they were subjected to immigration restrictions and discrimination, they avoided subjugation and permanent underclass status. According to Kitano and Daniels, "acculturation was primarily functional-they learned enough about the new culture to survive, but most retained their Asian cultural ways, reinforced by the hostility of American society" (n.d, p. 8). In America's materialistic society, they have been able to parley their commercial success into a degree of social acceptance.
Asian Americans enjoyed much more success as entrepreneurs than native blacks. Asian Americans brought with them a cultural tradition, which blacks lacked, of "hard work, thrift, rationality and self denial" (Light, 1991, p. 314). Denied access to many economic avenues, Asian Americans, especially earlier immigrants, developed strong community support groups. Through their rotating credit associations, they pooled their limited assets. They sheltered their markets through restrictive trade practices. By hiring new Asian immigrants, they were ensured a steady source of low-cost labor. Blacks never overcame their low capital resources. Light says it is not true that "blacks are less entrepreneurial than other economically disadvantaged . . . minorities" (1991, p. 317). However, much black entrepreneurial activity, hustling, has been marginal or illegal. Few blacks have achieved permanent surpluses, whereas the large returns of Asian Americans from their ventures have been transmitted from one generation to another.
(a) Many factors contributed to the development of rising expectations and their transformation into a movement of social protest: (1) official recognition of the oppressed status of blacks during the 1930s; (2) the eye opening experience of many blacks during World War II and the improved opportunities resulting from desegregation of the armed services; (3) the post-war migration of millions of blacks from the rural south to the urbanized n...