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Fiona Ma.

APAs Struggle To Fit Into the Landscape of Progressive Politics

Empowerment takes precedent over labels

By May Chow
AsianWeek Staff Writer

In the past two years, there has been a progressive renaissance in San Francisco’s electoral politics. With progressive members overtaking the Board of Supervisors in direct retaliation to a mayoral “political machine” in 2000, the power shift continues to have ripple effects throughout the city.

Progressivism saw its heyday between 1975 and 1991, before internal strife caused it to topple in the 1991 mayoral race. Founded on a belief of ethnic and cultural diversity and non-conformist ideas, progressivism has found its way back into the political scene in a big way.

But critics say that even though progressives promote coalition politics, they tend to overlook those who aren’t white. They also say that the city’s move toward progressivism could be a setback for Asian Pacific Americans. For example, the progressive revolt on the board left just one APA and may leave none in the upcoming election. Yet the city’s progressive APAs say that the community needs to move past “ethnic politics.”

Many in the APA communities have their eyes set on the race for supervisor in District 4, which includes most of the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods. Current supervisor Leland Yee is finishing his term and will run for state assembly this fall. Up for the seat are four APA candidates: Ed Jew, Marks Lam, Andrew Lee and Fiona Ma. APAs make up 53 percent of this district’s residents and many are hoping for the victory of one of the four APA candidates.

“One thought is that we [four APA candidates] are cannibalizing each other and we’re going to end up with no APA representation,” said Fiona Ma. “But I think the current race means that there’s more choice and it’s a democracy so people are going to have to focus more on the issues and what really serves their interests.”

The question on the minds of many is whether or not APA political candidates will diminish in the next few election years because of not being widely perceived as progressive and therefore, losing their voter support.

In the District 4 race, the Green Party, San Francisco Labor Council and the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club have endorsed Green Party candidate Barry Hermanson. None of these progressive organizations, which stress coalition politics and diversity empowerment, endorsed an APA candidate for one of the most APA-concentrated districts in the city.

Gordon Mar, director of the Chinese Progressive Association, said it’s not only the progressives who often ignore communities of color, but also Mayor Brown’s current democratic regime. Mar adds that under Mayor Brown, there has been an agenda that reflects big business and landlord interests, which has had a devastating impact on the lower income and disenfranchised communities. Many APA communities have had a hard time surviving in the city in the past five years, struggling with housing, employment and healthcare services.

“While the Mayor touts the number of minorities he has appointed to key positions in his administration, this is really quite superficial especially since the policies they are pushing have been harmful to the most economically and socially disenfranchised sectors of our communities,” Mar said. “On the other hand, the progressive camp has not been willing or able to address the glaring contradiction that they are white-led and have limited connection to the communities of color who now make up the majority of the city.”

But Ma said that progressive candidates have a much harder time appealing to APA communities because their issues don’t reflect those of the communities. Ma believes the progressives tend to focus more on homelessness than homeowners or small businesses.

“If you take the Chinese American communities — which are largely immigrant based — the concerns are primarily education, small business ownership, home ownership and jobs,” says Ma.

Eric Mar.

Traditionally, progressive candidates have held grassroots campaigns to raise money. Without much support and reinforcement from large names, many candidates have simply not had the resources to run successfully. A fact, Eric Mar believes, limits or deters many APA progressives from running for public office.

“It’s important for progressive APAs to run for office, and I know they’re out there,” said Eric Mar, a progressive who’s currently on the Board of Education. “But the electoral process is so disgusting, and wealth and power dominated, that money dominates who gets a chance and who gets elected.”

Eric Mar said it’s a dilemma because there are a few progressive APAs who aren’t that wealthy but who want to make a difference, and there are APA candidates who are wealthy and have backing by powerful groups.

That’s where “ethnic politics” come in.

Some are so eager to have APA representation in the city’s political landscape that they will vote for an APA face without much regard to the candidate’s issues or platforms. Research shows that APAs also do vote along ethnic lines. If there is an APA candidate running against a non-APA candidate, there is clearly a higher percentage of votes for the APA candidate in the APA community.

“I think this shows that the APA communities are still maturing politically in San Francisco,” says Gordon Mar. “New voters, citizens, recent immigrants — they haven’t had political experience to sort things out yet, to sort out layers of political situations.”

Bill Sorro, a Filipino American community activist, said many APA candidates don’t run on progressive issues because the APA communities are mostly conservative.

“Progressive APA candidates are those men and women who aren’t afraid to step out of the norms of APA communities and be heard and speak on issues that aren’t popular in their communities. Many don’t do it because the constituency they’re trying to reach — it ain’t their thing.”

Bill Sorro.

“Ethnic politics suck, they don’t do shit” says Sorro. “If there was a Filipino candidate who was a turkey and a white man who was good, hell, I’ll tell the Filipino that he’s bad. We can’t repeat the same old shit. I don’t vote for you just because you’re APA.”

Warren Mar, a labor specialist for the Center for Labor Research and Education, said there are many progressive ideas running through the city’s APA communities. Those APAs who come out to vote aren’t necessarily representative of the all APAs.

“Asians tend to get thrown all into the same group,” he said. “Here in San Francisco, the dominant group is Chinese, but there is also a growing Filipino, Southeast Asian population. I think one of the problems is that there are major class differences in various APA communities.”

Warren Mar added that those who do vote are more educated or wealthy and are eligible to vote, while many who may have progressive ideas are still ineligible to vote.

Resisting Labels

Mabel Teng, who was the first APA woman to serve on the Board, says she tends to resist labels because they are a simplistic way of thinking about politics. Many in the community say she is a progressive though because she’s been active in grassroots politics.

“APA representation is very important to have and to have qualified candidates is also very important,” Teng said. “I think by building a base in APA communities, we will empower the community. APAs need to build coalitions with other movements, other communities of color, the gay community J part of coalition building is what will change the political structure.”

Gordon Mar also believes in this. He said APA communities shouldn’t worry about which camps to align with, rather, APAs and other communities of color should focus on themselves and continue to develop the voting base and political education. By doing this, the communities will have a stronger voice in the decisions that affect them.

“I think political empowerment includes electing more APAs and other people of color, but it also includes grassroots, issue-based organizing, voter education and mobilization, leading development and other strategies,” Gordon Mar said.

He also believes that when APAs discuss politics, far too much emphasis gets placed on the role of individual politicians. “In the District 4 supervisors race, for example, rather than focusing on the dilemma of four APA candidates diluting each others votes,” Gordon Mar said, “I think we should be focusing on what these and the other candidates stand for and how this relates to the concerns and needs of the residents.”

Gordon Mar said even though progressive forces have made their way into the city in the last two years, he believes the trend will not continue to have a stronghold because politics in the city are always in flux.

Reach May Chow at mchow@asianweek.com.