Asian immigration and American race‐relations: From exclusion to acceptance?

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Abstract
This article discusses some contributory factors to the dilemma that confronts Americans of Asian ancestries. This dilemma includes the neglect of this population in public forums on American minorities and the many barriers that prevent Asian Americans from participating fully in the social, economic, and political systems of the United States. A theoretical model that incorporates economic competition, cultural racism, and American nativism is proposed and used to examine historical and contemporary relations between Asian‐ and Euro‐Americans. Two examples illustrate the model's propositions: the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 and an analysis of self‐employment patterns among Asian Americans using 1980 census data. The article concludes that, while blatant exclusion of, and discrimination against, Asian Americans are matters of the past, the complete acceptance of Asians as Americans remains an elusive goal because of persistent cultural racism and nativism in American society.