Asian American’s low political
participation is an important issue among Asian American group. According to
statistics from the Congress, Asian American’s political participation is lower
than that of many other minority groups such as African American and Latino American.
This issue is showed in following aspects: first, Asian American officials are
less and many of them are lower than state level, for example, in congress from
2003 to 2005, the number of Asian American congressmen is only 7, while the
number for African American congressmen is 39 and that of Latino American is
25. As for local officials, the number of Asian American ones is much lower
than that of African American and Latino American. Not only Asian American official
is less but also the ratio between officials and Asian people is low. In second
aspect, Asian American’s voting rate is much lower than other groups. According
to a recent survey, only 44% Asian American vote in presidential campaign,
while White American voting rate is 61.8, African American voting rate is 56.9
and Latino American voting rate is 45.1.
Civic engagement or civic
participation, according to the American Psychological Association,
is "individual and collective actions designed to identify and address
issues of public concern". (Wikipedia 2018) Another definition of Civic
engagement is the encouragement of the general public to become involved in the
political process and the issues that affect the community. Civic engagement
can take many forms—from individual volunteerism to organizational involvement
to electoral participation.(Bing 2018) I am Asian
person, and study in America. Although I am not an Asian American, I think
Asian American political participation may influence overseas students from
Asian like me, for they can offer much help to overseas students from Asia if
they can be more influential in American politics, so I am concerned with this
issue.
This issue has very strong and
negative influence on Asian American community. First, the political condition
of Asian America has an impact on its social situation. Society operates by the
laws and regulation issued by government. Where do the laws and regulation come
from? And how the laws and regulations come into being? They are the products
of and formed by the discussion and vote of congressmen and statesmen. There is
no doubt that when congressmen and statesmen are considering making a law, they
will think about the interests of their ethnic group. The more people of
specific ethnic group in law-making, the more likely that this law will be more
beneficial to that group. So if Asian American participate less in law-making
in economy, their benefits are very likely ignored. For example, in 2014, a
senator called Ed Hrnandz suggests a proposal which limits the enrollment rate of Asian American
while enhance the rate of Latino American and African American in University of
California System. Obviously, this proposal is against the Constitution but it
still passed State Senate. I think if the number of Asian American is more,
then the proposal can never be passed. Fortunately, this proposal was laid
aside afterwards. However, this lesson clearly shows if Asian American do not
participate more in political activities, they will be at the mercy of other
minorities and can lose their right at any time.
Second, Asian American is hard
to melt into American culture already, and low participation in political
activities would make this situation more severe. Asian cultures are very long
and have very deep-rooted influence on every Asian people, so it is very
difficult for them to give up their original culture to embrace American one. However,
no matter how hard it is, in order to live better in America, they have to integrate
into America. The structure and way of management are very different between
Chinese government and American government. In China, ordinary people are not
encourage to take part in political activities; however, In America, the
situation is totally different; everybody is the owner of his or her country. If
Asian Americans want to fit in American culture, I think this is the first step
they should leap. Know, care and partake in political activity; otherwise Asian
Americans will continue to be isolated, which is not what both Asians and Asian
Americans want.
I am not am Asian American, but
I think this issue is quite important to me. In America, I think Asian overseas
students are treated almost the same way as the Asian America. We can feel what
Asian Americans feel. If they are discriminated and isolated, we will fall in
the same situation. In many other groups’ eyes, Asian America are rich and
timid, so they are easily become the victim of many kinds of crime. I heard a
lot of terrible cases about crimes towards Asians. For example, recently, an overseas
student named Yingyin Zhang is kidnapped and missing in America. Although, the
suspect is arrested, he does not willing to confess where is she. The situation
becomes worse, for even though the girl,Yingyin Zhang, is still alive, if we do
not know where is she, she will starve to death. As time goes by, half a year
has passed, and she is still missing and we know she could not be alive. As for
me, I do not encounter terrible things happened to me, but I sometimes hear some
racism remarks against my country: China, which makes me very uncomfortable and
angry. If the Asian Americans have more political rights, they can do more to
protect not only themselves but also their Asian relatives. So if they are
respected and integrated into local culture, we will also be accepted by the
local people in the same way. I hope that Asian American can participate more
in political activity and enlarge their influence on the country. Then while we
are enjoying the first class education resources and democratic atmosphere in
America, we can also be free of worrying about discrimination or crime to us. This
is how this issue links to me and why I am so concerned.
Reference
James S. Lai. Asian Americann Political Action: Suburban Transformations.
2013
Yipin Chen. Analysis of issues on Asian American
political participation. 2002
Bing. http://cn.bing.com/?FORM=Z9FD1
No comments:
Post a Comment