How do we start understanding and including Asian presence in the narratives of the US South?
As we have gained some background on Asian heritage and Asian-American identity within the US in general, we will begin to take a closer look at the Asian experience in the US South. While the coastal states are often seen as the places of diversity with multicultural histories, the movement of people and traditions have been influential in the changes of the south and how we view the regions of the US. In places where there were predominately white evangelical communities, we are starting to see communities developing new understandings of what it means to be “American” and how to do life in the US.
With Asian-Americans being one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in the US, doubling from around 11,000 to over 22,000 from 2000 and 2019, reasons such as access to work, affordable housing, education goals, and the attention to quality of life has caused people to move to other places in search of better life for them or their family. The US South has seen recent growth and the creation of more jobs that are appealing to people from bigger, metropolitan areas and other countries.
Even with a lot of more recent Asian-American presence in the communities of the South, there is also so much history to remember and grow from. For example, Filipino migrants who escaped from Spanish trading vessels in the 18th century created a fishing village in Louisiana which became the “first permanent Asian-American settlement” in the US in St. Malo. Chinese immigrants were introduced to the US South during the period of the late nineteenth century as railroad workers or they labored as indentured servants during the reconstruction. In the 1970s, Arkansas and Florida were among locations chosen as Vietnamese refugee processing centers and in the 1990s Kurdish refugees from Iraq came to Nashville, creating “Little Kurdistan”.
These histories are often forgotten in the predominant understanding of the “Conservative South” because they are often overwhelmed by a singular narrative of people all from the same place, same background, speaking the same languages, etc. However, remembering the past, as both bitter and a place to grow from, we can bring to light and acknowledge the ways in which many people groups have contributed to building and creating the US South and we can respond to hate, stereotypes, and discrimination. Understanding these histories allow us to gain insight into the unique, and quite complex, culture of the South and see how communities form sometimes when least expected. In learning about the place of Asian populations of all different backgrounds along with other ethnic groups, we can gain a better understanding of the US as it is now and where we would like it to go.
Check out the resources used for this post and more resources to keep learning:
Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population by The Pew Research Center
Chinese Grocers Oral History in the Mississippi Delta – Southern Food Alliance
How Asian-Americans are Changing the South by Jake Grovum
AAPI Demographics: A Growing Community by Asian Americans Advancing Justice
AAPI Histories of the South by AR-NCTA
The South’s Asian American population is booming — and diverse by Maydha Devarajan
Asia in Arkansas 
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