar, Jose Miguel Sandoval, and Timothy J. Steigenga 5. The Reformation of Machismo: Asceticism and Masculinity among Colombian Evangelicals -- Elizabeth Brusco 6. Shifting Affiliations: Mayan Widows and Evangelicos in Guatemala -- Linda Green 7. Religious Mobility and the Many Words of God in La Paz, Bolivia -- Lesley Gill Conclusion: Is This Latin America's Reformation? -- Virginia Garrard-Burnett Bibliography About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisCase studies capture the experiences, difficulties, and determination of immigrant workersTrade Review"Through close analysis of the changing workplace in three U.S. communities, these informative academic essays chart the variety of work experience for new immigrants."—Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction --Louise Lamphere, Guillermo Grenier, and Alex Stepick Part I: Garden City 2. Beef Stew: Cattle, Immigrants, and Established Residents in a Kansas Beefpacking Town --Michael Broadway 3. Knock 'Em Dead: Work on the Killfloor of a Modern Beefpacking Plant --Donald D. Stull 4. Guys in White Hats: Short-Term Participant Observation among Beef-Processing Workers and Managers --Ken C. Erickson 5. The Effects of Packinghouse Work on Southeast Asian Refugee Families --Janet E. Benson Part II: Miami 6. Miami: Capital of Latin America --Alex Stepick 7. Brothers in Wood --Alex Stepick and Guillermo Grenier, with Steve Morris and Debbie Draznin 8. Grounding the Saturn Plant: Failed Restructuring in a Miami Apparel Plant --Guillermo Grenier and Alex Stepick, with Aline LaBorwit 9. The View from the Back of the House: Restaurants and Hotels in Miami --Alex Stepick and Guillermo Grenier, with Hafidh A. Hafidh, Sue Chaffee, and Debbie Draznin Part III: Philadelphia 10. Polishing the Rustbelt: Immigrants Enter a Restructuring Philadelphia --Judith Goode 11. Facing Job Loss: Changing Relationships in a Multicultural urban Factor --Carole Cohen 12. Encounters Over the Counter: Bosses, Workers, and Customers on a Changing Shopping Strip --Judith Goode 13. Poverty and Politics: Practice and Ideology among Small Business Owners in an Urban Enterprise Zone --Cynthia Carter Ninivaggi Contributors' Notes Index

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Book SynopsisHow Asian immigration impacts the global economyTrade Review"[A]n excellent volume that...articulates the connections among global, national, and regional processes, and situates Asian immigration experiences within this nexus."—Contemporary SociologyTable of ContentsPreface Part I: Introduction 1. The Political Economy of Capitalist Restructuring and the New Asian Immigration Paul Ong, Edna Bonacich, and Lucie Cheng Part II: Immigration Patterns Introduction Lucie Cheng 2. U.S. Immigration Policies and Asian Migration Paul Ong and John M. Liu 3. Pacific Rim Development and the Duality of Post-1965 Asian Immigration to the United States John M. Liu and Lucie Cheng 4. Asian Immigrants in Los Angles: Diversity and Division Paul Ong and Tania Azores Part III: Economic Incorporation Introduction Paul Ong 5. Asians in the Los Angeles Garment Industry Edna Bonacich 6. The Migration and Incorporation of Filipino Nurses Paul Ong and Tania Azores 7. Chinese-Vietnamese Entrepreneurs in California Steve Gold Part IV: Political Struggles Introduction Yen Espiritu 8. The New Chinese Immigration and the Rise of Asian American Politics in Monterey Park, California Leland T. Saito and John Horton 9. The Korean-Black Conflict and the State Paul Ong, Kye Young Part, and Yasmin Tong 10. Class Constraints on Racial Solidarity among Asian Americans Yen Espiritu and Paul Ong Conclusion Edna Bonacich, Paul Ong, and Lucie Cheng About the Editors and Contributors

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Book SynopsisThis new reality -- the Latinization of the United States -- is driven by forces that reach well beyond U.S. borders. It asserts itself demographically, politically, in the workplace, and in daily life. The perception that Latinos are now positioned to help bring about change in the Americas from within the United States has taken hold, sparking renewed interest and specific initiatives by hemispheric governments to cultivate new forms of relationships with emigrant communities. Borderless Borders describes the structural processes and active interventions taking place inside and outside U.S. Latino communities. After a context-setting introduction by urban planner Rebecca Morales, the contributors focus on four themes. Economist Manuel Pastor Jr., urban sociologist Saskia Sassen, and political scientist Carol Wise look at emerging forms of global and transnational interdependence and at whether they are likely to produce individuals who are economically independent or simply more dependent. Sociologist Jorge Chapa, social anthropologist Maria P. Fernandez Kelly, and economist Edwin Melendez examine the negative impact of economic and political restructuring within the United States,especially within Latino communities. Performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, legal scholar Gerald Torres, political scientist Maria de los Angeles Torres, and modern language specialist Silvio Torres-Saillant consider the implications -- for community formation, citizenship, political participation, and human rights -- of the fact that individuals are forced to construct identities for themselves in more than one sociopolitical setting. Finally, sociologist Jeremy Brecher, sociologist Frank Bonilla, and political scientist Pedro Caban speculate on new paths into international relations and issue-oriented social movements and organizations among these mobile populations. To supplement the written contributions, Painter Bibiana Suarez has chosen several artworks that contribute to the interdisciplinary scope of the book.Table of ContentsCONTENTS Acknowledgments Preface: Changing the Americas from Within the United State Frank Bonilla 1 Dependence or Interdependence: Issues and Policy Choices Facing Latin Americans and Latinos Rebecca Morales Part I Global Interdependence 2 Interdependence, Inequality, and Identity: Linking Latinos and Latin Americans Manuel Pastor, Jr. 3 Trading Places: U.S. Latinos and Trade Liberalization in the Americas Manuel Pastor, Jr., and Carol Wise 4 The Transnationalization of Immigration Policy Saskia Sassen Part II The Reconfigured United States 5 The Burden of Interdependence: Demographic, Economic, and Social Prospects for Latinos in the Reconfigured U.S. Economy Jorge Chapa 6 From Estrangement to Affinity: Dilemmas of Identity Among Hispanic Children Patricia Fernandez-Kelly 7 The Economic Development of El Barrio Edwin Melendez Part III The Politics and Identity of Diaspora 8 1995 -- Terreno Peligroso/Danger Zone: Cultural Relations Between Chicanos and Mexicans at the End of the Century Guillermo Gomez-Pena 9 Visions of Dominicanness in the United States Silvio Torres-Saillant 10 The Legacy of Conquest and Discovery: Meditations on Ethnicity, Race, and American Politics Gerald Torres 11 Transnational Political and Cultural Identities: Crossing Theoretical Borders Maria de los Angeles Torres Part IV Reaching for the Civil Society on a Global Scale 12 Popular Movements and Economic Globalization Jeremy Brecher 13 The New Synthesis of Latin American and Latino Studies Pedro Caban 14 Rethinking Latino/Latin American Interdependence: New Knowing, New Practice Frank Bonilla Notes About the Illustrations Bibiana Suarez About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisOn February 13, 1982, the Guatemalan army stormed into the remote northern Guatemalan village of Santa Maria Tzeja. The villagers had already fled in terror, but over the next six days seventeen of them, mostly women and children, were caught and massacred, animals were slaughtered, and the entire village was burned to the ground. Twelve years later, utilizing terms of refugee agreements reached in 1982, villagers from Santa Maria who had fled to Mexico returned to their homes and lands to re-create their community with those who had stayed in Guatemala. Return of Guatemala's Refugees tells the story of that process. In this moving and provocative book, Clark Taylor describes the experiences of the survivors -- both those who stayed behind in conditions of savage repression and those who fled to Mexico where they learned to organize and defend their rights. Their struggle to rebuild is set in the wider drama of efforts by grassroots groups to pressure the government, economic elites, and army to fulfill peace accords signed in December of 1996. Focusing on the village of Santa Maria Tzeja, Taylor defines the challenges that faced returning refugees and their community. How did the opposing subcultures of fear (generated among those who stayed in Guatemala) and of education and human rights (experienced by those who took refuge in Mexico) coexist? Would the flood of international money sent to settle the refugees and fulfill the peace accords serve to promote participatory development or new forms of social control? How did survivors expand the space for democracy firmly grounded in human rights? How did they get beyond the grief and trauma that remained from the terror of the early eighties? Finally, the ultimate challenge, how did they work within conditions of extreme poverty to create a grassroots democracy in a militarized society?Trade Review"A very readable account of a hopeful development in a land where the main story seemed to be the slaughter of innocent civilians. Taylor's work advances what we know and is relevant not only to Guatemala but to the struggle for peace, democracy, human rights, development, and basic decency." -Phillip Berryman, author of Stubborn Hope "Using the Ixcan village of Santa Maria Tzeja as his case study, Clark Taylor makes understandable the complex process of the Guatemalan refugee return, the factors inhibiting or encouraging reintegration, and the changes wrought in the community and the region by the returnees. This is a clear, readable and interesting contribution to the (thus far) meager Literature on the refugee return situation. Taylor concludes with a strong call to action and gives resources for further education and work." -Marilyn M. Moors, National Coordinator, Guatemala Scholars NetworkTable of ContentsCONTENTS Preface Introduction 1 Torn by Terror 2 Reweaving the Pieces: Culture of Fear/Culture of Learning 3 The Contextual Loom: The Peace Accords, Civil Society, and the Powerful 4 Clash of Patterns: From Mexico and Guatemala A PICTORIAL 5 Resources for Reweaving: The Perils of Development 6 Human Rights: The Color of Life 7 The Gray of Frozen Grief: Resolving the Trauma of Memory 8 Tearing Still? The Army in Peacetime 9 Weaving the Future: What Needs to Be Done and How to Get Involved Appendixes 1. U.S. Groups Providing Resources on Guatemala and Support for the Peace Process 2. Chronology of Guatemalan History 3. Chronology of the Guatemalan Peace Process Acronyms Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first biography of an American-born Korean woman, Doing What Had to Be Done is, on the surface, the life story of Dora Yum Kim. But telling more than one woman's story, author Soo-Young Chin offers more than an unusual glimpse at the shaping of a remarkable community activist. In addition -- as she questions her subject, introduces each chapter, and reflects on how Dora's story relates to her own experience as a Korean American who immigrate to this country as an adult -- she carves around Dora's compelling story and courageous life story a story of her own and one of all Korean Americans. Born in 1921, Dora, as she tells Chin her story, chronicles the shifting salience of gendered ethnic identity as she journeys through her life. Traveling through time and place, she moves from San Francisco's Chinatown -- where Koreans were a minority within a minority -- to suburban Dewey Boulevard where Dora and her family attempt to integrate into mainstream America, and where she becomes a social worker in the California State Department of Employment. As the Korean immigrant community grows in the late 1960s, Dora becomes deeply involved in community service. She remembers teaching English to senior citizens and preparing them for their naturalization exams, finding jobs for the younger Koreans, and founding a community center and meals program for seniors. A detailed and inspiring lens through which to view Korean American history, Dora's life journey echoes the changing spaces of the American social landscape. And the grace and ease with which Dora just \u0022does what has to be done\u0022 shows us the importance of everyday acts in making a difference.Trade Review"History comes to life in this compelling saga of a courageous and controversial Korean-American woman and her biographer. Dora Kim's story-frank, painful, but inspirational-is an enduring testimony to the power of the human spirit to rise to new challenges. Soo-Young Chin's monumental study is a major contribution..." -James M. Freeman, author of Changing Identities: Vietnamese Americans 1975-1995 "...a wonderfully nuanced portrait of the lives of Koreans and Korean Americans in the US, as well as a powerful meditation on the meanings of "Americanness" in the late twentieth century. [Chin] also addresses theoretical issues relating to traditions of Western and Asian autobiography-and ethnography in terms a non-anthropologist can grasp, while the footnotes add another layer of analysis for the specialist." -The Women's Review of BooksTable of ContentsCONTENTS Preface Introduction Part One: Chinatown, San Francisco Descendants of Man Suk Yum and Hang Shin Kim: A Korean Family Tree 1 American Origins 2 Coming of Age 3 A Mother's Devotion Part Two: Dewey Boulevard 4 Leaving Chinatown 5 The Influx 6 Centering Service A Family Gallery Part Three: A Room of Her Own 7 Hidden Costs 8 On Her Own 9 Hwan'gap Conclusion: Doing What Had to Be Done Epilogue: Loose Ends Chronology Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Filipino American population in the U.S. is expected to reach more than two million by the next century. Yet many Filipino Americans contend that years of formal and covert exclusion from mainstream political, social, and economic institutions on the basis of their race have perpetuated racist stereotypes about them, ignored their colonial and immigration history, and prevented them from becoming fully recognized citizens of the nation. Locating Filipino Americans shows how Filipino Americans counter exclusion by actively engaging in alternative practices of community building. Locating Filipino Americans, an ethnographic study of Filipino American communities in Los Angeles and San Diego, present a multi-disciplinary cultural analysis of the relationship between ethnic identity and social space. Author Rick Bonus argues that alternative community spaces enable Filipino Americans to respond to and resist the ways in which the larger society has historically and institutionally rendered them invisible, silenced, and racialized. Bonus focuses on the \u0022Oriental\u0022 stores, the social halls and community centers, and the community newspapers to demonstrate how ethnic identities are publicly constituted and communities are transformed. Delineating the spaces formed by diasporic consciousness, Bonus shows how community members appropriate elements from their former homeland and from their new settlements in ways defined by their critical stances against racism, homogenization, complete assimilation, and exclusionary citizenship. Locating Filipino Americans is one of the few books that offers a grounded approach to theoretical analyses of ethnicity and contemporary culture in the U.S.Trade Review"Bonus draws on contemporary insights of cultural studies while grounding its tendency toward idealism in a very material sense of power. His subjects are actors, not victims of narratives. He does an effective and sometimes elegant job of capturing their adjustment and resistance to being neither and both Filipino and American." -John Horton, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, UCLA "Filipino Americans rank as the second largest Asian-American population in the USA, following Chinese Americans. This book draws from the author's ethnographic studies of Filipino-American communities in Los Angeles and San Diego,California, in the early 1990s. Bonus focuses on commercial establishments such as markets, community centers, and ethnic newspapers as sites where Filipino Americans publicly construct their ethnic identities in relation to the historical and contemporary conditions they face as members of US society. He contends that Filipino-American identity formation reflects two forces: a need to respond to and resist historical and institutional rendering of invisibility, exploitation, silencing and racial constructing, and a desire to claim 'space' within the category 'American' on their own terms." -SAGE Race Relations Abastracts "Bonus combines oral interviews, multi-disciplinary theories, history and ethnographic fieldwork and provides sophisticated and through analyses of his findings. What is refreshing is not only the telling Taglish (i.e., a combination of Tagalog and English) responses by interviewees to his questions, but his scholarly commitment to the interviewees of the study." -Pacific ReaderTable of ContentsCONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Marking Locations 1. Cartographies of Ethnicity 2. Filipinos and Filipinas in America 3. Marking and Marketing Identities in Filipino "Oriental" Stores 4. Palengke Politics and Beauty Pageants in Filipino Community Centers 5. Homeland Memories and Media: Filipino Images and Imaginations in America Conclusion: Re-marking Locations Notes Index

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Book SynopsisMaya people have lived for thousands of years in the mountains and forests of Guatemala, but they lost control of their land, becoming serfs and refugees, when the Spanish invaded in the sixteenth century. Under the Spanish and the Guatemalan non-Indian elites, they suffered enforced poverty as a resident source of cheap labor for non-Maya projects, particularly agriculture production. Following the CIA-induced coup that toppled Guatemala's elected government in 1954, their misery was exacerbated by government accommodation to United States \u0022interests,\u0022 which promoted crops for export and reinforced the need for cheap and passive labor. This widespread poverty was endemic throughout northwestern Guatemala, where 80 percent of Maya children were chronically malnourished, and forced wide-scale migration to the Pacific coast. The self-help aid that flowed into the area in the 1960s and 1970s raised hopes for justice and equity that were brutally suppressed by Guatemala's military government. This military reprisal led to a massive diaspora of Maya throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. This collection describes that process and the results. The chapters show the dangers and problems of the migratory/refugee process and the range of creative cultural adaptations that the Maya have developed. It provides the first comparative view of the formation and transformation of this new and expanding transnational population, presented from the standpoint of the migrants themselves as well as from a societal and international perspective. Together, the chapters furnish ethnographically grounded perspectives on the dynamic implications of uprooting and resettlement, social and psychological adjustment, long-term prospects for continued links to migration history from Guatemala, and the development of a sense of co-ethnicity with other indigenous people of Maya descent. As the Maya struggle to find their place in a more global society, their stories of quiet courage epitomize those of many other ethnic groups, migrants, and refugees today.Trade Review"This fine collection of 16 essays explores many different aspects of that exodus from Guatemala." -ChoiceTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments 1. The Maya Diaspora: Introduction James Loucky and Marilyn M. Moors 2. Survivors on the Move: Maya Migration in Time and Space Christopher H. Lutz and W. George Lovell 3. Flight, Exile, Repatriation, and Return: Guatemalan Refugee Scenarios, 1981-1998 Catherine L. Nolin Hanlon and W. George Lovell 4. Space and Identity in Testimonies of Displacement: Maya Migration to Guatemala City in the 1980s Antonella Fabri 5. Organizing in Exile: The Reconstruction of Community in the Guatemalan Refugee Camps in Southern Mexico Deborah L. Billings 6. Challenges of Return and Reintegration Clark Taylor 7. A Maya Voice: The Maya of Mexico City Domingo Hernandez Ixcoy 8. Becoming Belizean: Maya Identity and the Politics of Nation Michael C. Stone 9. La Huerta: Transportation Hub in the Arizona Desert Nancy J. Wellmeier 10. Indiantown, Florida: The Maya Diaspora and Applied Anthropology Allan F. Burns 11. A Maya Voice: The Refugees in Indiantown, Florida Feronimo Camposeco 12. The Maya of Morganton: Exploring Worker Identity within the Global Marketplace Leon Fink and Alvis Dunn 13. Maya Urban Villages in Houston: The Formation of a Migrant Community from San Cristobal Totonicapan Nestor P. Rodriguez and Jacqueline Maria Hagan 14. A Maya Voice: Living in Vancouver Zoila Ramirez 15. Maya in a Modern Metropolis: Establishing New Lives and Livelihoods in Los Angeles James Loucky 16. Conclusion: The Maya Diaspora Experience Marilyn M. Moors Epilogue: Elilal/Exilio Victor D. Montejo References About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to be Asian American?Trade Review"For three decades, William Wong has been America's most energetic and entertaining chronicler of the Asian diaspora and its effects on politics, culture, business, sports, dress, diet, and language. Like other great humorists, he exposes the painful absurdities that plague each new wave of immigrant families as they enrich the national character, from Wong's own adventurous parents to Tiger Woods. Some of these pieces offer surprising insights on geopolitics and others explore the legal and social consequences of racial discrimination, but my favorites are the playful essays, including the classic 'So That's Why I Can't Lose Weight.' "—Jay Mathews, Washington Post reporter and columnist, and author of Class Struggle"One of the advantages of having a writer of Bill Wong's talent around is that we don't have to depend upon intermediaries and go-betweens to give us insights about issues affecting Asian-Americans. He is often entertaining, and ironic, but underneath it all is a serious mind devoted to shattering myths about one of our fastest growing minorities."—Ishmael Reed, author of The Reed Reader"It is about time that America meet William Wong—an icon in journalism whose experience as a second generation Chinese-American has given him a unique lens through which life in America can be examined. For almost two decades, his columns in the Oakland Tribune and other San Francisco bay area newspapers have captured a different kind of reality about some of our most important social, cultural, and political moments. Wong's readiness to share his family, his community, and his conscience allows readers to cross a bridge into the world of Asian America. Whether it is an analysis of the 1996 campaign finance scandals or a perspective on how parent pressures and bi-cultural conflicts can play out in a young Asian American teen's life, Wong's skillful weaving of humor, irony, and poignant portrayals of the circumstances make each story linger long past the final sentence of his essay."—Angela E. Oh, Lecturer/Former Advisory Board Member, President's Initiative on RaceTable of ContentsSeries Foreword by Darrell Y. Hamamoto Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Hometown: In the Shadow of San Francisco American Dream, Chinatown Branch A "Manong" with Magical Hands 2. Family: From Agrarianism to Cyberspace Finding Sacred Ground Traditions: Old and New "Rock On, Mr. President" 3. History: From Exclusion to Confusion Conquering Frontiers and Barriers Wong Is an American Name The "Forgotten Holocaust" Healing Wounds, or Opening Them? The Price of Memories 4. Immigration: Huddled Masses Still Searching for Gold Mountain Second-Class Citizenship Downsize Your SUV Se Habla English 5. Identity and Acculturation: Visibility Invisible A State of Mind So That's Why I Can't Lose Weight Yellow Chic A Tumultuous World in Transition "We Lost a Country" Who's a Bonehead Now? Paradise Lost Minnesota Chow Mein Best Friend or Best Meal? Violating the Crustacean Creed Parenting, Chinese Style The American Nightmare 6. Anti-Asian Racism: Forever Foreigner "The Boat People Own Everything" Learning from the Vincent Chin Case Escaping Racism: No Way Out The Golden State of Bigotry Swastikas in the Sunset Un-American Christians I Am a Gook 7. Class: Yin and Yang Picking on the Most Vulnerable New Global Capitalists An Obnoxious Status Quest The Rich Can Be Nice Too Exploiting Our Own 8. Affirmative Action: The Myth of Meritocracy Between a Rock and a Hard Place Calling for Magician Administrators The Selfish Versus the Altruists When Values Collide 9. Gender: He Said, She Said The "Hottest" Dating Trend Special Assets Hiding Behind a Cultural Defense The Hero of Asian Men 10. Race Relations: Why Can't We All Get Along? Just Who Is the Victim Here? Playing Together Plenty of Blame to Go Around Middleman Myopia Yellow Pride Versus Multiculturalism Beyond Black and White 11. Politics: A Seat at the Table Right Man, Wrong Time Race and Ideology: Bumping into Each Other An Asian American "Mr. Fixit" Riding a Yellow Wave A Common Human Affliction A Question of Loyalty Trolling for the Big Fish Scientific Scapegoat 12. Crime: Bang, Bang, You're Dead "It Makes You Feel Special" The Model Minority Criminal Born to Kill Boyish Appeal 13. Stars: I AM Somebody Colorblind Casting Forbidden in More Ways Than One The Connie Chung Syndrome Kowtowing to the Queen Disposable Commodities Mercenaries The Politics of a Bond Film Money Talks The News Media: Only Getting Part of It Everybody's Child Publication Credits Index

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Book SynopsisDriven by the pressures of poverty and civil strife at home, large numbers of Central Americans came to the Los Angeles area during the 1980's. Neither purely economic migrants, though they were in search of stable work, nor official refugees, although they carried the scars of war and persecution, Guatemalans and Salvadorans were even denied the aid given to refugees such as Cubans and Vietnamese. In addition, these immigrants sought refuge in a city undergoing massive economic and demographic shifts of its own. The result was -- and is -- a complex interaction that will help to reconceptualize the migration experience.Based on twenty years of work with the Los Angeles Central American community and filled with facts, figures, and personal narratives, Seeking Community in a Global City presents this saga from many perspectives. The authors examine the forces in Central America that sent thousands of people streaming across international borders. They discuss economic, political, and demographic changes in the Los Angeles region and the difficulties the new immigrants faced in negotiating a new, urban environment. They look at family roles, networking, work strategies, and inter-ethnic relations. But they also consider policy issues and alliances, changing expectations, shifting priorities, and the reciprocal effect of the migrants and the city on each other.Trade Review"Seeking Community in a Global City is the impressive culmination of two decades of collaborative research by the authors with Central Americans in Los Angeles. Drawing on extensive interviews and narrative accounts from a broad spectrum of Salvadoran and Guatemalan community members and leaders, this book fills a substantial gap in our understanding of contemporary migration. It will prove to be essential reading for scholars, students, and decision makers alike."—James Loucky, author of The Maya Diaspora (Temple)"...the book offers a rare look into the experiences of these important migrant groups. ... The authors utilise state-of-the-art theories and concepts of migration to frame their study, and as a result their analysis is both comprehensive and sensitive."—Journal of Ethnic and Migration StudiesTable of ContentsCONTENTSList of Maps and Tables Preface 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Patterns of Central American Migration 3. Negotiating the Urban Scene 4. The Struggle for Survival: Working in Los Angeles 5. Seeking Justice, Challenging Policy 6. The 1990s: Changing Contexts, Shifting Expectations 7. Organizing Locally and Transnationally: Changing Priorities, Strategies, and Alliances 8. The Elusive Community: Salvadorans and Guatemalans in Los Angeles Appendix A: Chronology of Events Appendix B: Partial List of Informants Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisWhen you think of American immigration, what images come to mind? Ellis Island. East Side tenements. Pushcarts on Eighth Avenue. Little Italy. Chinatown. El Barrio. New York City has always been central to the immigrant experience in the United States. In the last three decades, the volume of immigration has increased as has the diversity of immigrant origins and experiences. Contemporary immigration conjures up old images but also some new ones: the sweatshops and ethnic neighborhoods are still there, but so are cell phones, faxes, e-mails, and the more intense and multilayered involvement of immigrants in the social, economic, and political life of both home and host societies.In this ambitious book, nineteen scholars from a broad range of disciplines bring our understanding of New York's immigrant communities up to date by exploring the interaction between economic globalization and transnationalization, demographic change, and the evolving racial, ethnic, gender dynamics in the City.Urban and suburban, Asian, European, Latin American, and Caribbean, men and women and children the essays here analyze the complex forces that shape the contemporary immigrant experience in New York City and the links between immigrant communities in New York and their countries of origin. Hector R. Cordero-Guzman is an Assistant Professor at the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University in New York City. Robert C. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College and part of the Barnard Project on Migration and Diasporas. Ramon Grosfoguel is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Boston College.Trade Review"Innovative and illuminating, this book is exactly what we need at this time: an examination of specific instances which capture the features, the meaning and the implications of transnationalism. This volume is exciting because it includes a younger generation of researchers. One of the book's strengths is that it combines a focus on migration with a focus on the city. Through this detailed lens, [the editors] make a contribution to our understanding of larger cross-boarder dynamics." --Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, and author of The Global City 2001 "One hears a lot about transnationalism these days. But the word is used so loosely that it often loses any real meaning. This book puts some meat on the bones of transnationalism by showing how it unfolds among various immigrant groups in one particular city--New York--not only now, but in the past. It reveals both the fascinating diversity and remarkable similarity of transnationalism as it plays out across different groups and times." --Douglas S. Massey, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania "These sure-handed editors have produced a rich, varied, and sophisticated picture of how immigration is changing the face of America's gateway city, New York. Exploring a dozen immigrant groups, the leading scholars reveal how class, gender, transnational ties, discrimination, and political action are shaping the formation of new Americans in a renewed city." --John Mollenkopf, Director, Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st CenturyTable of ContentsIntroduction Robert C. Smith, Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, and Ramon Grosfoguel Part I: Transnationalization, Globalization and Migration 1. Transnationalism, Then and Now: New York Immigrants Today and at the Turn of the Century Nancy Foner 2. The Generation of Identity: Haitian Youth and the Transnational Nation-State Georges E. Fouron and Nina Glick Schiller 3. Political Incorporation and Re-Incorporation: Simultaneity in the Dominican Migrant Experience Pamela M. Graham 4. Suburban Transmigrants: Long Island's Salvadorans Sarah Mahler 5. The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: The Political Dimension of Recent Chinese Immigration to New York Zai Liang 6. Gendered and Racialized Circulation-Migration: Implications for the Poverty and Work Experience of New York's Puerto Rican Women Dennis Conway, Adrian J. Bailey, and Mark Ellis Part II: Migration and Socio-Economic Incorporation in New York City 7. Class, Race, and Success: Indian-Americans Confront the American Dream Johanna Lessinger 8. Ethnic Niches and Racial Traps: Jamaicans in the New York Regional Economy Philip Kasinitz and Milton Vickerman 9. Neither Ignorance nor Bliss: Race, Racism and the West Indian Immigrant Experience Vilna Bashi 10. Peruvian Historical Networks for Migration in New York City Alex Julca 11. Entrepreneurship and Business Development among African-Americans, Koreans, and Jews: Exploring Some Structural Differences Jennifer Lee 12. When Co-ethnic Assets Become Liabilities: Mexicans, Ecuadorian and Chinese Garment Workers in New York City Margaret M. Chin

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Book SynopsisWhen you think of American immigration, what images come to mind? Ellis Island, East Side tenements, Pushcarts on Eighth Avenue, Little Italy, Chinatown, and El Barrio. New York City has always been central to the immigrant experience in the United States. In the last three decades, the volume of immigration has increased as has the diversity of immigrant origins and experiences. Contemporary immigration conjures up old images but also some new ones: the sweatshops and ethnic neighborhoods are still there, but so are cell phones, faxes, e-mails, and the more intense and multilayered involvement of immigrants in the social, economic, and political life of both home and host societies. In this ambitious book, nineteen scholars from a broad range of disciplines bring our understanding of New York's immigrant communities up-to-date by exploring the interaction between economic globalization and transnationalization, demographic change, and the evolving racial, ethnic, gender dynamics in the City. Urban and suburban, Asian, European, Latin American, and Caribbean, men and women and children the essays here analyze the complex forces that shape the contemporary immigrant experience in New York City and the links between immigrant communities in New York and their countries of origin.Hector R. Cordero-Guzman is an Assistant Professor at the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University in New York City. Robert C. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College and part of the Barnard Project on Migration and Diasporas. Ramon Grosfoguel is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Boston College.Trade Review"Innovative and illuminating, this book is exactly what we need at this time: an examination of specific instances which capture the features, the meaning and the implications of transnationalism. This volume is exciting because it includes a younger generation of researchers. One of the book's strengths is that it combines a focus on migration with a focus on the city. Through this detailed lens, [the editors] make a contribution to our understanding of larger cross-boarder dynamics." --Saskia Sassen, Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, and author of The Global City 2001 "One hears a lot about transnationalism these days. But the word is used so loosely that it often loses any real meaning. This book puts some meat on the bones of transnationalism by showing how it unfolds among various immigrant groups in one particular city--New York--not only now, but in the past. It reveals both the fascinating diversity and remarkable similarity of transnationalism as it plays out across different groups and times." --Douglas S. Massey, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania "These sure-handed editors have produced a rich, varied, and sophisticated picture of how immigration is changing the face of America's gateway city, New York. Exploring a dozen immigrant groups, the leading scholars reveal how class, gender, transnational ties, discrimination, and political action are shaping the formation of new Americans in a renewed city." --John Mollenkopf, Director, Center for Urban Research, CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st CenturyTable of ContentsIntroduction Robert C. Smith, Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, and Ramon Grosfoguel Part I: Transnationalization, Globalization and Migration 1. Transnationalism, Then and Now: New York Immigrants Today and at the Turn of the Century Nancy Foner 2. The Generation of Identity: Haitian Youth and the Transnational Nation-State Georges E. Fouron and Nina Glick Schiller 3. Political Incorporation and Re-Incorporation: Simultaneity in the Dominican Migrant Experience Pamela M. Graham 4. Suburban Transmigrants: Long Island's Salvadorans Sarah Mahler 5. The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: The Political Dimension of Recent Chinese Immigration to New York Zai Liang 6. Gendered and Racialized Circulation-Migration: Implications for the Poverty and Work Experience of New York's Puerto Rican Women Dennis Conway, Adrian J. Bailey, and Mark Ellis Part II: Migration and Socio-Economic Incorporation in New York City 7. Class, Race, and Success: Indian-Americans Confront the American Dream Johanna Lessinger 8. Ethnic Niches and Racial Traps: Jamaicans in the New York Regional Economy Philip Kasinitz and Milton Vickerman 9. Neither Ignorance nor Bliss: Race, Racism and the West Indian Immigrant Experience Vilna Bashi 10. Peruvian Historical Networks for Migration in New York City Alex Julca 11. Entrepreneurship and Business Development among African-Americans, Koreans, and Jews: Exploring Some Structural Differences Jennifer Lee 12. When Co-ethnic Assets Become Liabilities: Mexicans, Ecuadorian and Chinese Garment Workers in New York City Margaret M. Chin

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Book SynopsisAsian Americans are widely believed to be passive and compliant participants in the U.S. political process—if they participate at all. In this ground-breaking book, Pei-te Lien maps the actions and strategies of Asian Americans as they negotiate a space in the American political arena.Professor Lien looks at political participation by Asian Americans prior to 1965 and then examines, at both organizational and mass politics levels, how race, ethnicity, and transnationalism help to construct a complex American electorate. She looks not only at rates of participation among Asian Americans as compared with blacks, Latinos, American Indians, and non-Hispanic whites, but also among specific groups of Asian Americans—Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Asian Indians, and Vietnamese. She also discusses how gender, socioeconomic class, and place of birth affect political participation.With documentation ranging from historical narrative to opinion survey data, Professor Lien creates a picture of a diverse group of politically active people who are intent on carving out a place for themselves in American political life.Trade Review"This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Asian American studies. Lien, one of the leading scholars in the field, offers a convincing argument that Asian American identity as been shaped through political participation. She has made a major contribution to the revision of the Asian American image."—Andrew L. Aoki, Augsburg College, and co-editor of Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics"This is the first book to address broadly and thoroughly the political implications of the rapid growth of Asian immigrant to the U.S. The Making of Asian America through Political Participation is full of fascinating and little-known evidence. The sheer amount of information available nowhere else is extremely useful, and Ms. Lien's control over it all is excellent. An important book on a topic that promises to become increasingly important over the next few decades."—Professor Jennifer Hochschild, Departments of Government and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University"Lien uncovers a rich history of political activism on the part of Asian Americans from the 1800s to the present day. Thus, her unique study adds substantially to our understanding of Asian Americans, not only in the development of economic and social life in this country but also in the development of interethnic political participation."—MultiCultural ReviewTable of ContentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Charting a Hidden Terrain: Historical Struggles for Inclusion and Justice Prior to the Era of Civil Rights and Electoral Politics2. Constructing a Community That (Almost) Cannot Be: Contemporary Movements Toward Liberation and Empowerment—After 19653. Participation in Electoral Politics: Evolving Patterns in Hawaii and Mainland States4. How Can We All Get Along? Cross-Racial Coalition-Building Possibilities and Barriers5. What Ties That Bind? Comparing Political Attitudes and Behavior Across Major Asian American Groups6. Linking Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender: Asian American Women and Political ParticipationConclusionAppendix: Researching Asian American Political Behavior with Sample Surveys: A Methodological ReportNotesReferencesIndex

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Book Synopsis"Accent on Privilege" looks at the complexities of immigration, asking how native and immigrant construct race, gender, class and national identity. Katharine Jones investigates how white English immigrants live in the United States and how they use their status as privileged foreigners to gain the upper hand with Americans. Their privilege, she finds, is created by both American Anglophilia and the ways they perform their identities as "proper" English women and men in their host country. Jones looks at the cultural aspects of this performance: how English people play up their accents, "stiff upper lip," sense of humor and fashion even the way they drink beer.The political and cultural ties between England and the US act as a backdrop for the identity negotiations of these English people, many of whom do not even consider themselves to be immigrants. This unique exploration of the workings of white privilege offers an important new understanding of the paradoxes of how class, gender, and race are formed in the US and, by implication, in the UK. Katharine W. Jones is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Philadelphia University.Trade Review"It is to be hoped that very few Americans will read this book. In a most un-English way, it gives away all the trade secrets of the tribe that cares not to speak its name." --Christopher Hitchens, author of Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies "Immigration from England to the United States, so often 'invisible' to historians and to contemporary observers, is here shown to be a fascinating lens through which the transatlantic workings of identity and privilege may be acutely observed. Capturing the speech, longings, confusions, dress and politics of three dozen contemporary migrants, Accent on Privilege brilliantly shows how race in the United States is apprehended and negotiated by immigrants whose 'difference' constitutes an advantage." --David Roediger, Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois and the author of Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past "Herself an English immigrant, Jones (sociology, Philadelphia Univ.) analyzes the experiences of 34 other white upper- or middle-class English immigrants to the United States. She reveals the variety of methods these immigrants used to enhance or minimize their English identities in daily interactions with Americans (e.g., manipulation of their accents, their fashions, even how they drink beer). She also explores how America's love affair with all things English creates both advantages and restrictions for the immigrants and how they manipulate this Anglophilia to their advantage." --Library JournalTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. "I Want to Be Able to Be English When I Want to Be": Identities as Sites of Contestation 2. Avoiding Extremes: Negotiating Nationalism and Nostalgia 3. Responding to Privilege: Class, Race, Nation, and Anglophilia 4. "Gee, I Love Your Accent": English People and Americans Interact 5. White Mischief? Doing Conceptual Work with Empire, Race, and Gender 6. "The English Are ... Not Racist, but ... Just English": Imagining a White Nation 7. To Be English or Not? Constructing Identities in the U.S. Appendix: Descriptions of Interviewees Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisShe sports a nose-ring and duppata (a scarf worn by South Asian women) along with the latest fashion in slinky club wear; he's decked out in Tommy gear. Their moves on the crowded dance floor, blending Indian film dance with break-dancing, attract no particular attention. They are just two of the hundreds of hip young people who flock to the desi (i.e., South Asian) party scene that flourishes in the Big Apple.New York City, long the destination for immigrants and migrants, today is home to the largest Indian American population in the United States. Coming of age in a city remarkable for its diversity and cultural innovation, Indian American and other South Asian youth draw on their ethnic traditions and the city's resources to create a vibrant subculture. Some of the city's hottest clubs host regular bhangra parties, weekly events where young South Asians congregate to dance to music that mixes rap beats with Hindi film music, bhangra (North Indian and Pakistani in origin), reggae, techno, and other popular styles. Many of these young people also are active in community and campus organizations that stage performances of "ethnic cultures."In this book Sunaina Maira explores the world of second-generation Indian American youth to learn how they manage the contradictions of gender roles and sexuality, how they handle their "model minority" status and expectations for class mobility in a society that still racializes everyone in terms of black or white. Maira's deft analysis illuminates the ways in which these young people bridge ethnic authenticity and American "cool."Trade Review"Desis in the House is what cultural studies ought to be. Sunaina Maira gets deep inside of the social and cultural worlds of second generation Indian Americans and illuminates the links between the local and global, history and nostalgia, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Maira's perceptive insights into the complex and fluid styles, music, dances, desires and dreams of desi youth will force us all to think about cultural identities in new ways."—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America"Sunaina Maira guides us into the bog of nostalgia where beleaguered immigrants of color forge a memory that is at odds with their homeland, but also with the dreams of their home boys and home girls. An honest ethnography gives us ample evidence that nostalgia is a feint. Rather than leave us with this conclusion alone, Maira posits something called critical nostalgia, and you'll find out what that is when you read this important book."—Vijay Prashad, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity"Finally, an entertaining study of a second generation immigrant youth group that exposes all that goes on behind U.S. black and white racial and national imagery. A brilliant behind the scenes look that shows how immigrant youth's struggles of what's cool, authentic and fun are really about the reconstitution of racial, class and gender identities."—Arlene Davila, anthropology and American studies, New York University, and author of Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People and Sponsored Identities (Temple)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. Introduction2. To Be Young, Brown, and Hip: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Indian American Youth Culture3. Nostalgia: ideology and Performance4. Chaste identities: The Eroticization of Nostalgia5. Conclusion: Critical Nostalgia and Commodified CoolAppendix: Notes on Research MethodsNotesReferencesIndex

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