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Asian Americans And the Fight for Educational Rights
posted 9/9/07
from East Wind Vol. 6 No. 1 Spring/Summer 1987
by Wilma Chan
The Focus section of this issue of East Wind is on the educational rights of Asian Americans. As a mother of two school]aged children and a community activist for nearly 20 years, education is an issue close to my heart.
Reflected in the following pages are some of the key issues over which Asian American students, parents, teachers, administrators and the community in general are fighting the battle for an equal and meaningful education today. These articles show both the blossoming of a new wave of struggle around the issue of educational rights and give us a glimpse of how central this issue will be to the future of the Asian National Movements in the years to come.
Historically, the development of public education was part of the demand for a democratic society. The demand for social, political, and economic equality (for everyone) includes the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to function on an equal basis in society. But capitalists, too, recognized the liberating potential of education, and suppressed the educational rights of Third World people.
The first Asians in America faced severe discrimination. While they mined the mines, built the railroads and made the swamplands rich for generations to come, they were treated unfairly and unequally. In the legislative area alone, between 1880 and 1924, fourteen discriminatory laws were passed that kept Chinese and other Asian nationalities in a second]class status. The restrictions imposed against Asian Americans as a people became a necessary part of superexploiting our labor. It is within this context that the first Asian immigrants fought for educational opportunities as one way to fight superexploitation and gain greater control over their lives.
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