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
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