Siamese: None. The Story of Asian Ohio

In 1920 the United States census had a race called "Siamese". Census takers went house to house across Ohio and counted every Siamese person in the state. There were none. Today almost six thousand Ohioans say they are Thai, and they are one thread in a bigger story: from one Chinese resident in 1870 to more than 424,000 Asian Ohioans today.

The laundries and the Exclusion Act. Cleveland's Chinatown and the arrests of 1925. Japanese Americans who came to Ohio out of the wartime camps. The 1965 law, the doctors and engineers, the refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Bhutan. Thai Ohioans, their temples and their kitchens. And what the averages hide when "Asian" is treated as one group.

Every figure is from the census or a named source shown on screen. Narration: AI voice.

Chapters:
0:00 Siamese: none
0:55 One man, then a laundry
3:31 Out of the camps
5:27 The door opens
8:05 The new map
9:41 The Thai thread
12:07 The average and the gaps
13:27 Belonging, argued over
15:10 Close

Sources (selected):
U.S. Census Bureau: decennial censuses 1870-2020, Detailed DHC-A (2020), American Community Survey
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History; Cleveland Historical
Densho; U.S. War Relocation Authority records, National Archives; National Park Service
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Ohio University Libraries (David K. Wyatt Thai Collection)
Pew Research Center; Stop AAPI Hate; FBI hate-crime statistics; U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Brennan Center for Justice
Ohio Capital Journal; The Ohio Legislature; SFFA v. Harvard (2023)

Picture and film credits are at the end of the film.
crackedbuckeye.com