Breaking Through
At the turn of the new millennium, the national conversation turns to immigration, race, and economic disparity. As the U.S becomes more diverse, yet more divided, a new generation of Asian Americans tackle the question, how do we as a nation move forward together?
Episodes
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Breaking Through
S2020 E5 - 53m 34s
At the turn of the new millennium, the national conversation turns to immigration, race, and economic disparity. As the U.S becomes more diverse, yet more divided, a new generation of Asian Americans tackle the question, how do we as a nation move forward together?
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Generation Rising
S2020 E4 - 54m 11s
During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The war’s aftermath brings new immigrants and refugees who expand the population and the definition of Asian America.
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Good Americans
S2020 E3 - 54m 11s
During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority and targeted as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office and a coming culture-quake simmers beneath the surface.
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A Question of Loyalty
S2020 E2 - 54m 1s
An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands.
CORRECTION: Certain errors in a previous version of this program have been corrected, including the statement that the Core Civic South Texas Family Residential Center separates children from their families, which is not the case, and the erroneous use of a photo of a different facility.
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Breaking Ground
S2020 E1 - 54m 11s
In an era of exclusion and U.S. empire, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Barred by anti-Asian laws they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants,” yet they build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen, and take their fight for equality to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Extras + Features
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For Susan Ahn, WWII Was a Fight for America and Korea
1m 48s
In the lead up to WWII, Korean Americans were united by loyalty to America and resistance to Japanese rule of their homeland. Susan Ahn Cuddy was the US-born daughter of Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, a legendary community leader who died while imprisoned by Japan. She vowed to join the war effort and became the first Asian American woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and its first female gunnery officer.
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Asian Immigrants Helped Build the Silicon Valley
26s
Jerry Yang was part of the Asian American 1.5 generation, who were born in Asia but immigrated to the U.S. as children. With their bicultural experience and networks, he and other Asian immigrant entrepreneurs helped to establish Silicon Valley as the center of the global tech industry.
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Tereza Lee Was the Inspiration for the Dream Act
39s
Tereza Lee was a promising young pianist who grew up with a secret. Her family was undocumented, and they feared that if discovered the family could be separated and face deportation. When a U.S. Senator heard her story, he introduced the 2001 DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill to provide a pathway to legal status for undocumented youth who immigrated as children. Tereza was the first “dreamer.”
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Asians Were America’s First “Undocumented Immigrants”
30s
Connie Yu’s family story in the U.S. almost ended at the Angel Island Immigration Station, where her grandmother was detained for over a year, separated from her American-born children. In an atmosphere of nativism and hate, exclusionary laws have made Asians the nation’s first “undocumented immigrants.” Yet those who manage to stay, build families and communities in America.
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A Louisiana Family Discovers Their South Asian Roots
2m 38s
South Asians began arriving in significant numbers during the late 1800s. Most were men who settled in communities of color and faced segregation and laws against intermarriage with whites. Many formed multiracial families like Moksad Ali, a Bengali Muslim trader, who married an African American woman, Ella Blackman. Together they navigated race in an era of anti-Asian exclusion and Jim Crow.
Schedule
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Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Friday
May 17
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
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Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Saturday
May 18
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
Image
Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Saturday
May 18
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
Image
Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Saturday
May 18
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
Image
Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Sunday
May 19
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
Image
Asian Americans
Breaking Through
Sunday
May 19
1 Hour
Asian Americans navigate their growing influence at the turn of the millennium, but also face what it means to be an American in a polarized society. -
Image
Asian Americans
Saturday
Jun 1
1 Hour
The role of Asian Americans in shaping American history and identity. -
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Asian Americans
Saturday
Jun 1
1 Hour
The role of Asian Americans in shaping American history and identity.
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