Asian Americans work
to raise political voicesActivists create a new platform
outlining the community's needs
SAN FRANCISCO >> They've watched presidential hopefuls woo NASCAR dads, blacks in South Carolina and Hispanics in New Mexico, and now some Asian Americans are wondering: What about us?
Saying they're tired of being overlooked, Asian-American activists are trying to make their voices heard by candidates and political parties. Eighteen groups jointly released a first-of-its-kind platform of their priorities for presidential candidates yesterday, while a separate effort is in the works aimed at persuading Asian Americans to vote in a bloc for a single candidate.
"In this election season, I think we've been fairly invisible," said Karen Narasaki, president of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, a member of the coalition that created the platform.
Candidates look to Asians "for financial support for campaigns, but they're not reaching out to our communities in terms of caring about our votes."
Though people of Asian descent comprise a small portion of the overall national population -- about 4 percent -- they are concentrated in key electoral states. In California, for example, there are 1.9 million Asian-American citizens of voting age; that exceeds the 1.3 million votes that separated President Bush and Al Gore in 2000, Narasaki noted.
When it comes to political parties, Asian Americans are almost evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents, said Daphne Kwok, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.
The 75-page agenda released yesterday is the result of a yearlong effort by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of national and regional Asian-American groups.
The agenda calls for policies that will help those of Asian descent overcome poverty, find affordable housing and get a good education and access to health care -- issues important to most Americans.
But the platform also strives to shatter the stereotype of Asian Americans as "model minorities" with above-average incomes, education and few serious problems.
The report notes the poverty rate in 2000 for Hmong people was 38 percent; 29 percent for Cambodians; 19 percent for Laotians; and 16 percent for Vietnamese.
Other priorities include protecting affirmative action and the right to vote and fighting hate crimes and racial profiling. South Asians, in particular, were victims of racial profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Narasaki said.
The agenda also says the immigration system must be reformed, a key issue in a community where two-thirds are foreign born. Some were disappointed that President Bush's recent immigration proposal did not provide a specific solution to family immigration backlogs that affect many Asian Americans. Some Filipinos who are U.S. citizens, for example, have been waiting 22 years for brothers and sisters to join them.
"We don't want to oppose anything that benefits other immigrants, but we are put in a position of, 'Hey, what about us?'" said Bill Ong Hing, professor of law and Asian-American studies at the University of California- Davis.
A separate effort to get 80 percent of Asian-American voters to cast their ballots for one candidate is being organized by 80-20, a nonpartisan political action committee. About 62 percent of Asian Americans voted for Gore, the candidate 80-20 endorsed in 2000. The group will make its 2004 endorsement later in the year.
