I had read about this prior to the election, but didn’t have a chance to blog about this until now. In Florida, there was a change in the Florida state consitution adopted back in1926 allowing the state legislature to prohibit foreigners who were barred from citizenship — Asian-Americans at the time — from owning land. The New York Times covers this in, “In Florida, an Initiative Intended to End Bias Is Killed“:
“An obscure ballot initiative in Florida intended to end a legacy of bias against Asian-Americans was defeated Tuesday, apparently because voters incorrectly assumed it would prevent illegal immigrants from owning property… No such legislation was ever enacted here, and every other state that had such laws has scrapped them on grounds of equal protection. But on Tuesday, Florida’s effort to delete the provision went down, with 52 percent voting “no” and 48 percent voting “yes.” Immigrant advocates said they were stunned.”
Part of the problem with the initiative was that ballot initiatives allow only for 75 words for their description and require that the previous language used in the old provision “aliens ineligible for citizenship” be included. So there was a lot of voter ignorance regarding this initiative.
Asian Americans make only 2.2% of Florida’s population (half the national average) and Asian American organizations did not have enough money to advertise or direct mail to promote the initiative. Too bad Asian Americans nationally did not organize more effectively to raise money and awareness for Floridians. But, what do you expect from traditionally apathetic Asian Americans when it comes to civic involvement – even when it comes to issues that effect them…
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry
