College Honors Program

Model Minorities or No-No Boys? Urban Politics, Crime, and Education Activism in Asian American Seattle, 1970-1989

Date of Creation

5-17-2024

Document Type

Campus Access Only

Department

History

First Advisor

Ke Ren

Abstract

The 1970s and 1980s were a hectic time for Asian American Seattle. During this era, the community was engaged in various conflicts. The construction of the Kingdome in the early 1970s, the attacks on affirmative action during the restructuring of the University of Washington’s Equal Opportunity Program in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the Wah Mee Club Murders in 1983 were just some examples of issues that burdened Seattle’s Asian Americans. Different community sects addressed these issues differently, which encouraged the transformation of community dynamics and politics as new and younger Asian American Movement activists emerged, challenging the older generations. Furthermore, this generational friction in the community had Seattle’s Asian Americans rethinking their position as “model minorities,” a stereotype that became popularized in the late 1960s after the 1940s-60s when certain Asian American communities, specifically Japanese and Chinese Americans, experienced growing societal success. Younger Asian Americans who emerged to challenge this stereotype presented themselves as “No-No Boys,” a historical term used to describe non-compliant Asian Americans, and thus the antithesis of the model minority stereotype. The community over these two decades would wrestle over whether to be model minorities or No-No Boys as they navigated the various issues inside and outside of the community. This intracommunity conflict on these issues would result in the emergence of a liberal Asian American identity that took parts of both No-No Boys and model minorities, forming a new community identity.

Comments

Reader: Jessica Lee

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