8 Asians

On Wednesday, National Public Radio (NPR) did a story on the unique obstacles for Asian Americans in voting. Usually, the latest controversy on voter ID addresses minority groups like African-Americans and Latinos. But rarely the concerns of Asian Americans are addressed – especially naming conventions from naturalization papers – like family name listed first – mixing family name as a first name and first name last. Or profiling Asian Americans as foreigners (60% of Asian Americans are foreign-born, so English as a first language is an issue). There have also been translation errors, where in the past – parties being translated incorrectly – like Republicans as Demcocrats and vice versa! Glenn Magpantay of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund discusses some of issues. There are some pretty appauling examples given in this interview!