I would say that’s only one of the core reasons behind the current state of the Asian-American society. The other parts of it include:
1. Not understanding American society at all. The older generations are particularly ignorant of the history and social fabric of the US. They can’t see the subtle and harmful racism committed by other groups, particularly “whites”.
2. The older generations brought their grudges with them and cannot see the bigger picture while the younger generations are influenced by contemporary politics in Asia.
3. Perspectives of economic differences. Some Asian American communities, particularly those from SEA, want to split off from Asian Americans since they want Affirmative Action. They believe that all East Asian communities are filthy rich (thanks to the good minority myth) when that is absolutely false. A walk through the Chinatowns, Little Tokyos and Koreatowns really paint a different picture.
4. Overwhelming subtle racism and the past poor state of Asia as a whole basically broke them. That is why self hate is so prevalent in Asian American communities. If they can redirect the fire to someone else just for a slight respite like the “but I’m {insert an ethnic group here}” claim, they would do it.
Also,
Sunken Cost Fallacy: older generations of immigrants need to justify the hardships they experienced, so they force themselves to find various reasons why they can't go back and sh_t on China. The more China rises, the greater the lengths they need to go and the more uncomfortable and disturbed they become.
Internalized racism and self-loathing: one of the most terrifying things to see in someone. Some people would sell their own mothers if it meant they could be
slightly more white. All for that sweet, sweet, Anglo validation. Seriously, mental colonialism is disturbing on so many levels.
The younger generations (millennials and Gen Z) definitely are a significant driver in Asian American politics and significantly less or not hateful at all. They are more united than before compared to the past generations. However the animosity is still there among the older generations as I noted, and they are a big voting base. I base my observations on areas with a heavy Asian immigrant community (think West Coast of the US) and elections.
There's also quite a difference in immigrant culture between the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, South of the US.
West Coast has large enough Asian communities for distinctions to form. In the Midwest/Mideast/East Coast there are so few Asians, "Orientals" group together regardless of their actual ethnic differences. For those immigrant children (ABCs), you either double down on your roots, or you're assimilated into a wannabe-white who will look down on your "inferior" unassimilated parents, subconsciously avoid Asian culture, and refuse to speak to anybody in Chinese (including trying to stop other Chinese people from also speaking Chinese, all the way down to doing the pretentious "we're in America, in case you didn't know, we speak eNgLiSh"). West Coast though, has a rich and defined history of "AZN" identity, so the youth feel way more accepted and self-confident.
I feel you can also see this paradigm reflected in race relations, i.e. it's completely normal to see White-Asian couples on the West Coast/Australia vs it's weird and stigmatizing to see them on the more traditional, old-timey East Coast.
No idea what it's like down South though, love to hear other's opinions.
