Asian Political Power, Apathetic Asian-Americans?

By John | Monday, February 26, 2007 | 2 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

Asian-Americans are under-represented in politics – even in California – where we are the 2nd largest minority group behind Latinos. It’s nice to read in The New York Times the article about “Asians Flex Muscles in California Politics” :

“There are now nine Asian-Americans in the State Legislature, compared with one 10 years ago. In November, a Chinese-American, John Chiang, was elected state controller. Three of the five members of the Board of Equalization, which administers the state’s tax policies, are Asian-American, including Mr. Chiang.”

I know John Chiang! – John is the HIGEST ranking elected Asian-American in California. He is my friend’s friend’s husband and I have met John several times. He’s a really down-to-earth guy and truly a public servant. I am proud to say that I was a support for his campaign effort.

However, given Asian-Americans’ representation in voting is *still* under-represented:

“According to a study by S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside, only 37 percent of Asian-Americans in California voted in the 2004 elections, compared with 68 percent of blacks and 73 percent of whites. Latino turnout, at 32 percent, was even lower. The disparity can partly be explained by lower rates of citizenship: only 67 percent of Asians and 59 percent of Latinos living in California at the time were citizens. But even those who were citizens had much lower rates of voter registration than other ethnic groups.”

What ever happened to The Model Minority? Obviously, the “Model Minority” is NOT the “Model U.S. Citizen.”

Categories:

Current EventsPolitics

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

0 comments 1 person listening

Comment help
Get Livefyre

Sort: Newest | Oldest

Trackbacks

8 Asians » SF Chronicle: Clinton pushes hard to lock up Asian support says:

May 18, 2007 at 9:20 am

[...] If you don’t know, the Sing Tao Daily, World Journal and China Press are U.S.-based publications targeting the Chinese-reading public in America, and I hope you would understand why there might be controversy (of course, those newspapers should have been on time!). Note: amazingly, there are SIX Chinese language newspapers in the Bay Area, according to this 2004 Chronicle article. As I had blogged earlier this year, “Asian Political Power, but wait – apathetic Asian-Americans???” – get involved and don’t forget to vote in 2008. Asian-America – you can rock the vote in California and for the nation! [...]
8Asians.com » activist imagination. & irrelevant side notes. says:

November 27, 2007 at 9:09 am

[...] to my own post–when you google “apathetic asian,” what should come up first? a february 2007 post from 8asians‘ [...]