Magda PORTAL (1900–1989) was a Peruvian socialist poet and leader of the Aprista social democratic party (APRA). She contributed to the Peruvian literary movement of the early 1900s, which advocated for indigenismo, anti-imperialism, women’s rights, and property rights. The movement was inspired by other liberation movements, such as the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and Argentina’s University Reform Movement (1918). Her poetry incorporates romanticism with overtly socialist messages. Additionally, she wrote extensively about her own experiences, particularly exclusion from male-dominated politics.
Portal is notable as a founder of APRA, one of the oldest political parties in Latin America. With her influence, it became the first Peruvian political party to recruit women. However, she abandoned it when it shifted to the ideological center. She wrote her only novel, La Trampa, to represent her negative experiences with the party before joining Peru’s Communist Party. Although she is renowned for being a woman in leftist spheres, her writings on other issues are significant. One example of her socialist poetry is “Proletarian Song.” Its vivid imagery of manual labor expresses the necessity of class reform. Her poetry often advocated for indigenous people’s integration into the state and society as well. Furthermore, she valued unity. Her correspondence reveals her desire for Latin American unity against the imperialist United States. She saw the Mexican Revolution as the model that all Latin American countries should follow, in order to not only protect individual rights domestically, but also create ideological unity across the region.
FURTHER READING
Portal, Magda. “Magda Portal Papers,” November 29, 1913. University of Texas Libraries.
Weaver, Kathleen. Peruvian Rebel: The World of Magda Portal, with a Selection of Her Poems. Illustrated edition. University Park (Pa.): Penn State University Press, 2011.
Portal, Magda, and Daniel R. Reedy. Hope and the Sea by Magda Portal. Translated by Kathleen Weaver. Dulzorada, 2021.
In 1992, an uprising occurred after a jury acquitted the Los Angeles Police Department of charges related to brutally beating a young Black man named Rodney King. After the judge announced the verdict, numerous buildings were set ablaze, and upwards of 2,300 people were injured in the civil unrest that persisted for several months. Today, the public mostly remembers the event, dubbed the “1992 LA Riots,” for the ensuing chaos after that verdict. However, fewer people recognize that there were additional reasons for the event.
At age the young age of 15, while shopping for some orange juice, Latasha Harlins was shot in the back and killed by Du Soon-Ja, a Korean woman who accused Harlins of stealing from her convenience store in South Los Angeles. Allegedly, Du had threatened other children with weapons before Harlins, but this time she pulled the trigger. Two months after the incident, like the LAPD, the judiciary eventually handed Du an incredibly light sentence. Hence, many believe this judicial decision also contributed to the harsher treatment experienced by Koreatown during the riots, with reportedly increased violence, looting, and arson in the area. In particular, looters targeted Du’s store, burning it to the ground. After the chaos, it never reopened.
Latasha Lavon Harlins
The 1992 LA Riots merely exemplify tensions between Korean-Americans and Black Americans that continue to manifest in the United States. For many years, some Black Americans have intentionally avoided supporting Korean-owned businesses, and some Korean American business owners have discriminated against their black patrons. However, despite the racial, cultural, and linguistic barriers between the two groups, they share quite a distinct history that would theoretically link them.
Over the past 200 years, both Korean and Black Americans have experienced tremendous oppression at the hands of hegemonic powers. For example, in the United States, white landowners enslaved millions of people of African descent through the transatlantic slave trade. These enslaved people were overworked, sexually abused, and forced to conform to a white-controlled society. Likewise, thousands of Korean and Korean Americans faced exploitation via Japanese occupation throughout the first half of the 20th century. Their Japanese oppressors forced them to abandon their Korean names, co-opted their historical artifacts, sexually enslaved their youth, and robbed them of their political autonomy. Moreover, once their controllers abandoned the established system, members of these ethnic groups were forced to pick up the pieces and rebuild. As a result, many chose to flee their homeland to seek success in other parts of the world, while others remained in familiar territory. Collectively, shared trauma continues to affect the descendants’ current circumstances negatively.
A Korean woman and child under Japanese occupation
Moreover, once their controllers abandoned the established system, members of these ethnic groups were forced to pick up the pieces and rebuild. As a result, many chose to flee their homeland to seek success in other parts of the world, while others remained in familiar territory. Holistically thinking, Koreans and African Americans share a comparable history concerning the erasure of their identities and theft of their bodily autonomy. Hence, aside from noticeable physical and social differences between the two cultures, many would assume that there is some affinity between them.
Nevertheless, a rift still manifests between the groups. A systemic socio-economic divide exists between Korean Americans and their Black American peers, furthering the perceived dissimilarity between the populations within the United States. Similarily, many Korean celebrities continue to culturally appropriate Black culture, which creates outrage and division. Some of the biggest names in the Korean popular music industry have adopted culturally insensitive hairstyles and artificial personas that mimic Black culture. Just last month, netizens exposed Jennie from Blackpink for wearing cornrows, a traditional African hairstyle with ties to chattel slavery, in a promotional advertisement for a new HBO show. Despite Blackpink being one of the most popular female groups in the world, she has encountered very few repercussions for these actions. Nonetheless, one significant similarity presents between the two divergent groups: Confucian ideology in response to exploitation.
Historically, Confucianism became integrated into Korean social structures several hundred years ago. Brought over from China in the 13th century, the ideological values of Confucianism rose to prevalence during the Joseon Dynasty. Many ideas promoted by the ideology, such as age-based hierarchy and social position, were attractive to leaders of the time. However, as a response to the rising popularity of religion, especially Buddhism, a new form of philosophy eventually became prevalent: New Confucianism. Still relying on many traditional Confucian values such as filial piety but utilizing a metaphysical-based ethical system, this specific form of Confucianism has had a lasting effect on Korean society, even today.
Particularly over the past century, Korean political thinkers have embraced Confucian ideals in response to the Japanese occupation and the discrimination that accompanied forced modernization. Kim San and other leaders criticized their oppressive system through Confucianism and a leftist perspective towards ending their rule. In addition, leaders integrated Confucian ideals into the Korean civil code even after the Japanese government’s colonial rule ended. They rebelliously employed its teachings as a rebuttal against the controlling regime that subjugated them and the Westernization policies that sought to oppress them. Thus, they adopted policies such as the prohibition of marriage between people of the same last name, which originated from the Confucian ideal that “when a man and a woman (in marriage) share the same surname, their offspring will not flourish.” Via these traditionalist policies they contested their oppressors and found a unique, hybrid political identity.
Beginning in the early 1900s, as a response to the historical subjugation of their people, many Black and Korean activists embraced Confucian ideas in their effort to combat prejudice. While rarely emphasized in American history, Chinese Confucian thought strongly influenced the fight against American racism within the Black Power movement. Many prominent Black activists like Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, and George W. Woodbey saw Confucian ideals and Chinese socialism as a solution to the prejudice in the everyday lives of Black Americans.
Although Confucius never spoke on issues of race, many of these Black activists were initially drawn to his beliefs. Specifically, various thinkers utilized Confucius’s teachings in the fight against their oppressors’ support of Christianity. The Pittsburgh Courier, a prominent weekly Black newspaper, once analogized “the teaching of Confucius: ‘Do not unto others that you would not have them do to you,'” to a biblical statement of Jesus Christ:” ‘Do unto others, that you would they should do unto you.'” Drawing comparisons to the inequalities in Asia, they embraced Confucian beliefs to parallel the qualities they saw as necessary for change. For many, Confucianism’s teachings of reciprocity and hierarchal social order became integral to their philosophy for combatting racism. Essentially, “Confucian and Christian teachings represented a moral standard that white society should abide by,” and Confucius’s non-white status made it all the more attractive.
Furthermore, even those who never specifically referenced Confucius embraced the values indirectly through their affinity for Chinese political thought. For example, well-known Black activist and educator, Frederick Douglass, was “confident that the Chinese, emboldened by Confucianism, would join African Americans in resisting this new form of slavery.” He viewed Confucianism as a solution that opposed the Christian values that white racists used to subjugate and enslave Black people. Consequently, these teachings and connections became embedded within Black society and strongly influenced other Black thinkers until the 1950s. Thus, even though most people studying these historical political movements often overlook the role that Confucian thought played in shaping the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, it manifested as a rebellious and persuasive ideology among various activists.
Altogether, when considering both Black Americans and Koreans, Confucianism cannot be stripped from their political thought. For both groups, prominent leaders sought freedom from their subjugators through similar political and social ideologies. Moreover, their tools came from a similar source: Chinese Confucian thought. Fundamentally, they used such philosophy as a source of morality and inspiration, which helped them tackle oppression. Thus, even though modern political conflicts between the two groups largely obscure these similar origins, an ideological basis connects the two distinct groups.
With such connections in mind, it denotes a very distinct Korean concept called 닮음(Dalm-eum). Translated best into English as “resemblance,” dalm-eum demonstrates how these two persecuted cultures converge in their ideological history. Despite the ongoing tensions between Black Americans and people of Korean descent and systemic prejudice that manifests as a perceived division between the cultures, similar histories and political motives leave room for collaboration throughout the continual racial discrimination. Via dalm-eum, these groups have even more reason to tear down the walls between them and function alongside each other. Hence, whether through the collaboration of the “Stop Asian Hate” and “Black Lives Matter” movements or some other historical interactions, they have a political foundation to converge in solidarity toward a similar goal.
Black and Asian Solidarity Run at Union Square (2021)
WORKS CITED
Kevin N., Cawley. 2021. “Korean Confucianism.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University: Metaphysics Research Lab. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/korean-confucianism.
Suzanne, Sng. 2022. “Blackpink’s Jennie Accused of Cultural Appropriation for Having Cornrows in HBO Series the Idol | the Straits Times.” straitstimes.com, July 19, 2022. https://www.straitstimes.com/life/entertainment/blackpinks-jennie-accused-of-cultural-appropriation-for-having-cornrows-in-hbo-series-the-idol.
Yong, Chen. 2012. “The Presence of Confucianism in Korea and Its General Influence on Law and Politics.” In ¿Es El Confucianismo Una Religión? La Controversia Sobre La Religiosidad Confuciana, Su Significado Y Trascendencia. El Colegio de Mexico.
Yoon, In-Jin. 1998. “Who Is My Neighbor?: Koreans’ Perceptions of Blacks and Latinos as Employees, Customers, and Neighbors.” Development and Society 27 (1): 49–75. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.org/stable/44396776..
Zhang, Tao. 2021. “The Confucian Strategy in African Americans’ Racial Equality Discourse.” Dao 20 (2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-021-09778-9.
In discussions of Black American activism following the emancipation of enslaved peoples in 1865, historians regularly overlook the prevalence of socialism and other progressive ideologies in shaping Black politics and Reconstruction. One Black American activist who embraced such socialist policies to do precisely this was George W. WOODBEY(1854-1937).
Born into slavery in Johnson County, Tennessee, Woodbey grew up conscious of the systems of oppression against Black Americans. However, it was not until after the Civil War that he entered politics and embraced an unconventional, socialist perspective. Latching onto the beliefs of Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party, Woodbey crafted a belief system that stressed socialism as the solution to the racism experienced within a post-slavery society. As is indicated in his novel, Black Socialist Preacher, he emphasized the necessity of eradicating “the watchdogs of capitalism”: the police. Altogether, George Woodbey was a highly influential Black socialist whose work inspired various other Black American activists and thinkers. Chiefly, his advocacy demonstrates how the African American political tradition employed socialism as a tool for tackling issues of race and labor exploitation.
FURTHER READING
George Washington Woodbey, George W Stater, and Philip Shelden Foner. 1983. Black Socialist Preacher: The Teachings of Reverend George Washington Woodbey and His Disciple, Reverend G.W. Slater, Jr. San Francisco: Synthesis Publications.
Heideman, Paul. 2018. Class Struggle and the Color Line: American Socialism and the Race Question 1900-1930. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.
The Chicago Boys (1970s–1980s) were a group of Chilean economists, named for their education under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. They enacted extensive neoliberal reforms in Chile, such as deregulation, privatization, and strict austerity. They provided an early example of shock therapy and influenced leaders around the world, including Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
Chicago Boys (Documentary)
It is controversial whether or not their reforms were effective toward improving Chile’s economy. The Chicago Boys’ supporters argue that their leadership produced “the Miracle of Chile” and point to their reforms as an explanation for Chile’s present day success. For example, Chile was ranked by the Heritage Foundation as the most economically free country in Latin America as of 2022, its GDP rose greatly, and it returned to a democracy after the Chicago Boys’ influence. However, detractors point out that the rise in GDP came at the cost of a rise in wealth inequality. Additionally, these reforms were largely carried out by the military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who committed severe human rights violations in order to implement those reforms. This controversy is still vital to Chilean politics because of the Chicago Boys’ long-term impacts.
FURTHER READING
Matamala, Daniel. “The Complicated Legacy of the ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile – ProMarket.” ProMarket, September 12, 2021. https://www.promarket.org/2021/09/12/chicago-boys-chile-friedman-neoliberalism/.
Valdés Juan J. Pinochet’s Economists: The Chicago School in Chile. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Sigmund, Paul E. “The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Boys in Chile.” SAIS Review 3, no. 2 (1983): 41-58. doi:10.1353/sais.1983.0040.
British Online Archives. “Miracle of Chile? The Legacy of the Chicago Boys | British Online Archives,” 2020. https://microform.digital/boa/posts/category/articles/378/miracle-of-chile-the-legacy-of-the-chicago-boys#_ftnref13.
Dependency theory (1960s–Present) is the idea that developed countries obtain their wealth at the expense of developing countries and, as a result, make developing countries unnaturally poor. Dependency theorists underline how export-based economies limit development. They explain that developing countries export raw goods to developed countries and then must purchase it back after manufacturing at a higher price, leading to dependence and impeded growth.
Open Veins of Latin America, published by Monthly Review Press
While it is applicable to many former colonies, Latin America is a common focus. Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano is a renowned example of dependency theory literature. Galeano challenges the idea that a lack of resources or innovation is the reason behind Latin America’s limited development. Rather, the cause is a history of slavery, imperialism, and exploitation. For example, he argues that the 18th century silver trade, and the slavery it accompanied, led to contemporary working conditions and ecological devastation of Latin America. Critics question the continued relevance of dependency theory due to the successful modernization of former colonies, such as India.
FURTHER READING
Galeano, & Belfrage, C. (1997). Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (25th anniversary ed.). Monthly Review Press.
Bernecker, Walther L., and Thomas Fischer. “Rise and Decline of Latin American Dependency Theories.” Itinerario 22, no. 4 (1998): 25–43. doi:10.1017/S0165115300023494.
Glennie, Jonathan. “Dependency Theory – Is It All over Now?” The Guardian, March 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/01/do-not-drop-dependency-theory.
Zitkala-Ša (1876–1938) was an activist for indigenous and women’s rights, born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She was also known as Red Bird and Gertrude Simmons Bonnin. She played a significant role in the Society of American Indians (SAI), whose purpose was to “help Indians help themselves”. She wrote speeches, recorded tribal traditions, and collected statistical reports. Furthermore, she journaled her own experiences in an assimilation school and described its cultural suppression, but also the formative educational opportunities it provided.
Zitkala-Ša, 1898
Zitkala-Ša’s speeches and writings reached a vast audience, including with the federal government, due to her rhetorical skill. Her speeches centered around colonization and loss of property as the cause of suffering for native people. She believed self-determination, citizenship, and property rights were the key to improving conditions on reservations. Zitkala-Ša pointed to rampant sexual abuse as a long-term impact of indigenous oppression and collected studies to show the extent of the problem. Another of her commitments was to advocate against peyote, which, while being part of a native cultural tradition, also brought destruction to their communities.
Zitkala-S̈a. My Life: Impressions of an Indian Childhood ; the School Days of an Indian Girl ; Why I Am a Pagan. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
Nps.gov. “Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird / Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) (U.S. National Park Service),” 2014. https://www.nps.gov/people/zitkala-sa.htm.
Hispanidad (1910s–Present), or “Spanishness”, is a Hispanic American nationalist ideology that seeks a restoration of Spanish spiritual identity. It rests upon the belief that a Catholic spiritual identity has united Latin America since the time of early Spanish missionaries. Hispanidad officials aimed to eliminate the rising Communist, secular, and anti-clerical ideas of the 20th century. Ramiro de Maeztu exemplifies Hispanidad as a prominent thinker who argued that Enlightenment thought was the source of Latin America’s weaknesses.
Francisco Franco’s fascist regime in Spain introduced the ideology into Latin America. In order to spiritually unify the region, Franco not only appointed Spaniards into Latin America’s political positions, but also invited several far-right Hispanic Americans into Spain for their input on expanding the ideology. Hispanidad likewise influenced the Philippines in both culture and government. Gradually, Latin American cultures began to associate with Latinidad instead—a unity among all Latin Americans regardless of an ethnic background. However, it remains a component of far-right ideologies.
Bandera de Hispanidad, designed by Angel Camblor
FURTHER READING
http://filosofia.org. “Ramiro de Maeztu, La Defensa de La Hispanidad.” Filosofia.org, 2022. https://www.filosofia.org/hem/193/acc/e05449.htm.
BOX, ZIRA, and Wendy Gosselin. “Spanish Imperial Destiny: The Concept of Empire during Early Francoism.” Contributions to the History of Concepts 8, no. 1 (2013): 89–106.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43610933.Diffie, Bailey W. “The Ideology of Hispanidad.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 23, no. 3 (1943): 457–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/2508538.
Fred HAMPTON(1948-1969), known by most people exclusively for his assassination in 1969, was a revolutionary activist in the Black American struggle for liberation who utilized socialist ideas as a form of resistance against a racially and economically oppressive America. Born Fredrick Allen Hampton in Chicago, Illinois, he began his progressive activism at a young age. Through studying communist revolutionaries from around the world and providing for members of his community, Hampton developed an ideology rooted in combatting capitalism. Moreover, as he later became an influential leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP), he began to further value revolution and the strength of the masses.
In particular, in his book, I Am A Revolutionary: Fred Hampton Speaks, Hampton’s famous orations reveal this groundbreaking response to the racism in America. Knowing of the oppression of minorities in America, Hampton firmly believed in the necessity of an “international proletarian revolution” and “[fighting] capitalism with socialism.” Therefore, even though the police ended his life at the young age of 21, Hampton’s legacy reveals the actuality of socialist policies as a perceived solution to racial oppression in America.
FURTHER READING
Hampton, Fred. 2023. I Am a Revolutionary: Fred Hampton Speaks. Edited by Fred Hampton Jr. Pluto Press.
Beginning in 1910, the Empire of Japan illegally annexed Korea after victories in the Russo-Japanese War (1905). This annexation led to the establishment a colonial government within the country that lasted until the Axis Powers surrendered in 1945. With harsh assimilation policies, forced labor, and censorship, Japan attempted to deliberately subjugate Korea, which consequently urged the development of socialist and nationalist resistance.
Thus, the March First Movement, or the Sam-il Movement, was the physical response to these tools of oppression. Beginning on March 1st of 1919, the campaign involved various student-led demonstrations demanding the Independence of Korea as a result of Japanese imperialism. Inspired by the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the movement sought to dispel Japanese colonial power through peaceful protest and the creation of a Korean Declaration of Independence. While the event did not single-handedly attain Korean Independence, it is notable for empowering the Korean Independence Movement and inspiring various influential activists.
FURTHER READING
Baldwin, Frank Prentiss, JR. 1969. “The March First Movement: Korean Challenge and Japanese Response.” Order No. 7220026, Columbia University. https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/march-first-movement-korean-challenge-japanese/docview/288040533/se-2?accountid=15053.
Neuhaus, Dolf-Alexander. “”Awakening Asia”: Korean Student Activists in Japan, The Asia Kunglun, and Asian Solidarity, 1910–1923.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 6, no. 2 (2017): 608-638. doi:10.1353/ach.2017.0021.
KIM San (1905-1938) was a Korean activist and celebrated Communist who vigorously rebelled against the Japanese government’s oppression of the Chinese and Korean people. In particular, Kim is renowned for his participation in the March First Movement, a major demonstration against Japanese imperialism and assimilation in Korea throughout 1919. However, most importantly, through his experiences living in and studying Japan, China, and Russia, he framed the Left-wing revolutionary movement within East Asia.
While much of Kim’s literary work lacks documentation within Western publications, he is best known for working with Nym Wales on a biographical novel titled Song of Ariran: The Life Story of a Korean Rebel. While this source serves primarily to document the complex conditions of Kim’s political journey, it also highlights many of his left-leaning perspectives, especially as a response to Japanese imperialism. From his praise of communism in “To Tolstoy: An Acknowledgement” to his discussion of Korean liberation and the power of the masses in “‘Only the Undefeated in Defeat…’,” Kim exposes the Korean Left’s robust resilience in the face of Japanese domination.
FURTHER READING
Kim, San, and Nym Wales. 1941. Song of Ariran: The Life Story of a Korean Rebel. Cornwall, New York: The Cornwall Press.
