Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Aren’t We American? Race, Class, Immigration, and Citizenship

I went to the LA Times Festival of Books (April 13-14). I'm posting my notes on the various panel discussions I attended.

The seventh panel discussion I attended was "Aren’t We American? Race, Class, Immigration, and Citizenship."

Here is an edited panelist biography via the LA Times website.

An ordained Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition, Duncan Ryuken Williams has spent years piecing together the story of the Japanese American community during World War II. He has published five other books, including The Other Side of Zen.

Sam Erman is an Assistant Professor of Law at the USC Gould School of Law. He came to USC from the Smithsonian Institution, where he was a postdoctoral fellow in Latino studies. Erman's primary areas of research include the history of Puerto Rico and its relations with the United States.

Juan De Lara is an Assistant Professor in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. His newest book, "Inland Shift: Race, Space, and Capital in Inland Southern California" was published last year.

Elda María Román is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Southern California. She is the author of "Race and Upward Mobility" and has published articles on Latinx and African American cultural production.



And the following are my notes from the panel discussion:

Duncan Ryuken Williams. The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II wasn’t just about race, but also religion (Buddhism). Is America a white Christian nation or a multi-ethnic/religious nation.

Sam Erman. How is the longest running democracy home to the longest held colony in the world - Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court said it would be open to Puerto Rico being a colony versus a state. It was proposed that Puerto Ricans could be citizens, but not have other rights such as voting.

Juan De Lara. In the 1980s, California went through massive de-industrialization. The California government invested in their ports (trade). What are the economic opportunities out there for Latinos. During Trump’s presidential campaign, Latinos were being blamed for globalization. During the 1990s, California wanted to take resources away from immigrants. The protestors put aside their Mexican flags and held up the US flag. The idea of being American has always been contested. Criticism is how we redefine being American.

Elda María Romá. She looks at upper mobility of minorities in movies, television. Does upper mobility create other issues of hierarchy? There is a crisis of allegiance. Do you side with power or those who are poor. The individual or the collective? Television often shows gatekeepers. An example of this would be the ethnic law enforcement. They are agents of the repressive system. They often gain awareness of being part of the criminalization of race and move away from being gatekeepers.