As this year’s election heats up, it’s disturbing to read this Reuters article on “Asian Americans voters face discrimination“:
“ATLANTA (Reuters) – Asian American voters fear the discrimination some faced at polling stations in 2006 could resurface as they cast ballots in November’s presidential election, a civil rights group said on Thursday. Laws that enable Asian Americans from countries including China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines to get language and other kinds of assistance with voting were often flouted at the 2006 mid-term congressional elections, according to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The group cited examples of Asian Americans being asked to provide more identification than other citizens, in contravention of federal law. Those not on voter rolls but still eligible to vote were often not given provisional ballots to complete, it said in a report… She said that on polling day in 2006 there were many examples of “racist and intimidatory” remarks to Asian Americans such as: “‘How come you don’t speak English?’, ‘Why don’t you go back to your home country?’ and ‘You’re turning this country into a dump.’” The group said it registered 200 complaints during monitoring of 172 polling sites and a multilingual survey of over 4,700 Asian American voters in nine states… “Asian Americans, even though they are citizens, are still perceived as foreigners. As part of an anti-immigrant sentiment that seems to be on the rise there is hostility and some sense that these people are newcomers and don’t belong,” she said.“
Obviously, this is disturbing to read during this election year. As the illegal anti-immigrant sentiment and rhetoric heats up, I can definitely see how the overall negative sentiment is growing against legal immigrants.
What next?
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3 Comments to “Asian Americans voters face discrimination”
akrypti wrote:
I question just how informed an individual is when he or she votes in a U.S. election and doesn’t understand the official language. Are these votes founded on educated deliberation and following the race through the year or are these votes garnered by some APA mastermind who is *telling* these people *who* to go vote for and these people trust wholly the mastermind?
Well, Asian Americans wouldn’t face such hostility if they didn’t spend the overwhelming majority of their time in America burrowed in Chinatown speaking and associating only with people exactly like them. It’s just as ignorant as the so-called redneck middle-American who never leaves his trailer home to meet diverse people.
Posted on 14-Jan-08 at 9:35 pm | Permalink
Bo wrote:
My father has been in the US for over 30 years and while his spoken English isn’t all that great, his comprehension of written English is exceptional. He can read the Economist, Wall Street Journey, NY Times or any other news media with ease. He’s probably more informed about American politics and history then the average American, including myself at times. He’s frequently gotten the “Why don’t you speak the language better?” and the “Go back to your home country.” comments…typically from people with far less education then he is. Re: akrypti’s comments, I think it is shortsighted to assume that just b/c someone’s language skills aren’t stellar their mental faculties or intellectual curiosity is also somehow diminished.
That said, Asian-Americans do have one of the lowest rates of election participation – which isn’t saying much considering how low voter turnout is generally speaking. But I would guess that voter turn out of 1st generation Asian American citizens is comparable, if not better, than 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Asian Americans. I wonder if anyone has any stats about this?
Posted on 15-Jan-08 at 5:32 am | Permalink
Bertie wrote:
hey hey akrypti – remember, any u.s. citizen over 18 with a pulse (and who hasn’t committed a felony) is allowed to vote in this country. this includes everyone from neo-nazi skinheads, gang members, illiterate people, people who base their votes on who is the most visually appealing candidate, schizophrenics, and alzheimer’s sufferers who think it’s 1988 and write in george h.w. bush.
anyway, doesn’t the fact that dubya was elected twice indicate that the majority of u.s. voters is uninformed?
Posted on 15-Jan-08 at 11:11 am | Permalink
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