From: ajh@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Alan Hu)
Subject: Re: Asian-American Political Agenda? (was Re: What is Asian ?)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 02:18:02 GMT

In article <YAMAUCHI.92Nov18182145@yuggoth.ces.cwru.edu> yamauchi@ces.cwru.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes:
>With all of the discussion of whether Asian-Americans should vote
>Republican or Democrat, and whether Asian-American student
>organizations should be political or apolitical, I'd like to throw out
>another question for discussion:
>
>Is there a unifying Asian-American political agenda beyond fighting
>anti-Asian racism?  My guess is probably not.
>
>Certainly, all Asian-Americans have an interest in fighting anti-Asian
>discrimination, prejudice, media stereotypes, and hate crimes --
>regardless of their other political beliefs.  This means that AAs can
>be unified in their opposition to racism, and in their support of
>efforts to increase recognition of Asian-Americans as integral members
>of American society.
>
>Beyond this, however, I don't see Asian-Americans joining into a
>quasi-unified political block in the same way as, for example,
>African-Americans.

	[Good stuff on political diversity deleted.]
>--
>_______________________________________________________________________________
>
>Brian Yamauchi			Case Western Reserve University
>yamauchi@alpha.ces.cwru.edu	Department of Computer Engineering and Science
>_______________________________________________________________________________
>


My question is "Isn't opposition to anti-Asian racism enough, in and of
itself, to justify some degree of political unity?"  I'd argue yes.
In the US, power tends to come from group dynamics.  If we unite to
fight prejudice in any form, we will be much less likely to be trampled.
As I've mentioned before, I believe positive social change can conceivably
take any form between quiet, hardworking passivity to massive civil
disobedience, so long as people recognize and believe in the unifying
anti-racist goal.

For instance, consider the Jewish community in the US.  This is a group
of enormous socio-economic, political, geographic, and cultural diversity.
Yet, when a public figure calls New York "Hymietown", or someone denies
the severity of the Holocaust, or someone depicts the the stereotypical
money-grubbing, stingy Jewish merchant, the outcry and disapproval is
essentially universal.  You don't hear responses to hate crimes like,
"Serves the Japs right, we Koreans had to suffer years of Japanese occupation,"
or "Those Koreans are just stupid to open businesses in those ghetto areas,"
or "You really can't trust the Japanese or Koreans; you must remain faithful
to your Chinese ancestry," or "The Filipinos aren't really Orientals like
us; they're lazy and not as educated," or "I'm a journalist, not an Asian-
American journalist.  I have nothing in common with the Vietnamese boat
people," or "You really shouldn't worry so much about racism.  Just be nice
to the Americans, and they'll treat you well.  After all, you're not Japanese
or something," or "What a typical Chinese-cu attempt to obscure the real
murders of Americans by KMT agents.  What's another Chinese-cu baboon dead
here or there, what I want to know is why this group is so deafeningly
silent about the murder of Joe Schmoe by Chinese-cu government agents."

OK, so I'm ranting and raving.  It's just a pet peeve of mine...
						--Alan Hu
----------
I am not Arthur Hu.  I am NOT Arthur Hu.  I AM NOT ARTHUR HU.

I am not a neo-conservative writer for AsianWeek.  I did not go
to MIT.  I do not conduct phone surveys.  I am not married.
I do not believe in Dan Quayle's family values.

Arthur Hu is a fine person.  So am I.  We are not, however, the same person.