The Cracks in Asian America
September 24, 2004
An Asian American activist pal on the East Coast was telling me how she was tired of all the unity and identity discussions that we Asian Americans tend to obsess about.
As she talked, I couldn’t help thinking of all the times I had taken part in rallies calling for unity among our specific ethnic groups.
Somewhere along the way we must have unified, albeit briefly. Because now I sense we’re coming back apart.
The most fascinating information I found in the recent national poll of Asian Americans released by New California Media is that we don’t agree very much on anything at all.
I’ll let my colleagues chew on the presidential race. Suffice to say it’s close — 7 percentage points — with a Kerry edge. But there’s 20 percent who are undecided.
More telling about our state of mind as a group was the section where Asian Americans stand on the major issues.
On going to war with Iraq, 51 percent said the United States was wrong. Thirty-one percent said it was right. Seventeen percent didn’t know.
Seems like a solid APA block said that America was wrong.
Right?
Wrong.
Break down the question by ethnicity and you see a totally different view.
Of the Vietnamese polled, 56 percent said the United States was right. As did 48 percent of Filipinos and 41 percent of Japanese Americans.
But look at the ethnicities that said the United States was wrong.
Koreans were at 57 percent, the Chinese at 65 percent, and Indians at 64 percent.
We can draw a line right down the middle to determine the Asian American hawk/dove line.
Vietnamese and Filipinos were the two pro-Bush/Iraq groups, and one wonders about the schism it represents among the next four.
The Japanese had 41 percent who thought the United States was right. But 46 percent thought it was wrong.
That was the midpoint. Koreans followed at 57 percent saying, the United States was wrong. Then the Chinese and Indians in the 60-plus percentage range.
The dove part fascinates me. Do Koreans say the United States was wrong because they view the invasion as an act of U.S. colonialism? Is it because of U.S. hostilities toward the North and because Koreans are feeling particularly unified? The poll doesn’t specify.
The Indian score may be explained by their pacifistic religion, but how do you explain them buffing up their nuclear weapons?
What about Chinese Americans? I don’t recall seeing a lot of Chinese on the streets protesting the U.S. military buildup to war like that brave man who stood up to a tank in Tiananmen.
The only other issue that gets broken down by ethnicity is the question of outsourcing to Asia.
Thirty-five percent say it’s a good policy. Forty-six percent say it’s bad, with 20 percent having no opinion.
But look at the ethnic breakdown.
As you might expect, Indians who benefit from outsourcing love it, 52-37 percent.
The Japanese love it, 52-40 percent.
The Chinese are mixed — 37 percent say it’s good, and 43 percent say it’s bad.
Filipinos, who are being used in outsourcing policies by companies like Dell computer, surprisingly, say it’s bad — 46 percent are against it.
Koreans are similar at 29 percent finding it good and 43 percent finding it bad.
And the Vietnamese want nothing to do with outsourcing. Only 8 percent are supportive — a whopping 69 percent say it’s bad policy.
I call this question the “willingness to let the mother country be used as a low-cost worker” question. The Indians are top followed by the Japanese.
But then draw a line, and see who isn’t willing to be low-balled as an outsourcing center, American entrepreneur be damned. It’s the Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans and, in a big way, the Vietnamese.
On the one hand, the two biggest hawks are the most critical of real capitalist exploitation.
What it shows is that when you put hot-button issues to the community, a few natural personal and political traits come out, accentuating our differences.
And dealing with the conflicts is part of the growing pains of a community. Just when you think you have it figured out, new generations and new immigrants reveal how difficult it is to say Asian Americans believe in any one thing.
And then there’s the quest for unity. As the poll suggests, it may be neither practical nor attainable. Impractical.
It may be impossible. Our fissures are showing.
What keeps us together in all of this is a term — Asian American — foisted on us by demographers and politicians.
But that artificial umbrella, as the poll reveals, is like a five-buck bumbershoot sold off the street.
Never mind Hurricane Ivan or Jeanne. A good stiff wind will turn it upside down and make all those who try to right it look ridiculous.
Our ethnicities are too revealing.
Still, does anyone really want to give up trying to make the idea of an Asian America work?
Reach Emil at emil@amok.com.
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