orientalism and the yellow peril: a brief look into the cornerstone of racism against asians in america BY J. FAITH MALICDEM @johannafaith Faith Malicdem is a freshman studying journalism at Emerson College and is Overachiever’s Editorial Intern. She is also the creator and curator of the PieFace Column. Aside from writing, Faith has many creative endeavors, including film photography and music-making. She hopes to further media coverage on mental health as well as music and the arts. THE PIEFACE COLUMN: https://www.piefacecolumn.com/
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n Edward Said’s first chapter of Orientalism, “Latent and Manifest Orientalism,” the emergence of the Oriental culture–a cumulative impression of the East projected by the West–is delineated and broken down to assist scholars and Asians and non-Asians alike in critiquing the harmful and warped iteration of Asian culture. The Yellow Peril is an extension of Orientalism, as it projected a prejudiced characterization of Asians, misleading the Western public to believe that Asians were foreigners who posed a threat to Western ideals, cultures, and the economy. In the name of capitalism, the exploitation of Asian immigrant labor has had astronomically harmful effects on the politicized development of race relations, labor ideologies, and immigration
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legislation alike in America. The study of history, culture, and academia in Western countries have revolved around Eurocentric ideologies and the white perspective, allowing for the portrayals of Eastern and non-white cultures to be taken into the hands of European scholars to formulate impressions of what these cultures consist of, and what they represent. Said’s critique of Orientalism addresses the relativity of Oriental studies, as the sector is, after all, a mere “school of interpretation” of what Eastern culture is, rather than being a school of true fact, involving the input of Eastern scholars who practice and live the Oriental culture (Said, 1978, p. 203). According to Said, because Orientalism is an imposed product of politi-
cal force, all Europeans who have contributed or referred to the concept of Orientalism are inherently racist, imperialistic, and ethnocentric (Said, 1978, p. 204). Unfortunately, as aforementioned, the study of history, culture, and academia have been so heavily influenced by Eurocentric ideologies and standards that the Orient has stood to be a reference point for European and white Americans idealizing westward expansion, capitalistic gain, and the idea of superiority on the basis of nativism. Because hate, defensiveness, and superiority coincide with the fear of what one does not know, anti-Asian violence and hate crimes have occurred on multiple occasions in America, and are a direct result of Orientalism’s
