BooksBarbecue
Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

The Chinese Exclusion Act kept out all “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining” and stayed in effect for the next forty years. Chinese in the US weren’t allowed to apply for citizenship, and they could be deported for pretty much any reason. Again—oddly familiar, right?

Paradoxically, a lot of the people who wanted to keep the Chinese out were okay with the Japanese laborers who started to fill the vacuum . . . until Japan began gaining power in Asia. Then folks lobbied Congress to amend the Chinese Exclusion Act to cover Japanese and Korean immigrants, too.

1907

It’s complicated, but basically, Japanese immigration was restricted to parents, spouses, and children of immigrants who were already here. (Yeah, you’ve heard this one, too.) To make up for this restriction, the US government generously allowed children of Japanese immigrants to attend neighborhood public schools. No kidding. Those were the actual terms.

1924

A new law severely restricted the riffraff coming over from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa. Asians, South Asians, and people from so-called Arab nations got the boot completely. No more. Go away. All of you.

1942

Japanese Americans got sent to prison camps. We’ve been over this.

1946

At the end of World War II, the American government released Japanese Americans from the camps and encouraged them to start fresh and let bygones be bygones. They produced videos showing everyone how well we were integrating back into society and how happy we were. Japanese Americans, for all kinds of reasons—shame, pride, optimism, resignation—went along with it and essentially pretended the internment never happened.

1950s

The baby boomers became teenagers and people began to worry about “delinquent youth.” Chinese American leaders saw a public relations opportunity and told everyone who would listen that Chinese kids were respectful, studious, and well behaved. The white media ate it up. News segments were aired, magazine articles were published. “Hooray for Chinese Americans!” turned into the Official Truth About Asians, and the model-minority myth was born.

1960s

The myth really took off with the civil rights movement. White Americans saw us as safer than those angry, uppity black folks who were demanding change and equality. We were praised for our “cooperation” and hard work (Katsuyamas never quit!), offered jobs, and allowed to buy and rent homes that were off-limits for black Americans.

And white people got to say to black people, “We’re not racist. Look how well the Asians are doing! Why can’t you be like them? Something must be wrong with you.” (Something like centuries of slavery and violent systemic racism, maybe?) At the same time, they said to Asians, who still experienced plenty of racism, “Why are you complaining? Look at how much more you have than black folks!”