Jay Chen Faces More Racism In Run For CA 39th Congressional District

By Tina | Wednesday, October 31, 2012 | 30 Comments

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If you’re born in Michigan, was raised in Los Angeles County and educated at Harvard, the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, you still can be considered not American enough to run for Congress if you also happen to be of Asian heritage. At least that’s what seems to be true in the minds of a number of American citizens in the 39th Congressional District. It’s not the first time Chen has had to face accusations of being a spy from Communist China trying the infiltrate the American political process, nevermind the fact that Chen’s parents are from Taiwan, a country that “communist” China has missiles pointed at. As an American from the same community as these racist haters, I am absolutely ashamed of them as all Americans are. But, I can understand where the hate and fear is coming from. Change is terrifying, and not only has the diversity of that area been increasing by leaps and bounds over the last three decades, they have recently been drawn together with a number of heavily Asian Pacific American communities.

The 39th Congressional District was recently redrawn to combine some heavily Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) communities such as Fullerton, Walnut, Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Diamond Bar, and Chino Hills, where local public schools often see up to 60% or higher of students being of APIA heritage. Kids growing up there literally think the American national population is at least half if not more of APIA heritage. An Asian majority is the norm for them. I know this because I grew up there, went to school there, and have professionally educated students from those communities for the past 14+ years.

For “kids” like Jay Chen and me, who went to rival high schools in Hacienda Heights at the same time in the early 90s, the diversity is a given. It’s what we grew up with. It’s what we live now. We’re so used to speaking more than one language and being surrounded by people vastly different than ourselves culturally, physically, and religiously. Chen is fluent in more than three languages, Spanish being one of them. We’re used to going to people’s homes and having steak and eggs in one house, palak paneer in another, and chorizo in the next. We’re used to seeing the local McDonald’s sign in Korean, English, and Chinese.

I remember in high school my classmates and I used to look at all the old archived yearbooks and wonder at the change in the student ethnic make-up. In the 60s, 70s and early 80s, it was predominantly White. Then as the 80s progressed, the yearbook pictures started changing, and by the early 90s, it was an even split of about 30% Hispanic, 30% Asian, and 30% Caucasian. I can imagine the people in the neighborhood who were there since those early, less multicultural times, or kids who come from the families who didn’t adapt too well to the changes around them feeling like their beloved hometown was being “invaded” by these “outsiders”. Waking up one day and finding out that your local congressional district had been redrawn to make it one of the most heavily APIA ones in the U.S. must have been petrifying. So scary in fact that you pull out some poster paper and write “Jay Chen is a Communist Spy” and stick it on a street lamp pole in your neighborhood. So scary that you email Chen’s campaign a string of racial slurs against Asians. Enough fear, in fact, to make you want to leave an anonymous voicemail that personally and racially attacks Chen.

I get it. It’s scary. A face like Chen’s that looks so foreign and unfamiliar and yet speaks English and has the legal right to be elected to govern you.

I guess this blog post is morphing into a message of empathy to the haters. Well, in that case, I’ve got a message for the racist haters:

America exists because of an American Revolution, and revolution is all about change. Revolution comes from being brave enough to change. So don’t be a coward. Be an American. *puts away soap box*

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DiscriminationPolitics

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

LTE2

“But, I can understand where the hate and fear is coming from”
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Romney gave a steel workers wife cancer. It’s been that kind of election.
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I would not put it past the “haters” that they are Chen supporters, not connected to Chen’s organization, just operating independently. This sort of thing gets media coverage and there is little effort made to trace these people out.
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These political cross dressers also act as “Ex” Republicans who saw the light and now support Obama.
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Fanatics work in weird and dishonest ways.
http://www.facebook.com/tinabot Tina Tsai

Of course, I would be horribly disappointed in Chen’s campaign team if it came to light that one of his own was planting such racist media bait, especially because many of the volunteers are people I know personally or watched grow up.

But I’ve already seen evidence that there are really are such racist haters in the community. I’ve looked them in the eye as they called an Asian American teenager a communist red guard. I almost laughed out loud hysterically when one of them called Chen a “communist emperor”, one of the dumbest things I’ve every heard come out of the mouth of a human being. And this was all at a public meeting. So when all these hate posters, hate mail, and hate messages started popping up, it wasn’t surprising to me. Just sad. Even if some were “planted”, there are definitely authentic ones.

It doesn’t help Royce’s case, accusing Chen’s camp of planting those hate messages, when Royce himself spoke at a hate rally against Muslim Americans. Post forthcoming.
LTE2

“Of course, I would be horribly disappointed in Chen’s campaign team if it came to light that one of his own”
.
I was not suggesting these people are Chen plants. It could be overly enthused supporters, people who just dislike Chen or a combination of both.
.
As an outsider, I can only go by what I see with Chen and to be honest, he has a weak sales pitch. What I have found all too often with Asian Americans is the candidate being Asian is enough. I have seen virtually no reasons to support the person outside of that.
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Then again, 2012 seems to be little about the more serous issues.
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I think I have seen the “damning” portions of the Royce tape and I didn’t see it as that bad.
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It appears as 2011 came to a close, both the Democrat National Committee and Obama/Biden 2012 after looking at Obama’s sagging numbers decided they had to take a route that should never be traveled, basing a campaign on Race/Gender/Class. This approach seemed to be a political Hail Mary pass, hoping to combine Black/Hispanic/Asian voters into a block (with just enough white liberal support to put them over the top). The first steps taken were the attacks on the Tea Party.
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Mr Chen does seem to be playing the race card in his campaign and he is part of the Democratic Party. He maybe a bit player in this political opera, but he is still on the stage. Mr. Chen should take as good as he gives.
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Ask a Black Conservative woman what happens to her when she runs for office or even mentions she is thinking of running.
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I think the Democrats have opened a can of worms where every election going forward will be an endless racial make up calculation. Race was always part of the political conversation and calculations, but generally done in a lower toned way to avoid division. Not any longer baby.
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Once again, I am not writing this in support of Royce as I do not know enough about him.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

Jay is Taiwanese, not Chinese. So they don’t mean the racism. Taiwanese are friends to Americans. I think this is all a misunderstanding.
sternhead

More serious issues, hmm. Besides the fact that supply side economics doesn’t work, and never did, you are about to vote (or have already) for a shameless liar who is insisting that Jeep jobs will be LEAVING America for China, when GM IS EXPANDING operations to China for the Chinese market, and is EXPANDING operations in Ohio. Romney will say anything at this point to swing enough independents over (mostly gullible types who mistakenly believe themselves to be analytical thinkers).
LTE2

“Besides the fact that supply side economics doesn’t work, and never did,”
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I grew up in New Jersey and in the central part of the state town after town was filled with old Victorian homes built between the 1880 and 1920. For their time these were not cheap housing, If supply side didn’t work, how did these homes get built and purchased by the 1,000′s?
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It had taken 4 railroads to take the commuters back to these homes. A train ticket was not cheap.
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If supply side didn’t work how did the United States become the world’s industrial giant in 1900? This was the same industrial plant that got America through 2 major world wars.
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“for a shameless liar who is insisting that Jeep jobs will be LEAVING America for China,”

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Romney didn’t insist, he quoted an article.
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GM would have done well under the Romney plan. You know how I know? Barack Obama said so. I wouldn’t have offered any loan guarantees, I would say, you two (management and union) broke GM, do what it takes to fix it.
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By the way, supply side works well for China. Best way to beat China is convince them they need endless regulation, labor laws and a legal industry and a political leadership that attacks wealth creation. Then the United States and China will be on equal footing (and both driven into poverty).
LTE2

Taiwanese are Chinese, just like South Koreans and North Koreans are Korean.
http://www.facebook.com/tinabot Tina Tsai

Taiwanese are Chinese like Americans are British.
xolang

the racists of today are just as dumb as those who killed Vincent Chin back in 1982 for thinking that he was Japanese.
in their eyes, we still all look the same.. -_-
LTE2

Okay… unless I am mistaken, Taiwan was part of mainland China until 1949. Ethnically, they are Chinese, nationality they are Taiwanese.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

Following up on xolang’s comment, my opinion is that your way of looking at this is not helpful. While Americans with Taiwanese ancestry have the right to be proud of their distinct heritage as compared to Americans with (mainland) Chinese ancestry, saying “I’m not Chinese; I’m Taiwanese (American)” isn’t going to fix the problem, which is based on prejudice.
http://twitter.com/yanagiX 楊壹業

Exactly. I would have thought that anyone who reads 8asians feels that tribal mentalities like “I’m not Chinese; I’m Taiwanese” have no place in the United States. American first, (Asian) American second, and then and only then Chinese / Taiwanese American third.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

The Americans who racially harassed Jay do not mean what they say. Taiwanese are friends of America. So when they call him names, they do not mean it. i think this is all a misunderstanding. It is the Chinese that are enemies. Taiwanese are friends, America welcomes with open arms.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

Taiwanese are friends of Americans. When they called Jay names they did not mean it. It is all a misunderstanding. We need to grow thicker skin.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

Taiwanese are not Chinese. We have mixed Spanish blood, unlike mainland Chinese. Our appearance is more Eurasian.
LTE2

“We have mixed Spanish blood”

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I knew Taiwan had “natives” before the Nationalists piled in, but never heard about the Spanish element.
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Those Spanish did get around.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

Rachel “not my real name” Stockwood you’re either a troll, incredibly naive and ignorant, or plain stupid, or a combination of the them.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

You have Spanish blood just like you have African tribesman blood. If anything Taiwanese look darker than mainland Chinese. Go troll someplace else idiot.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

What are you talking about? You sound racist.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.stockwood Rachel Stockwood

You sound racist. Taiwanese are mixed blood, similar to Filipinos. We have European ancestry. I don’t make these things up, please consult the DNA testing.
xolang

except the Austronesian natives / aboriginals.
http://www.facebook.com/tinabot Tina Tsai

Ethnically, there’s a lot going on in Taiwan. The name Taiwan isn’t even from a Chinese based language but from a aboriginal Austronesian (Southeast Asian) language.

We can debate Taiwanese identity to death, but the nationality “Taiwanese” covers a pretty diverse group of people, just as the nationality “Chinese” covers an even more immensely diverse group.

So to say all Taiwanese are ethnically Chinese is like saying all Americans are ethnically English. Not to mention, there are issues with the idea of “ethnically Chinese”. I don’t know much about the English, but I figure there’s probably a lot of diversity in that “ethnic identity”.

We don’t need to go into argument about what is Taiwanese and what is not and who’s more genetically ethnically this or that. The fact of the matter is that the identity is arguable, and that makes the argument itself kind of useless. I think I see it as more of a decision than an argument.

Sorry for the long-ish response (I tend to get too into discussions and I type fast). I’m just reacting to the South Korean North Korean comment. I don’t know enough about Korea or Koreans to say more, but I figure they too must be quite diverse peoples in many ways as well.
xolang

I don’t know about the Spanish mixture, but a good number of Taiwanese have some native/aboriginal Austronesian ancestry, and one of the comments I frequently got from people who’d seen photos of Austronesian folks is “they look caucasian”. not white, but caucasian.
xolang

I wouldn’t put the different identities on a hierarchy as if one is superior/inferior to the other.
so instead of
“Z first, Y second, and only then X”
I’d say
“Z as well as Y as well as X”

but that’s just me.
to each their own.
xolang

looks like we posted at the same time!

thanks for the post. very informative.
LTE2

“Sorry for the long-ish response”
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Not a problem. I know know more about Taiwan now than I did before your response. What knowledge I do have is post 1949. As an aside,when I was a young kid Taiwan was still called Formosa by many people.
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Maybe the better comparison might be Wales. The Welsh are part of Great Britain yet are a different people.

“I don’t know much about the English”

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From what I heard, their food is lousy.
Formosa samosa

Spanish? Guess that means at some point the Portuguese of Formosa let the Spaniards in on some of that colonial action on Formosa.

This Rachel Stockwood character is just sad to desperately attempt to justify colonial attitudes to be better than the Chinaman she so self-hates in her.
Formosa samosa

the English redcoats are the enemies!
KAMIKAZIPILOT

You sound pretty racist yourself, as well as ignorant. I’ve met many taiwanese and none of them looked the least bit caucasian. Just face it, Taiwanese are Chinese by blood, maybe a bit Aboriginal blood too but not Spanish. That’s just ridiculous.
KAMIKAZIPILOT

Mr. Stockwood, most Americans don’t like asians, they are not your friends, you’re just too ignorant to realize that.

8 Asians