 New national survey measures attitudes toward Asian Americans
By Sam Chu Lin
A disc jockey in Springfield, Ill., takes to the airwaves and tells his audience, “If we get that Chinese pilot to the United States, we’ll send him to a Japanese [internment] camp.”
In Washington, D.C., at a newspaper editors’ convention , a comedy team performs a skit that mocks a Chinese negotiator in the Hainan Island incident. An Asian American journalist covering the event writes a story describing the roomful of editors, who carelessly laugh at the racist depiction of Asians.
Matt Fong, California’s former state treasurer, still grimaces when he thinks about his run for the U.S. Senate and reporters who asked him, “If you’re elected, will your loyalty be to China or to the United States?”
American born, a reserve Air Force lieutenant colonel, and son of California’s former Secretary of State March Fong Eu, Matt Fong remembers his response: “When you ask that question of other candidates, then you’ll get your answer.”
Henry Tang, chairman of the Chinese American Committee of 100, says all of these incidents have one thing in common — the “perpetual stereotyping of Asian Americans” by other Americans.
Working in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League and the research firms of Yankelovich Partners and Marttila Associates, the Committee of 100 has released a new national survey entitled “American Attitudes Toward Chinese Americans and Asian Americans.” It reveals negative attitudes toward this community are on the rise, in the wake of the campaign fundraising and Wen Ho Lee scandals. Research was completed before the Hainan Island incident.
“There was a quick rush to judgment at any event that concerned Asian or Chinese Americans,” Tang says. “About six months ago, we sat back and said, ‘We ought to find out what’s really going on out there.’”
The Committee of 100 hired research firms and launched the study to find out the perceived attitudes and stereotypes of Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans, the extent of those negative attitudes, and how Americans felt about China and immigration. Some 1,200 telephone interviews were conducted with randomly selected Americans age 18 and over across the country, and 10 focus groups were questioned in major cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The median age of those interviewed was 44 years old.
“We thought there was a problem,” Tang says, “but the results are startling. It’s more serious than we thought.”
Among the findings: 68 percent of those polled have a negative opinion of the Chinese government and believe China is a future threat to the United States; 46 percent feel Chinese Americans are ready to pass on secrets to China; 32 percent think Chinese Americans are more loyal to China than the United States; 23 percent are not comfortable with the idea of an Asian American elected to the White House.
Most Americans Prejudiced
Moreover, 38 percent of those surveyed disapprove of someone in their family marrying an Asian American. Almost an equal number, 34 percent, would be upset if a substantial number of Asian Americans moved into their neighborhoods. Three out of five surveyed consider the increase in the Asian population as ‘bad for this country,’ and 62 percent resent the success of these new immigrants over native-born Americans.
“One of the findings … is that we are a ‘model minority’ — [but] not without problems,” Tang says. “It was so much easier and more palatable to concentrate on the model-ness of our minority existence … any problems in our community in this country were obscured,” as well as the inability of many Americans to distinguish between Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans.
Although the study concentrates on the attitudes of non-Asian Americans toward Chinese Americans, researchers discovered respondents shared almost the same feelings for other Asian Americans, suggesting the “prejudice against Chinese Americans is a subset of a broader prejudice against Asian Americans.”
A sizable percentage gave ‘somewhat negative marks’ to ‘very negative marks’ against Asian Americans regarding such questions as: “Always like to be at the head of things (82 percent); hard to get close to, make friends with (67 percent); don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind (66 percent); so shrewd in business that other people do not have a fair chance at competition (55 percent).”
Pollsters who worked on the study determined that the group of Americans who voiced the greatest anti-Chinese American sentiment were less educated, less affluent and less politically involved. There was a hint that physical contact with Asian Americans plays a positive effect on how APIs are received. For example, residents on the West Coast, where more Asian Americans live, exhibited fewer negative feelings toward Asian Americans than those living in the South.
On the positive side, the survey points out a great majority of Americans think highly of Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans on such subjects as family values, honesty as business people, patriotism compared to other Americans, and the value of education.
“This is the first benchmarking,” Tang says. “But from here on out, if we are to learn anything from this, much needs to be done. The API community needs to work together and educate the American public about some of their erroneous perceptions that are less than deserved, negative attitudes toward APIs.
“We need to look at the whole education system and how aware people are about Asia, Asian culture, Asian values, Asian understanding and Asians as people … Although I have seen some improvements in the past 10 years, the media has … perpetuated the negative stereotypes of Asian Americans.”
Tang feels the media and many Americans perceive Asian Americans as a community “that is doing well.”
“They have not been made aware of some of the underlying problems,” Tang says. “I don’t know if we’re doing well if 25 percent of the people don’t like us. [Over 30 percent] of the people think we have too much influence in the high-tech business, that we’re taking jobs from Americans. All of these are erroneous, preconceived notions.”
Tang says this study serves as another wake-up call to the API community to act. “We need to make our children and our co-workers aware [of this problem],” he says. “When we are slighted, we shouldn’t be so willing to turn the other cheek. We should say, ‘That’s not the right way of doing things.’ When people step up, as in the case of the Illinois radio station, there was a recognition of the wrongness of the deed.
“Who knows when the next calamity will take place? If we don’t deal with this problem, 50 years from now our great-grandchildren will be sitting around another conference table talking about the same thing.”
The Committee of 100 plans to do a follow-up study in three years to determine what progress is made. |
