Donors Should Question CAA
May 30, 2003
Chinese for Affirmative Action’s board of directors missed the entire point after finally ending 11 paralyzing months of debate to rename itself Coalition for Asian American Advocacy. On May 13, the board compromised, retaining the 34-year-old revered name of Chinese for Affirmative Action, while pledging to setup an offshoot called the Coalition for Asian American Advocacy.
The word “advocacy” is core to CAA’s mission and principles of civil rights. But, as the old adage goes, if you can’t lead yourself, how can you lead others?
That was exemplified before the May 13 meeting when CAA staff asked two long-time members to not audiotape or videotape proceedings.
While that may have respected staff privacy, their timidity pointed out a larger problem. If CAA staffers feel intimidated by long-time members, can CAA effectively advocate for Chinese Americans or Asian Pacific Americans in more intimidating state legislature or city halls of San Francisco and the Bay Area?
One should wonder.
Equally debatable, CAA has stood against crucial issues impinging on the voting and civil rights of the community.
Even though Asian Pacific American parents suffered this spring on school assignments (see John Zhao’s commentary, “A parent’s fight against S.F. schools”), CAA has been notably absent — even though many parents are immigrants, a constituency CAA supposedly serves.
History will also show that CAA opposed the parents of Brian Ho in their successful federal civil rights lawsuit mandating that the S.F. school district could not discriminate against Chinese American kids in school assignments.
Meanwhile, CAA’s executive director opposed the parents’ efforts, dismissing them as some sort of “middle class angst.”
On reapportionment, CAA supported plans that undermined APA political representation on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and representation in the state legislature for the rest of the decade.
So, in tough economic times, CAA’s individual members and corporate donors should ask some pretty tough questions to the board of directors and the next executive director at their June fundraiser. The first is: If CAA is not serving its community, then whom do they serve?
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