From: yuan1@husc10.harvard.edu (Nina Yuan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american,soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: Re: More Money than Votes
Date: 10 Nov 92 10:41:22 GMT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <BxGzp7.IFv@acsu.buffalo.edu> dtwei@acsu.buffalo.edu (Danielle T Wei) writes:
>In article <69147@cup.portal.com> hassan@cup.portal.com (hassan monu alam) writes:
>>
>>Another California congressman, Robert Matsui, was also upset but took a 
>>selfcritical view. He recalled that in the primary election in June, Asian 
>>Americans accounted for only 2% of the votes cast in the state--compared 
>>with 83% for whites, 8% for blacks and 7% for Hispanics. Asian Americans 
>>account for 10% of California's 30 million people, and nearly 40% of the 7.3 
>>million Asian Americans in the country. "If I were Bill Clinton, I would not 
>>have sent anyone to this meeting," Matsui said. "Asians don't exist yet as a 
>>political force."
>
>Right!! We Asians need to get out there and VOTE!!!

Absolutely!!!


>Yes, I can see why Koreans want to support the Republicans.. The situation
>in L.A. is simply out of hand!! Those looters should all be executed!!

Uh, I'm not sure I follow the reasoning here; I didn't see the
Republicans doing a thing about the riots. 

>
>Personally, as a Chinese, I believe Bush will be more beneficial to us than
>Clinton because Bush will probably maintain a better relationship with China
>than Clinton.. People often ask me "but you're in America, what do you care
>about China?" This is true in a sense, but look at the Japanese-Americans
>during WWII.. The truth is: the U.S. must pay respect to your homeland if
>you want to live happily in the U.S.A.
>
>>values, won Asian American adherents, the theory goes. Democratic Asian 
>>Americans have advocated forming coalitions with other minorities but some 
>>Republican counterparts argue that there is fundamental conflict in values 
>>and interests between Asian and African Americans--on educational quotas, 
>>for example. And Asian Americans are not interested in bilingual education, 
>>which many Hispanic Americans insist on.
>
>I think the biggest split between the minority groups is "who wants what."
>Most Africans want a "united colored race" stand together against those
>"white slave owner" while most Asians do not care that much, and would much
>rather prefer personal wealth.

IMHO this is a rather extreme generalization.  I don't think of whites
as slave owners, but I do feel that just as Chinese-Americans,
Japanese-Americans, Korean-Americans, etc. must unite under the banner
of "Asian-American" even when we may have more differences than
similarities, in order to be politically viable, all "minority" groups
must unite to work towards the end of discrimination towards all.

>
>The biggest joke here is the NAACP: they believe they represent all minority
>groups, and thus include an Asian chapter.. But most Asians do not endorse it.
>Also, the NAACP supports blacks everywhere (l.a. riots), and thus many Asians
>feel NAACP is only an organization for THEM..
>

I must admit I had never heard of the NAACP having an Asian chapter.
I suspect most people think of the NAACP as an African-American group.

>Let's look at the facts: blacks mostly support clinton, asians mostly
>support bush.. blacks like educational quotas (how else can they get people
>into top schools?) and asians despise them (25% seems to be the ceiling at
>most schools, one exception is berkeley, which got sued a few years back and


Now you're really making gross generalizations.  You need only look at
Clarence Thomas to see that not all blacks support quotas (he is most
assuredly against "afirmative action")  Ever hear of "Memoirs of an
Affirmative Action Baby" (a book by a black Yale Law professor, I
believe, whose name escapes me at the moment); he expresses similar views.
>
>Well, I hope these Asians would join the Republican party when they get
>a chance. Face it: the Democratic party is/will be dominated by the blacks,
>and we will never get anywhere working with them.. We must gain more power
>by making ourselves larger in the Republican party..

Well, I for one found the "us versus them" language displayed at the
Republican National Convention to be a lot more threatening than
anything Jesse Jackson has ever said.  I agree that Asian-Americans
need to be more active in politics, but I certainly don't think the
Republican Party (at present) is the model of inclusion either.
Actually, I think Clinton's victory and Bush's defeat will mark the
beginning of the moderation of both parties.  Clinton won because he
took great pains to  dissociate himself with the old-style liberal
"tax-and-spend" (to use Bush's phrase) Democrat, while Bush's loss
signals a loss of influence for the right-wing of the Republican party
and hopefully more power for the moderates/social liberals of the
party like William Weld, governor of Massachusetts, for example.
>Yes, Clinton better take care of those hate crimes if he wants any asian
>support.. but things may get worse if clinton continues supporting
>"protect-american-jobs" and anti-foreign-products(people) feeling

I agree, but once again the Republicans haven't embraced foreign
products or people either.

>>says that if Clinton is elected, he would make more and higher-level Asian 
>>American appointments. The Republican Party's Chen acknowledges that 
>
>I'll believe it when I see it

I believe one of Clinton's high-level advisors in Arkansas is AA.

-nhy



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina H. Yuan                               "It's a miracle that curiosity
Harvard College                             survives formal education."
yuan1@husc.harvard.edu                                  - Albert Einstein
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american,soc.culture.bangladesh,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.pakistan,alt.discrimination