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Asian AmericanLEADERSHIP

A Reference Guide

Don Nakanishi, Editor

List of Articles viiReader’s Guide ix

Contributor List xi About the Editors xiii

Introduction xvChronology xix

Articles

Resource Guide 283Asian American Leadership Index 289

Leadership Glossary A1

Contents

A 1 B 57 C 71 D 101 E 111 F 119 G 127 H 133 I 137 J 149 K 159 L 167 M 189 N 205 O 225 P 229 R 243 S 249 T 261 U 271 V 269

l

List of Articles

v i i

AAffirmative ActionAgriculture, Asian Americans inArchitectureAsia Pacific American Heritage

MonthAsian American Legal Defense &

Education FundAsian American Pacific Islander Serving

Institutions (Department of Education)Asian American StudiesAsian American Writers Workshop Asian Americans Advancing JusticeAsian Americans in Elective

High Schools Asian and Asian American

Leadership StylesAsian Cuisines and RestaurantsAsian Pacific American Chamber

of CommerceAsian Women in BusinessAsian-Owned BusinessesAssimilation and AcculturationAstronauts and the Space Program

B Bamboo CeilingBangladeshi AmericansBanks, Asian AmericanBiculturalism and Bilingualism Boycotts

C Center for Asian American MediaCenter for Asian Pacific American

WomenChinese AmericansCivil Rights Classical MusicCollege and University Presidents,

Asian AmericanColleges and Universities, Asian Americans

in SelectiveCommittee of 100Computer Science and Information

TechnologyConference on Asian Pacific American

LeadershipCongressional Asian Pacific American

CaucusCultural Diversity and Leadership

D DanceDeportation Diversity Within the Asian American

Community

E East-West PlayersElected OfficialsEnvironmental JusticeEthnic Lending Groups

v i i i | List of Articles

F FashionFilipino Americans

G Gender and LeadershipGreen Cards

H Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Americans

I Immigration ReformIndentured LaborersIndia AbroadIndian Americans

J Japanese American Citizens LeagueJapanese American InternmentJapanese Americans

K Korean American CoalitionKorean AmericansLabor OrganizingLeadership Education for Asian PacificsLeadership in Civil Rights and

Social JusticeLeadership in Corporate America and

Global BusinessLeadership in International and Diaspora

Affairs and OrganizationsLeadership in Nonprofit OrganizationsLeadership in Small BusinessesLegal OrganizationsLiterature

M Martial ArtsMathematics

Military, Asian Americans in theModel Minority StereotypeMovies Multiracial Asian AmericansMuseum of Chinese

in America

N National Asian Pacific American

Bar AssociationNational Association of Asian American

ProfessionalsNational Coalition for Asian Pacific American

Community DevelopmentNational Council of Asian American

Business AssociationsNational Federation of Filipino American

AsssociationsNaturalized Citizenship ProcessNetwork of Indian Professionals of

North AmericaNichi Bei TimesNobel Laureates

O Orientalism

P Pakistani AmericansPolitical LeadershipPolitical OrganizationsPopular MusicPsychology of Leadership

R Rafu ShimpoReverse Discrimination

S Science and Medical Education Social Media

List of Articles | ix

South Asian Americans Leading TogetherSoutheast Asian Americans Sports Leadership

T Taiwanese AmericansTelevisionTheatre

U U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber

of CommerceUCLA Asian American Studies Center

V Vietnamese AmericansVoter Registration and Voting

l

Reader’s Guide

xi

Academic LeadershipAsian American Pacific Islander Serving

Institutions (Department of Education)Asian American StudiesAsian Americans in Elective High SchoolsCollege and University Presidents,

Asian American

Artistic LeadershipArchitectureAsian American Writers WorkshopCenter for Asian American MediaClassical MusicDanceEast West PlayersFashionLiteratureMoviesMuseum of Chinese in AmericaPopular MusicTheater

Aspects of LeadershipAsian and Asian American Leadership StylesAssimilation and AcculturationBiculturalism and BilingualismCultural Diversity and LeadershipDiversity Within the Asian American

CommunityGender and LeadershipLeadership in Civil Rights and Social Justice

Leadership in International and Diaspora Affairs and Organizations

Leadership in Nonprofit OrganizationsLeadership StylesModel Minority StereotypeOrientalismPsychology of LeadershipReverse Discrimination

Business LeadershipAgriculture, Asian Americans inAsian-Owned BusinessesBamboo CeilingBanks, Asian AmericanEthnic Lending GroupsEthnic Specific ProductsLeadership in Corporate America and

Global BusinessLeadership in Small Businesses

National Origins and CulturesBangladeshi AmericansChinese AmericansFilipino AmericansHawaiian and Pacific Islander AmericansIndian AmericansJapanese AmericansKorean AmericansMultiracial Asian AmericansPakistani AmericansSoutheast Asian Americans

xi i | Reader’s Guide

Taiwanese AmericansVietnamese Americans

Organizations and InstitutionsAsia Pacific American Heritage MonthAsian American Legal Defense and

Education FundAsian Americans Advancing JusticeAsian Pacific American Chamber of CommerceAsian Women in BusinessCenter for Asian Pacific American WomenCommittee of 100Conference on Asian Pacific American

LeadershipCongressional Asian Pacific American CaucusIndia AbroadJapanese American Citizens LeagueKorean American CoalitionLeadership Education for Asian PacificsMovies National Asian Pacific American

Bar AssociationNational Coalition for Asian Pacific American

Community DevelopmentNational Federation of Filipino American

AsssociationsNetwork of Indian Professionals of

North AmericaNational Association of Asian American

ProfessionalsNational Council of Asian American

Business AssociationsNichi Bei TimesRafu ShimpoSocial Media

South Asian Americans Leading TogetherTelevisionUCLA Asian American Studies CenterU.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of

Commerce

Political and Social LeadershipAffirmative ActionBoycottsCivil Rights DeportationElected OfficialsEnvironmental JusticeGreen CardsImmigration ReformIndentured LaborersJapanese American InternmentLabor OrganizingLegal OrganizationsMartial ArtsMilitary, Asian Americans in theNaturalized Citizenship ProcessPolitical LeadershipPolitical OrganizationsSports LeadershipVoter Registration and Voting

Scientific and Technological LeadershipAstronauts and the Space ProgramComputer Science and Information

TechnologyMathematicsMedicine and HealthNobel LaureatesScience and Medical Education

About the Editor | x v

About the Editor

Don Nakanishi is the Director Emeritus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Asian American Studies Center, the largest and most renowned research and teaching institute in Asian American Studies

in the nation, and Professor Emeritus of UCLA’s departments of Asian American Studies and Education. For more than four decades, Profes-sor Don Nakanishi has provided leadership and vision for the national development of Asian American Studies and Race and Ethnic Rela-tions scholarship.

Professor Nakanishi graduated from Yale University in 1971 with a B.A. in intensive po-litical science, and received his Ph.D., also in political science, from Harvard University in 1978. A prolific writer and highly influential teacher and scholar, Professor Nakanishi has written over 100 books, articles, and reports on the political participation of Asian Pacific Americans and other ethnic and racial groups in American politics; educational research on

issues of access and representation; and the international political dimensions of minor-ity experiences. He also cofounded Amerasia Journal, the top foundational academic journal for Asian American Studies.

A former national president of the Asso-ciation of Asian American Studies, Professor Nakanishi has received numerous awards for his scholarly achievements and public service, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Associ-ation, Division of Race, Ethnicity and Politics; the Yale Medal from Yale University; the Na-tional Community Leadership Award from the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies; the Engaged Scholar Award from the Association of Asian American Studies; and the Distinguished Educator Award from the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholar-ship Foundation.

President Bill Clinton appointed Professor Nakanishi to the Civil Liberties Public Educa-tion Fund board of directors, and the Smithso-nian Institution appointed him to the national Blue Ribbon Commission to plan for the future of the Smithsonian in the 21st century.

l

50 | Assimilation and Acculturation

Assimilation and AcculturationAt some point in life, one begins to question his/her personal identity, and this may prove an even more pronounced process for those of minority races/eth-nic backgrounds, including Asian Americans. What the question leads to, inevitably, is a decision be-tween assimilation and acculturation. So, what is the difference between these two terms? Their def-initions seem quite different, but in practice, the lines can become blurred. Acculturation is defined as acquiring the capability to function within the dominant culture while still retaining one’s original culture, whereas assimilation occurs when one al-lows his/her culture to be overridden by the dom-inant culture. The difference between these two terms is fraught with psychological and social im-plications. Acculturation and assimilation are often represented in a negative light as the “Americaniza-tion” of the individual, but there are many argu-ments for and against both of these identity forms.

Asian Americans: To Assimilate or Acculturate?Generally, the Asian American population shows statistical evidence of embracing both accultura-tion and assimilation. The 2000 census showed that about 11.9 million people identify themselves as Asian Americans. This total includes 85.7 percent (10.2 million) who claim purely Asian heritage, 14.3 percent (1.7 million) who claim some white ances-try, 8.38 percent who claim partial Native Hawai‘ian or other Pacific Islander ancestry, 6.45 percent who claim partial black ancestry, and 17.7 percent who claim another unspecified race. These mixed-race Asian Americans show a large degree of assimilation, especially because U.S. anti-miscegenation laws were not outlawed in many parts of the United States until the late 1960s. Other statistics (such as those relating to spoken language) suggest that Asian Americans prefer to retain their Asian heritage and accultur-ate. As of the 2000 census, 8.5 million Asian Ameri-cans (over 70 percent of the population) spoke Eng-lish “very well.” However, at home, 54 percent still spoke an Asian language, suggesting these individu-als were determined to preserve their heritage while also functioning highly in mainstream society.

When it comes down to it, the acculturation ver-sus assimilation decision can only be made by the individual. The decision may be heavily influenced by personal factors, such as length of residence in the United States, education, occupation, early ex-periences, self-image, and family influences.

No matter what the decision, Asian Americans still share one commonality that may influence them more than any other; they are members of a minority race. The physical identification factor makes it more difficult to assimilate than can Cau-casians from other nations (such as the Russians, Germans, Irish, Jews, etc.) in the United States.

Others believe that one’s socioeconomic status is the primary criterion for mainstream acceptance. This idea stems from a number of factors, including the fact that although only 24 percent of the overall U.S. population have completed a four-year college/university degree, Asian Americans report nearly double that figure. These higher education rates lead to better-paying and more prestigious jobs. In 2000, 42 percent of Asian American households earned more than $75,000. Ultimately, the question be-comes not whether Asian Americans can assimilate but if they should and at what cost.

Ethnic Identity: The FundamentalsThough a person’s identity may seem to be a very personal decision, many sociological, historical, and socioeconomic factors can directly or indirectly in-fluence this decision. Asian Americans have a wide range of personal experiences, and their forms of identity may at times be overlapping and simulta-neous. Generally, scholars categorize ethnic identify formation along two major theoretical frameworks: situational and primordial. These two categories represent a simplistic dichotomy to categorize pro-cesses of ethnic identity formation, but they are still useful in framing one’s view on the subject. The sit-uational perspective (also referred to as “instrumen-talist” or “constructionist”) argues that ethnic iden-tities are socially defined phenomena, meaning that the boundaries of ethnicity are constantly being re-vised, redefined, and renegotiated, depending on the specific circumstances and situations each individ-ual or group encounters.

Within this theory, there are several subtheories about how ethnic identity is shaped and reshaped.

Assimilation and Acculturation | 51

Sociologists argue that ethnic identity can be re-surgent or emergent. Resurgent ethnic identity pro-motes the thought that ancestral or traditional iden-tities can reemerge through historical events and particular circumstances. One example of this idea is that of Japanese Americans following World War II. Many adults who were interned during this time discarded their Japanese identity after the war to avoid an association or embarrassment; however, when a movement began in the 1980s to seek repa-rations for these individuals, many Japanese Amer-icans felt a newly resurgent sense of identity as they united to fight for reparations and an apology from the U.S. government. In addition, many Japanese American children who were born shortly after the war felt a need to draw closer to their Japanese American identity after learning about their par-ents’ experiences and identifying with the strength and perseverance that they showed.

Emergent identity, for its part, involves the cre-ation of new forms of group identity due to particu-lar circumstances, such as conflict with other groups or demographic changes. Out of these experiences, a new ethnic identity based on group solidarity and similarity of experiences might come about. Some theorists argue that the identifier “Asian American” is one such example because prior to the civil rights movement, these individuals did not consider them-selves part of a larger social group. Instead, they identified based on their own national origins (Chi-nese, Korean, Japanese, etc.). With the civil rights movement, however, the term Asian Americans fi-nally emerged as a pan-Asian identity. On the other hand, the primordial (or “essentialist”) argument states that individuals have an innate sense of eth-nic identity. People are born with their identity; it is natural and it is difficult (or impossible) to change that identity. This argument can be supported by the fact that it is one’s natural instinct to favor one’s kin or co-ethnics over non-kin and non-co-ethnics. Conflict between different racial/ethnic groups has led to the historical basis and continuing support of the primordial basis of ethnic identity.

Connections Between Assimilation and Ethnic IdentityThere are many different forms of assimilation, and there are many factors that can affect assimilation

outcomes. One of the most recognized concepts in assimilation is the distinction between accultura-tion (behavioral assimilation) and structural or so-cioeconomic assimilation.

Structural or socioeconomic assimilation occurs when Asian Americans enter and become integrated into the formal economic, social, cultural, and po-litical institutions of their host country (such as be-coming full participants in American society). It can also refer to the point at which they attain so-cioeconomic mobility and status (such as residen-tial integration, a solid income, or a prestigious oc-cupation) equal to that of members of mainstream American society.

Behavioral acculturation/assimilation, on the other hand, occurs when an immigrant absorbs the beliefs, norms, values, and behavior patterns of the host society. It may also involve learning Eng-lish and becoming a U.S. citizen. As part of this pro-cess, Asian Americans may choose to retain a large part of their traditional Asian culture and behaviors while still obtaining those of mainstream Ameri-can societies, or they may choose to discard the old ideas and practices altogether and become fully en-trenched in an American identity.

The process of undergoing either of these forms of assimilation can occur either in a linear man-ner (which happens over time and the succession of generations—leading to a more Americanized identity over time)—or it can happen in a nonlin-ear manner in which some Asian Americans choose to retain or revive traditional norms and behav-iors and remain isolated from mainstream Amer-ican society (termed “ethnic resilience”) or, al-ternatively, to combine elements of mainstream American culture and elements of traditional Asian culture (though modified for their own purposes) to attain “segmented assimilation.”

Multiple Outcomes/FactorsOther research has focused around determining why particular racial/ethnic groups assimilate faster than others. One major factor may be racial dif-ferences. White immigrants who ventured to the United States in the 1800s typically did not experi-ence discrimination because they were white, and they were able to more easily integrate into Amer-ican society because of this.

52 | Assimilation and Acculturation

The structure of the American economy may also be a factor. During times of prosperity, there are many job opportunities available for everyone. How-ever, in times of economic difficulties there are fewer jobs, and the resulting economic competition may lead U.S. residents to become hostile toward immi-grants and minorities whom they perceive to be an economic threat. Additionally, some immigrants as-similate faster than others due to class differences. Some immigrant and ethnic groups have higher lev-els of education and more prestigious jobs than oth-ers. This gives them an advantage in achieving socio-economic success more quickly—especially if they have a high degree of English proficiency.

Sociological research has shown that the strength of a child’s relationship with his/her parents along with his/her connection to the ethnic commu-nity may also play a large role in determining eth-nic identity among second-generation Asian Ameri-cans. If a child’s relationship with his/her parents is healthy, he/she is more likely to take on the parents’ identity—be it pan-Asian, national origin, or simply “American.” However, if a child has a negative rela-tionship with his/her parent, he/she is more likely to take the opposite approach.

Studies also show that in terms of the strength of a child’s connection with the community, those who live within a cohesive ethnic community and reg-ularly participate in its activities are more likely to identify as Asian American or with a national or-igin, even if that group is low income or working class. This means that socioeconomic success is not as important in matters where a strong attachment to one’s co-ethnic community is concerned.

One’s perception of discrimination and racism also has influence on the identity of second gener-ation Asian Americans. According to the instru-mentalist/situational/constructionist perspective, it is important how one reacts to his/her percep-tions and experiences surrounding high levels of ethnic competition or prejudice. If he/she internal-izes these experiences and self-esteem is negatively affected, he/she is more likely to be embarrassed to identify as an Asian American. However, he/she may find that these discrimination experiences lead to a greater sense of solidarity and unity with the ethnic community and greater identification with Asian ethnicity overall.

The Political and the PersonalOne of the most famous assimilation theories was created by sociologist Milton Gordon, who theo-rized that there were three possible outcomes of this process. The first is Anglo conformity, which happens when the immigrant or minority person is taught that the values, norms, and institutions of the majority group are superior and that he/she must adopt them to be successful. This is repre-sented as A+B+C=A.

The second outcome is the so-called melting pot, a popular term that refers to new ethnic/racial groups coming together and creating an interaction that forms a new culture—one that incorporates el-ements from various groups into one. This is shown as A+B+C=D.

The third outcome is called cultural pluralism, which is often referred to colloquially as the “salad bowl.” This happens when various racial/ethnic groups keep their unique traditions and culture while also sharing common national goals, values, and in-stitutions. This is symbolized as A+B+C=A+B+C. Gordon argued that up to this point in American so-ciety, Anglo conformity has best represented the his-tory of assimilation in America.

There are various internal and external factors that can affect how ethnic minorities identify among second-generation Asian Americans. These identi-ties can also change over time, be simultaneous, or even overlap. It all depends on the individual.

Acculturation and Perceived RacismAs discussed, many factors influence the way Asian Americans acculturate to their new society. Previ-ous exposure to the United States, socioeconomic background, and education level, among other fac-tors, should all be considered. An immigrant’s de-sire to assimilate into the mainstream society may also play a role. This becomes more complicated when the immigrant does not understand the nega-tive societal structures in the United States (or oth-erwise) that oppress particular racial groups.

Immigrants who idealize their new society are more likely to assimilate into that society because they have no negative perceptions of it. On the other hand, individuals who choose to be separated or somewhat integrated into the new society may do so because they see the value in retaining their cultural

Astronauts and the Space Program | 53

heritage. Immigrants who are integrated or separate are more willing to see the negative aspects of the host culture, including racism. Therefore, there are various acculturative strategies to predict variations in the perception of racism.

Statistical evidence shows that different accul-turation strategy groups have different levels of per-ceived racism. In other words, individuals may be more sensitive toward discrimination because they are knowledgeable about the discrimination that occurs in their host and national cultures.

One theory of racism is that of “persistent for-eigner racism,” which leads immigrants to believe that no matter what actions they take or how long they have lived in the United States, they will always be victims of racism. These individuals believe that they will never achieve the same heritage as white Americans, regardless of the steps they take to dis-card their heritage culture and fit in with main-stream America. In consequence, these individuals may choose to simply retain their traditional culture and its norms, and they may become members of the separation strategy group or the integration strategy group—both of which do retain their native culture. The former group, however, acquires mainstream culture in addition to its heritage culture.

A 1996 study found that African Americans who identified as being more traditionally oriented re-ported experiencing more racism than those who believed they were more fully integrated into the white American society, suggesting that integra-tion or separation strategy groups may perceive more racism, while individuals in the assimilation strategy group will have lower perceptions of rac-ism. These individuals prefer to be associated with mainstream culture, perhaps because they want to feel that they are perceived and accepted as fully “American.” This belief may or may not be because of their limited understanding/perception of the ra-cial structure of the mainstream society.

Another study, which took place in 2000, studied the experiences of racism and the levels of psycho-logical stress among various ethnic groups in Fin-land. The study found that individuals hailing from groups that are more culturally preferred by the host culture perceive that they experience less racism. Al-though the term culturally preferred was not statisti-cally measured, these findings show that the more

one is assimilated into mainstream culture, the less racism he/she may experience.

Katie Moss

See Also: Chinese Americans; Filipino Americans; Indian Americans; Japanese Americans; Korean Americans; Taiwanese Americans; Vietnamese Americans.

Further ReadingsAlba, Richard and Victor Nee. Remaking the American

Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

“Asian American Assimilation vs. Acculturation.” GoldSea. http://goldsea.com/Air/Issues/Identity/identity.html (Accessed November 2014).

“Assimilation & Ethnic Identity.” Asian Nation. http://www.asian-nation.org/assimilation.shtml (Accessed November 2014).

Astronauts and the Space ProgramThe American space culture is an important part of our culture and Asian Americans have certainly contributed to this cause. In this article, we will ex-plore some Asian American astronauts who have made a large impact on the field of space travel.

Ellison Shoji OnizukaEllison Shoji Onizuka (1946–86) was an Ameri-can astronaut from Kealakehua, Kona, Hawaii. He is recognized as the first person of Japanese ances-try to reach space. In January 1978, Onizuka was se-lected for the astronaut program and he completed one year of training and evaluation in 1979. He went on to work on the experimentation team, or launch support crew, at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 and STS-2 and the Orbiter test team. While employed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he worked on the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) test and re-vision software team.

Colleges and Universities, Asian Americans in Selective | 87

Asian American Chancellors/Presidents The organizational structures of higher education institutions are such that academic leaders largely serve as stewards, making changes where they seek to and can, or in some cases as they are forced by larger societal and cultural shifts. Asian American chancellors/presidents, past and present, are not all the same in their goals and politics. Nonetheless, they have spoken of being constantly disrespected in their leadership roles. For example, they are more severely scrutinized for their demeanor and de-cisions than other leaders who are not persons of color. Such challenges can be anonymous, as in dis-criminatory and racist stereotypical email, or highly public, as in the press and in personal and profes-sional settings. Such questioning of their authority can come from subordinates, peers, superiors, and the general public.

Being an Asian American chancellor/president brings with it additional expectations and responsi-bilities. It also provides opportunities to change the status quo. Three past presidents have made a signifi-cant impact on higher education issues generally, in-cluding AAPI matters. Chang-Lin Tien (1935–2002) served as chancellor of the University of California Berkeley from 1990 to 1997. A staunch defender of achieving academic “excellence through diversity,” he spoke out against racial and ethnic discrimina-tion and supported the implementation of an Ameri-can Cultures undergraduate (diversity) requirement. Long-time civil rights advocate and author of several works critiquing the model minority stereotype, Bob H. Suzuki was president of California State Polytech-nic University Pomona from 1991 to 2003. His ded-ication to increasing the numbers of faculty and ad-ministrators of color and provisions for developing Asian American Studies has impacted every campus where he has served. As chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo from 1998 to 2010, Rose Y. Tseng helped create the NASA-funded Mauna Kea Astron-omy Education Center at the top of Hawaii’s tallest mountain as an international site that both advances research and respects the environment and native Hawaiian culture. She also established a College of Hawaiian Language on campus.

Like Tien, Suzuki, and Tseng, many Asian Amer-ican chancellors/presidents today seek to serve as transformational leaders in higher education. They

often combine traditional leadership, such as good communication and fundraising skills, with alter-native styles such as team building, greater inclu-sivity, and university-community partnerships to accomplish campus goals and to promote access, eq-uity, and student and faculty diversity and success. Most have chosen this leadership role to show that Asian American academic CEOs can make a posi-tive difference in higher education institutions.

Shirley HuneKenyon S. Chan

See Also: Bamboo Ceiling; Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics; Model Minority Stereotype; Perpetual Foreigners.

Further ReadingsChen, Edith Wen-Chu and Shirley Hune. “Asian

American Pacific Islander Women From Ph.D. to Campus President: Gains and Leaks in the Pipeline.” In Women of Color in Higher Education: Changing Directions and New Perspectives. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing, 2011.

Gee, Henry and Audrey Yamagata-Noji. “Missing in Administration: Asian Pacific Islander Americans and the Bamboo Ceiling.” Paper presented at the Leadership Development Program in Higher Education, Cal Poly Pomona, July 9, 2014.

Tien, Chang-Lin. “Challenges and Opportunities for Leaders of Color.” In The Multicultural Campus, edited by L. Valverde and L. Castenell, Jr.. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1998.

Valverde, Louis A. Leaders of Color in Higher Education: Unrecognized Triumphs in Harsh Institutions. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2003.

Colleges and Universities, Asian Americans in SelectiveAccording to the 2010 census, there are roughly 17 million Asian Americans living in the United States, accounting for 5.6 percent of the U.S. population. This group is the best educated among all the major racial/ethnic groups, with 49 percent of the Asian

88 | Colleges and Universities, Asian Americans in Selective

American population aged 25 and older having at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to the U.S. av-erage of 28 percent. In particular, they also have a visible presence at many selective institutions in the United States. For example, they constitute 11 to 15 percent of the student body at Ivy League schools.

Undergraduate enrollment drives the relatively high percentage of Asian Americans studying at elite colleges and universities. For example, in 2012, while only 1,650 Asian American graduate students enrolled at the University of California, Berke-ley, 9,300 Asian Americans enrolled at the univer-sity to complete undergraduate coursework. Similar patterns are present at the University of California, Davis and the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy, where in 2012 Asian Americans represented 37 percent and 24 percent of the undergraduate enroll-ment and 15 percent and 11 percent of total gradu-ate enrollment, respectively.

While Asian Americans have relatively high ed-ucational attainment as a group, it is important to attend to differences in educational attainment among different ethnic groups. For example, 70 percent of Indian American adults have at least a

bachelor’s degree, compared to 25.8 percent of Viet-namese Americans, 51.1 percent of Chinese Ameri-cans, 52.6 percent of Korean Americans, 47 percent of Filipino Americans, and 46.1 percent of Japanese Americans. Meanwhile, among some of the smaller and disadvantaged Asian American ethnic groups such as Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotian Ameri-cans, the percentage of adults with a bachelor’s de-gree are 14 percent, 13.4 percent, and 12.6 percent, respectively—far below the national average. There-fore, even though on average Asian Americans are well educated and well represented in selective col-leges and universities, there is wide diversity among Asian Americans in educational attainment.

ExplanationsThe explanations for why Asian Americans are well represented in selective institutions often center on structural and cultural factors. Structural factors are resources associated with higher socioeconomic statuses that confer education advantages. Cultural factors are values, expectations, and norms associ-ated with Asian American families and their com-munities, which can often be traced back to the cul-tures of Asian countries. The third explanation, strategic adaptation theory, is actually a combina-tion of structural and cultural rationales.

Structural ResourcesStructurally, Asian Americans disproportionately come from families with higher socioeconomic sta-tus, in large part due to the 1965 immigration pol-icy that favors well-educated and highly skilled im-migrants in such occupational fields as engineering, medicine, and accounting. The selective migration process has brought a disproportionate number of well-educated Asian immigrants to the United States. This selective group of contemporary Asian immigrants contributes to the educational success of their later generations.

The relatively high socioeconomic status of Asian American families makes it more likely that Asian American students will enter selective colleges for several reasons. First, selective colleges and uni-versities charge much higher tuition than nonse-lective ones. Asian American parents are often able and willing to afford high tuitions. Second, selective colleges and universities often require higher test

Cornell University is an American private Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, with Asian Americans comprising 16.5 percent of the class of 2017. Among America’s major racial catego-ries, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications, with 50 percent of Asian Americans attaining at least a bachelor’s degree as compared with the national average of 28 percent. Many attend selective universities like Cornell. (Wikimedia Commons)

Colleges and Universities, Asian Americans in Selective | 89

scores and better academic preparation, including rigorous high school coursework. Residential and school segregation have often prevented many racial minorities from accessing good schools with rigor-ous coursework. With structural resources, Asian Americans are often able to access good schools with demanding curricula that academically pre-pare them to pursue coursework at selective colleges and universities. Third, many Asian American par-ents are college educated. Their knowledge of col-lege education can help guide their children’s col-lege application process, a key resource that boosts their children’s attendance in selective colleges and universities.

Values, Expectations, and Norms: Cultural BackgroundCultural explanations are rooted in the immigrant culture in general and in the Asian culture in partic-ular. A majority of Asian Americans are either im-migrants or children of immigrant families. They are especially driven to achieve upward social mo-bility through education due to the sacrifices their parents incurred in the immigration process. Ed-ucation, and especially elite college education, is often regarded as the surest means to achieve social mobility. This is particularly so for Asian American families.

Many Asian American families are influenced by Confucianism, a cultural tradition of several East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singa-pore. A majority of the Asian American population have ancestry from these countries. A core tenet of Confucianism is the value it places on educa-tion, in both instrumental and symbolic purposes. Confucianism prescribes the importance of edu-cation to individual well-being and national suc-cess, and designates parents as responsible for over-seeing their children’s educational success. This strongly encourages Asian American parents to in-still the value of education in their children and to closely supervise their academic progress. In addi-tion, Confucianism advocates the importance of having a good work ethic, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and the value of grit. These are all ele-ments of noncognitive skills that education sciences have shown are vitally important for educational

success. Symbolically, Confucianism closely associ-ates the prestige of education with self-worth and family status. So, Asian American youth feel com-pelled to achieve academic success, which often culminates in an elite credential so that they can bring honor and status to their families.

Strategic AdaptationOther scholars have maintained that structural and cultural factors are not sufficient explanations of Asian Americans’ academic success in general and representation at selective colleges in particular. They argue that Asian Americans pursue selective education credentials as part of an intentional strat-egy to overcome discrimination, as well as their rel-ative lack of social and cultural capital. Asian Amer-icans who are recent immigrants know that they have limited social networks and cultural know-how, which are vital to success in a white-domi-nated American society. They realize that they have to get more education and better education to gain entry into good firms and prestigious companies. Selective college credentials may act as an extra sig-nifier of their abilities. Scholars use the term stra-tegic adaptation theory to account for Asian Ameri-cans’ relatively high level of educational attainment and enrollment at selective colleges and universities. Empirical evidence supports this theory, as demon-strated by Asian Americans’ need to have more ed-ucation than their white counterparts in order to achieve the same income. This is known as the over-education phenomenon, which underscores the fact that we need to go beyond educational attainment to unravel the equity issue for Asian Americans.

Controversies Surrounding This PatternDiversity and well-roundedness. The concentration of Asian Americans in selective colleges and universi-ties has generated much controversy. Based on their share of the population, Asian Americans are con-sidered to be overrepresented in selective schools. However, critics argue that there is an implicit quota working against high-achieving Asian Americans, and based on merit alone, we should have seen more representation of Asian American students in selec-tive colleges and universities. In 2009, Princeton so-ciologists Thomas J. Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford found that Asian Americans must

90 | Colleges and Universities, Asian Americans in Selective

score 140 points higher on average than whites on the math and verbal portions of the SAT in order to have the same chances of admission. This evidence led some to claim that Asian Americans are dis-criminated against because they are held to a higher standard than other groups in college admission.

Others have argued that test scores alone should not constitute all indicators of merit. Admissions of-ficers emphasize the importance of well-rounded-ness and the goal of recruiting diverse talents. Many Asian Americans have extensive records in extracur-ricular activities as well as excellent test scores. How-ever, despite these qualifications, Asian Americans cannot overcome the stereotype that they do not em-body the diverse talents and well-roundedness that selective colleges look for. This is remarkably similar to Jewish students’ experiences in elite universities almost a century ago, provoking some to conclude that Asians are the new Jews in the 21st century.

Affirmative action versus negative action. The con-troversies are sometimes set in the context of affir-mative action. Affirmative action policies intend to admit more underrepresented racial minority stu-dents. Because Asian Americans are not considered underrepresented, they are not part of the affirma-tive action target population. The narrative often goes that due to affirmative action, Asian Ameri-cans lose their seats in elite colleges and universities to black and Hispanic students who are less academ-ically qualified. This discourse is remarkably simi-lar to the model minority thesis that pitted Asians against other racial minority groups, provoking ra-cial resentment among minority groups.

On the other hand, Frank Wu and others have argued for the negative action framework. Nega-tive action refers to the discrimination Asian Amer-icans receive in terms of the higher standards they are held to than all the other groups, including whites. The evidence of negative action can be seen in the aftermath of the affirmative action ban in the California system. There has been a significant in-crease of white students, while the numbers of Asian American students have had negligible changes. As Daniel Golden discussed in his book The Price of Admission, little attention has been given to leg-acy admission—the special preferences elite uni-versities afford to the children of (overwhelmingly

white) donors and alumni. Being a legacy student requires having family members who were alumni or who contributed substantially to the institution. This privileges white students due to the history of discrimination Asian Americans and other racial minorities faced in terms of limited access to educa-tion and employment opportunities.

In sum, the controversies that surround Asian Americans in selective colleges and universities cen-ter on major debates on college admission in gen-eral, including diversity and affirmative action pol-icies. These controversies will not go away until the issues underlying the major debates are resolved.

Yingyi MaAdrienne Lee Atterberry

See Also: Asian Americans in Elective High Schools; Science and Medical Education.

Further ReadingsEspenshade, Thomas J. and Alexandria Walton Radford.

No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Golden, Daniel. The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates. New York: Random House, 2007.

Kidder, William C. “Negative Action Versus Affirmative Action: Asian Pacific Americans Are Still Caught in the Crossfire.” Michigan Journal of Race & Law, v.11 (2005).

Pew Research Center. The Rise of Asian Americans. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2013.

Sue, Stanley and Sumie Okazaki. “Asian American Educational Achievement: A Phenomenon in Search of an Explanation.” American Psychologist, v.45 (1990).

U.S. Department of Education: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Asian American Student Enrollment 2012. Washington, DC: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2014.

Wu, Frank H. “Neither Black Nor White: Asian Americans and Affirmative Action.” Boston College Third World Law Journal, v.15 (1995).

Xie, Yu and Kimberly Goyette. “Social Mobility and the Educational Choices of Asian Americans.” Social Science Research, v.32/3 (2003).

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as far as corporate services and IT is concerned from time to time experts have to partner with enterprise functions. Some of these functions include things such as legal services, quality services, communica-tion and at times fuse them together with the overall corporate responsibility. Together this is supposed to help in creating an understanding of the strate-gic business goals, while at the same time making an effort to advocate for the perfect IT solutions and technology to help in achieving these goals.

One of the best things about diversity in this spec-tacle is that it helps to understand one another. In the course of a normal day at work, an expert has to in-teract and sit in meetings, which will include plan-ning and implementing IT solutions, providing sta-tus updates, or meeting with IT partners all across the globe to discuss implementation and other areas of interest. One of the most challenging elements of such meetings is the fact that when working with global teams, you have to take time and put together implementable plans that will meet the desired needs of the particular concerns precisely.

Different individuals and teams work under dif-ferent frameworks, and it is because of this reason that it is imperative that the expert has to embrace diversity. In most cases, it is not just about diversity under the context of race, color or wherever an in-dividual might be coming from, but the most criti-cal level of diversity is that which comes as a result of the individual’s intellect. Intellectual diversity is one of the most important elements that have since made it easier for the world of science and technology to prosper, and also the same thing that has brought about a lot of development throughout the world.

Much happens in the course of the day for ex-perts in the science and information technology field, with the most important being the need to rep-resent business needs while at the same time being able to relay any constraints to the business, the re-sult of which is negotiation. The thirst for knowl-edge is something that has to be quenched every other day because we can never claim to have run out of knowledge, or at least claim to have gotten to a point where there is not much that we can.

Computer science and information technology is a field that is constantly advancing, evolving, and shaping the future of the world as we know it. It does not matter whether Asian Americans are shaping it,

or whether any other person for that matter is shap-ing the future.

Michael Fox

See Also: Asian and Asian American Leadership Styles; Asian Women in Business; Mathematics; National Association of Asian American Professionals.

Further ReadingsHuang, Quanyu. The Hybrid Tiger: Secrets of the

Extraordinary Success of Asian-American Kids. New York: Prometheus Books, 2014.

Lee, Shelley Sang-Hee. A New History of Asian America. New York: Routledge, 2014.

Li, Guongfang, and Lihshing Wang, eds. Model Minority Myth Revisited: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Demystifying Asian American Educational Experiences. Charlotte, NC: IAP, 2008.

Conference on Asian Pacific American LeadershipThe Conference on Asian Pacific American Leader-ship (CAPAL) was established in 1989 in Washing-ton, D.C., as a way of increasing numbers of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) serving in various posi-tions within the public sector and nonprofit orga-nizations in the United States, particularly within the Washington, D.C., area. In 2000, CAPAL an-nounced that no Asian American had ever served in a presidential cabinet, only five members of the cur-rent Congress were Asian American, and only seven of 876 active federal judges were Asian American. The organization has dedicated itself to improving the presence of Asian Pacific Americans in all as-pects of public-sector life. In order to do this, the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership focuses on training young Asian Pacific Americans to take on leadership roles over the coming genera-tions and provides a forum for addressing the issues that impact the lives of all Asian Pacific Americans. As a nonprofit organization, the major functions of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leader-ship are to provide information on relevant issues

Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership | 95

and to educate both the APA community and the public-sector workforce about those issues. CAPAL governance is provided by a board of directors. The program manager and the public service fellow are responsible for providing members of the board with support. The advisory council takes on the role of recognizing individuals within the community who have made significant contributions to the lives of Asian Pacific Americans. Chiefly, the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership carries out its mission by focusing on programs such as the Wash-ington Leadership Program (WLP), the Scholarship Program, the Federal Internship Program, and the Professional Development Program.

ProgramsThe Washington Leadership Program was launched in 1989 during CAPAL’s first year of operation. The first class consisted of only 10 interns and 10 young professionals. Over the next decade, the program continued to grow. By 2009, an average class con-sisted of 125 students and interns. By that time, ap-proximately 2,000 interns and young profession-als had completed the program. Training sessions within the Washington Leadership Program address issues relevant to the APA community. In 2014, for instance, separate sessions dealt with immigration, race relations, coalition building, mental health, and career reflections. Program participants are re-cruited from all over the United States. More than $50,000 of CAPAL funds has been dedicated to pro-viding scholarships to Asian Pacific American stu-dents who receive training by working as unpaid in-terns in government agencies. The network of more than 600 CAPAL public policy professionals pro-vides mentoring for students who frequently go on to work in the public sector.

The Federal Internship Program serves both un-dergraduate and graduate students, placing them in internships in Washington, D.C., or in regional of-fices in California, Texas, and Wisconsin. Students majoring in any subject are eligible to apply for the program as long as they are interested in public ser-vice careers. Internships generally deal with policy and scientific research, project coordination and management, finance, statistics, business law, com-munications, and other government fields. Students who are accepted into the program receive a $3,000

stipend and an additional $500 to cover travel and relocation costs.

Both undergraduate and graduate students with outstanding academic records are eligible for the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leader-ship’s Public Service Scholarship Program. Over the course of a summer, participants in this pro-gram work in Washington, D.C., in unpaid public-sector jobs. Each student is responsible for securing his/her own intern position. The CAPAL-MAASU Public Service Scholarship, which provides a stipend of $3,500, is open only to undergraduate members of the Midwest Asian American Students Union (MAASU) or to Asian Pacific American students who live in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kan-sas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.

The activities offered through the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership’s Professional Development Program are made available to all young professionals in the Washington, D.C., area who are interested in working in the public sector or in the Asian Pacific American community. Monthly events include such activities as networking mixers, speaker presentations, and roundtable discussions. Since 2009, the Conference on Asian Pacific Amer-ican Leadership has sponsored the annual Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Career Fair, which provides opportunities for its students and young professionals to meet with representatives from government agencies and nonprofit organiza-tions located in the Washington, D.C., area.

ImpactsThe success of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership has been in large part due to partnerships formed with government agencies such as the National Credit Union Administration, which offers summer internships to individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the workforce.

Through its Center for Mission Diversity and In-clusion, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been working with the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership since 2011. In the summer of 2013, the CIA hosted an event in which students in-volved in the summer internship program were in-vited to meet with recruiters as part of an effort to

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improve participation of the Asian Pacific American community in the CIA. Asian Pacific Americans al-ready employed by the CIA also met with CAPL stu-dents to share their paths to career success. Panel members stressed that the most important skills needed for success were the development of criti-cal language skills, solid preparations in mathemat-ics and the sciences, strong writing skills, time and organizational management skills, leadership skills, and interpersonal skills.

CAPAL programs and partnerships have been instrumental in paving the way for Asian Pacific Americans to enter the federal workforce and have also improved the abilities of program participants to use the skills gained through internships in a va-riety of other fields.

Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy

See Also: Asian American Studies; Cultural Diversity and Leadership.

Further ReadingsBell, Myrtle P. Diversity in Organizations. Mason, OH:

South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012.Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership. http://

www.capal.org (Accessed November 2014).Schwartz, Wendy. The Asian and Pacific Islander

Population in the U.S. New York: Eric Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Columbia University, and New York Institute for Urban and Minority Education, 2002.

Woo, Deborah. Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans: The New Face of Workplace Barriers. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2000.

Congressional Asian Pacific American CaucusThe Congressional Asian American Pacific Amer-ican Caucus (CAPAC) is an affinity or ethnicity caucus. It is a bicameral caucus composed of mem-bers from both the Senate and the House of Repre-sentatives. In general, its members are of east Asian, southeast Asian, south Asian, and Pacific Island

descent, and are members of Congress. Some hold seats in which many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders live. CAPAC also accepts non-Asians and non–Pacific Islanders, although its main focus is to aid Asians and Pacific Islanders. It was founded May 16, 1994, by Norman Yoshio Mineta (D-CA). After Mineta resigned his seat in Congress, leader-ship of CAPAC passed to others, including Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (D-HI), Robert Anacletus Underwood (D-Guam), David Wu (D-OR), and Michael Makoto “Mike” Honda (D-CA), who is chair emeritus. The leader of CAPAC since Febru-ary 2011 has been Judy Chu (D-CA). In the 113th Congress, the vice chair was Madeleine Mary Zeien Bordallo, delegate from the Territory of Guam. Other leaders include Mark Allan Takano (D-CA), who serves as whip.

Members of the Executive Board of CAPAC in the 113th Congress were Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Brian Schatz (D-HI). Representatives serving on the Executive Board were Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Ami Bera (D-CA),Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Al Green (D-TX), Colleen Hana-busa (D-HI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Grace Meng (D-NY), Bobby Scott (D-VA), delegate from the Northern Mariana Islands Gre-gorio Sablan, and delegate from American Samoa Eni Faleomavaega. Associate members of CAPAC include Gerald Edward “Gerry” Connolly (D-VA), John Conyers (D-MI), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Susan Davis (D-CA), Anna Georges Eshoo (D-CA), Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Scott Peters (D-CA), Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

CAPAC seeks passage of laws that will bene-fit Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). It also seeks to promote the political education of members of Congress about the contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders. It seeks to advance and protect the civil rights and liberties of AAPIs, to establish policies aiding AAPIs and the Asian and Pacific Island territories and possessions of the

East-West Players | 111

East-West PlayersFounded in 1965 in Los Angeles, East West Players (EWP) has been a leading advocate for the devel-opment of Asian American theater. It was the first company organized to serve the needs of theater artists of Asian ethnicity, and it has helped to launch or further the careers of numerous Asian American performers, directors, and playwrights.

The initial impetus for the company came from Hollywood-based actors who found limited oppor-tunities in the film industry. The roles they were of-fered—if they were offered roles at all—tended to-ward the stereotypical. They felt that starring in stage productions would increase their visibility and show-case their talents. Among the founding members were James Hong and Beulah Quo, who were instru-mental in putting the initial group of artists together.

The most influential figure in the early years of the group, however, was Mako Iwamatsu—more commonly known simply as Mako—who became the company’s first artistic director. He starred in the first production presented by EWP: a stage adaptation of the popular Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon. Mako’s performance in that play led to his being cast in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This recognition lent legitimacy to the fledgling theater company, and Mako offi-cially took on the role of EWP’s artistic director in 1967. His vision for the company included organiz-ing acting workshops for its members to improve

their technique. A few years later, additional work-shops were added that focused on directing, move-ment, and technical aspects of the theater. Mako sought to create an artistic home for those who worked with the company, with his leadership style sometimes characterized as being the head of an extended family.

While the majority of pieces performed by EWP in its initial years were either European classics or adaptations of Asian plays, the company did produce two new works in 1967 by actor and playwright Soon-Tek Oh. Martyrs Can’t Go Home was a tale set in con-temporary Korea, while Camels Were Two-Legged in Peking was an adaptation of a Chinese novel. In order to promote more original works, EWP began spon-soring a playwriting contest in 1968. The first win-ner was Henry Woon, whose Now You See, Now You Don’t—about a Chinese American experiencing job discrimination—opened to mixed reviews in 1969. Subsequent contest winners included Frank Chin, Momoko Iko, and Edward Sakamoto, all of whom had a more lasting impact on the emergent genre of Asian American playwriting.

Among the many notable productions that EWP presented under Mako’s leadership were the West Coast premiere of Chin’s The Year of the Dragon (1974), Wakako Yamauchi’s own stage adaptation of her popular short story And the Soul Shall Dance (1977), and the musical The Avocado Kid (1979), which launched the theater career of playwright Philip Kan Gotanda. The company also continued to produce works by non-Asian writers. Mako, who

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received a Best Actor Tony Award nomination for the original Broadway production of Pacific Overtures in 1976, reprised his starring role in EWP’s 1979 staging of the Stephen Sondheim–John Weidman musical. He also directed the production, which was a success with both audiences and critics. It paved the way for putting on other Broadway musicals such as Godspell and A Chorus Line in subsequent years.

Mako remained artistic director of EWP until January 1989, when he resigned following a series of clashes with the company’s board of directors. At issue were a decline in theater attendance during the 1980s; the loss of funds from major grant-giving in-stitutions; and concerns on the part of board mem-bers that he was making too many decisions without consulting the board or, in some cases, in flagrant disregard of its wishes.

Nobu McCarthy, a well-respected film and stage actress, took on the role of artistic director follow-ing Mako’s departure. McCarthy encouraged more actors who had not received their training through EWP’s acting workshops to audition for roles in the company’s productions. Under her leadership,

greater emphasis was placed on ethnic diversity. This extended to bringing in artists who were not of Asian descent to serve as directors and producers, as well as casting more non-Asians in the company’s productions. At the same time, McCarthy contin-ued to nurture the development of Asian American playwrights. The David Henry Hwang Writers’ In-stitute was established in 1991, named for the Tony Award–winning author of M. Butterfly. It continues to nurture emerging playwrights of various Asian ethnicities.

Due to health reasons, McCarthy stepped down as artistic director in July 1993 and was succeeded by Tim Dang, who remains the company’s produc-ing artistic director. Dang has further diversified the works presented by EWP, actively seeking out scripts by underrepresented Asian ethnicities such as Viet-namese and Thai and, more recently, south Asian and mixed-race populations.

One of the major shifts in the way the company operates occurred in 1998, when EWP moved from a 99-seat black box to a 240-seat theater in the Lit-tle Tokyo section of Los Angeles. The larger theater meant that EWP was now an Equity house, resulting in larger amounts paid to actors while also increas-ing the company’s professional profile. The compa-ny’s budget also grew from $350,000 to $1.5 mil-lion for a four-play season. East-West Players, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015, is currently recognized as the largest Asian American theater in the country. It has an impressive list of alumni who have worked with the company, including such no-table actors as John Cho, Amy Hill, Daniel Dae Kim, John Lone, George Takei, and B. D. Wong.

Dan Bacalzo

See Also: Classical Music; Dance; Movies; Theater.

Further ReadingsKurahashi, Yuko. Asian American Culture on Stage: The

History of the East-West Players. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999.

Lee, Esther Kim. A History of Asian American Theater. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Tran, Diep. “The Long View: After 20 Years as Artistic Director of East-West Players, Tim Dang Eyes the Challenges Unmet.” American Theater, v.30/8 (2013).

Over 75 percent of the Asian Pacific performers in acting unions living in Los Angeles have worked at East-West Players. The orga-nization has provided training and opportunities to many artists, including Pat Morita. He was well known for playing Arnold on Happy Days and starring in The Karate Kid movie series, garnering a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984. (Wikimedia Commons/ABC Television PR)

and fish consumption are a large part of their culture. In the early 1990s, 75 percent of the people fishing off the San Francisco piers were people of color. Many Asian Americans were also gathering shellfish and seaweed contaminated with mercury, which causes cancer even in small quantities. The Environmental Protection Agency requires that commercially sold fish contain few toxins, but these laws do not protect subsistence fisherman who do not have the means to measure the level of contamination in their sea-food. Many such families were poor and supplement-ing their food budget by fishing. Representing APEN, Jack Chin called for warning signs on piers to be un-derstandable in languages other than English, and APEN’s campaign was successful.

After a 1991 consumer action study noted that 74 percent of the dwellings in Chinatown built prior to 1950 contained high levels of lead, Jack Chin spoke out against lead contamination in older buildings in Chinatown. APEN was not the only Asian Ameri-can action group to form around environmental hazards in the 1990s. The Silicon Valley Toxics Co-alition was formed to battle injurious labor condi-tions in the computer production sector. The man-ufacture of computers was a thriving industry in the Silicon Valley, and production lines were heav-ily staffed by Asian and Latina women earning low wages while they were exposed to numerous chem-icals, especially toluene and other solvents that tar-get the reproductive and nervous systems. Toluene is known to cause miscarriages.

In 1992, another group, the Asian Women Im-migrants Advocates, protested occupational haz-ards in the garment industry. More than 50 percent of all textile and clothing production workers in the United States are Asian women, so the increased ex-posure to dye, arsenic, formaldehyde, and fiber par-ticles that accompany that occupation dispropor-tionately threaten the Asian American sector. In 1992, Asian American garment workers reported to the AIWA that they were suffering from eye strain, sore throats, headaches, nosebleeds, vaginal bleed-ing, and cancer as a direct result of exposure to tox-ins at Lucky Sewing Co., a clothing manufacturer. These complaints precipitated the anti–Jessica Mc-Clintock campaign that called for a boycott of de-signer Jessica McClintock, whose dresses were sewn at Lucky Sewing. This campaign directly influenced

Berkeley’s City Council and Oakland County Com-mission to pass legislation protecting Asian garment workers. Helen Kim was one of the organizers of the Asian Women Immigrants Advocates. As a lan-guage teacher, she encouraged her students, many of whom were working in the garment industry, to bring her labels from their workplace. That way, she was able to translate warnings about the toxicity of workplace substances.

In the 21st century, APEN continued its battle with Chevron. In 2010, APEN put a stop to the con-struction of an expanded facility proposed by Chev-ron. The facility was designed to allow refinement of a wider range of sulfur-heavy crude oil. APEN joined with two other environmental groups in filing a law-suit against Chevron. Chevron responded by tell-ing the media that jobs, homes, and cars would be lost if the new refinery was not built. APEN repre-sentative Torm Nompraseurt published an editorial in the Contra Costa Times saying that, in pitting jobs against health, Chevron was offering a “false choice.” Nompraseurt called for caps to be imposed on Chev-ron’s carbon emissions. APEN’s Web site claims that this victory prevented the emission of 900,000 tons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

Lynn Hamilton

See Also: Civil Rights; Fashion; Labor Organizing.

Further ReadingOrozco, Ana, et al. “The Problem With Chevron in

Richmond.” Contra Costa Times (August 8, 2009).Rogers, Robert. “From Laos to Richmond, Local Man

Honored by White House for Environmental Activism.” Contra Costa Times (May 24, 2013).

Sze, Julie. “Asian American Activism for Environmental Justice.” Peace Review, v.16/2 (2004).

Tam, Katherine. “Refinery Construction Halt Costs City of Richmond.” Contra Costa Times (July 9, 2009).

Ethnic Lending GroupsEthnic lending groups in America are often struc-tured in the form of rotating savings and credit as-sociations (ROSCA). These groups are made up of

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individuals who agree to meet for a defined period with the objective of saving and borrowing together. This type of group has also been referred to as peer-to-peer banking or lending. These groups are espe-cially common among developing communities, the middle class, and the poor. Because of this, some re-searchers have defined this form of lending as the “poor man’s bank,” where money is not idle for long but rapidly changes hands and satisfies both con-sumption and production needs. In America, eth-nic lending groups are common in almost every eth-nic group: tandas for Latin Americans, cundinas for Mexican Americans, susu for African Americans, hui for Asian Americans, and pandeiros or quiniela for Brazilians. The structuring of these ethnic groups is such that the meetings can be regular, or tied to sea-sonal cash flow cycles in rural communities.

Each member of the group makes a contribution of the same amount at each meeting, and one member takes the whole sum once. The operation of the group is in a merry-go-round formula, and each member of the group is able to access a large sum of money dur-ing the life of the ROSCA. The use of this amount is not restricted, and the member can use it for any pur-pose without being accountable to the group, even though the general consensus is that members should use the funds for self-development purposes. Ethnic lending groups therefore provide an appropriate sav-ings alternative to having home savings, where family and relatives may demand access to the savings.

Transactions are made during the meeting, and every member sees each and every transaction made. As a result, the method provides a model of transparency and simplicity that is well adapted. Moreover, because there is no money that is retained within the group, there is no need for records. These two advantages of the ethnic lending group’s model make it a favorable saving and lending option for communities with low levels of literacy, for groups with a common relation like ethnicity, friendship, or relatives. In the United States, it is very common among ethnic groups, for example, Latinos, Mexi-cans, Asians, and Africans. Given the sometimes complicated requirements for the formal lending systems, ethnic lending groups provide a less re-strictive lending option for an individual. Moreover, they reduce the risk to members and the costs in-curred in relation to receiving the loan.

Despite the benefits, there are a number of risks attached. The majority of ethnic lending groups in the United States are not recognized by law. Ordi-narily, ROSCAs do not have the documents and re-cords required by law to make a private institution legal. Because of this, in case a member defaults, there is no legal option applicable to making them contribute. However, to cover this risk, members of the ROSCA select each other, and, given the preex-isting relationships between them, the act of default can only be situational because of unforeseen cir-cumstances, not intentional. Researchers have de-scribed ROSCAs as founded on social capital, whose elements are trust, genuine commitment to partici-pate, and social forces. For the majority of ROSCAs, when the objective is achieved, the group is dis-solved; however, some continue.

Chinese HuiExamples of Asian ROSCAs in the United States in-clude the Korean kye, Chinese hui, and Vietnamese ho. The Chinese hui is more common in the United States, given the increased population of Chinese in America. Moreover, given the influence of China and the Chinese culture in Asia, the knowledge of the hui is well understood by even the other communi-ties migrating to the United States. The generic term hui that is used for the Chinese ROSCA simply means “association” or “club.” In China there are several variants of hui, they are thought to have existed over 800 years ago, and they are therefore associated with the Cantonese. Often, the Chinese ROSCA is referred to as the Cantonese hui. Despite the high variation, the principle of rotating credit is strongly pronounced in each association. Research into the Cantonese hui in America describes a simple rotary scheme as the basic principle. The starting point of the Chinese hui is commonly described as an individual who needs a lump sum of money, mainly for business, and in par-ticular the liquor business, which involves very re-strictive conditions to secure a formal loan.

The person in need takes the initiative of hav-ing to organize a hui by securing from friends and/or relatives an agreement to pay a stipulated sum of money, for example, $5 every month into a com-mon pool. In a Chinese hui, the organizer is the first to receive the first lump sum collected. As-suming that the individual has been able to bring

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together nine other individuals, the amount col-lected in the first month’s meeting is $50, and this is taken by the organizer. The individual receiving this money has the power to spend it as he or she wishes. Each month, the 10 individuals will meet, and each makes the $5 contribution. In the sec-ond month, lots are cast to determine who takes the sum. During the casting of these lots, those who have previously taken the sum do not partic-ipate. For example, in the second month’s meeting, the organizer does not participate in the lot casting. By the end of the 10 months, each of the 10 mem-bers will have contributed $50 and received $50. Even though this is the basic principle of the typical Chinese hui, there are variations depending on the agreement of the members.

When the organizer of the hui reaches out and manages to gather a good number together, he or she organizes a feast. Assuming a group of 10 mem-bers, they have to attend the feast for the first month. During the feast, each person, including the orga-nizer, contributes $5. However, because the feast will cost some money, the members of the hui agree on a fixed amount that the feast may cost, say $7. Therefore, in the first month, the organizer will have parted with $12. The total amount collected will be $50, and this is handed to the organizer. During the first meeting, another member volunteers to host the second month’s meeting. This member should therefore prepare a feast worth $7 and still contrib-ute $5 toward the common ROSCA initiative. By the end of the 10th month, each member will have spent $57 and received a $50 lump sum.

In the United States, Chinese mainly use the hui as a means of acquiring business capital. Because not every member of the hui will be in need of cap-ital, this has led to the rise of a different type of hui. In this case, the organizer who is need of business capital organizes a group and indicates his need. The group then contributes toward the target cap-ital by dividing it among themselves, or by pledging based on their financial capabilities. These individ-uals then dissolve the hui, and the organizer is only required to repay each member in a given time, and often it is after the business has broken even and

made a profit. This form of hui is a direct substitute for formal loans, and for the organizer, it is a better alternative to the interest attached to formal loans. However, to the hui members, it is a highly risky undertaking because there is no security for their money, especially if the business were to collapse be-fore breaking even. This type of hui is common be-tween Chinese family members; for example, when uncles and aunts agree to finance their nephew or niece to start a business.

Some authors have argued that a different type of Chinese hui was operational in the United States, and especially in New York, early on. This type of hui involved the members contributing, but then those in need of the lump sum amount submitted sealed bids for the money. The bids placed an in-terest value on the sum, and the member with the highest in terest was awarded the lump sum. Some authors argue that this type of hui defeated the com-munal assistance theme of hui because those in need of the money would end up not receiving it, or worse still, had to “buy” the lump sum at higher amounts. This form of hui meant that the poorer and those in dire need of the money had to pay higher interest to receive the lump sum raised, while the richer, who did not have much need of the money, would enjoy the interest made from the poor, hence enriching the rich while impoverishing the poor.

Kimberly Byrne

See Also: Asian-Owned Businesses; Banks, Asian American; Leadership in Small Businesses.

Further ReadingsRutherford, Stuart. The Poor and Their Money. Oxford,

UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.Squires, Gregory D. “Racial Profiling, Insurance Style:

Insurance Redlining and the Uneven Development of Metropolitan Areas.” Journal of Urban Affairs, v.25/4 (2003).

Westgate, Michael and Ann Vick. Gale Force, Gale Cincotta: The Battles For Disclosure and Community Reinvestment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Book Store, 2011.

118 | Ethnic Lending Groups

Japanese American Citizens League | 149

Japanese American Citizens LeagueThe Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is the nation’s oldest and largest Asian Pacific Ameri­can civil rights organization. Informed by the Japa­nese American community’s legacy of incarceration and redress, JACL is a leading Asian American and Pacific Islander organization that combats bigotry and intolerance and defends civil rights.

JACL is a national organization whose mission is to secure and safeguard the civil and human rights of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and all communities who are affected by injustice and bigotry. The leaders and members of JACL also work to promote and preserve the heritage and leg­acy of the Japanese American community. JACL has over 100 chapters in 26 states and Japan. In addition to its national headquarters in San Francisco, JACL has five regional offices in Los Angeles, San Fran­cisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

JACL was founded in 1929 in response to the vir­ulent hatred and discrimination directed at Japa­nese Americans along the west coast. In California, where the majority of Japanese Americans resided, there were over 100 statutes that limited the rights of people of Japanese ancestry. JACL worked to elim­inate these racist policies at both the state and fed­eral levels.

During World War II, JACL played a contro­versial role in its efforts to protect and support the

120,000 Japanese Americans who were forcibly re­moved from the West Coast and incarcerated in concentration camps. JACL was instrumental in the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese American military unit. To­gether with the 100th Battalion, Japanese Ameri­can soldiers served with distinction and became the most highly decorated unit of its size and length of service.

In the 1980s, JACL spearheaded a legislative cam­paign to obtain redress for Japanese Americans un­justly incarcerated during World War II. This na­tional grassroots effort culminated in the signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided an official apology and monetary compensation to every surviving individual affected by Executive Order 9066.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, JACL was one of the first organizations to defend the Arab and Muslim American community from per­secution. JACL strongly advocated against profiling and detaining groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, or national origin, and stressed the impor­tance of preserving civil liberties in times of crisis.

JACL’s other work has included eradicating na­tional origin quotas in immigration policies, ex­panding citizenship rights for all immigrants, overturning Alien Land Laws in various states, sup­porting marriage equality initiatives, and strength­ening hate crime legislation. JACL has signed on as an amicus curiae to historic civil rights cases in­cluding Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v.

J

150 | Japanese American Internmen

Virginia, and was a founding member of the Leader­ship Conference on Civil Rights.

Current WorkRacism against AAPIs in today’s society looks dif­ferent from the overtly discriminatory language, policies, and legislation that JACL fought against in the past. Today, anti­AAPI racism often takes the form of microaggressions: casual, commonplace messages directed against people of color that serve, whether intentionally or not, to invalidate, exclude, and demean. These incidents are often dismissed as minimal and insignificant by those whose privilege protects them from their harmful effects. Yet stud­ies have found that over time, the stress associated with exposure to microaggressions has detrimental and even fatal effects on the health and well­being of people of color.

Furthermore, current trends toward postracial ideologies suggest that discussions about race are no longer relevant, and deny the continuing effects of racism on individuals and communities of color. Rollbacks of key civil rights victories, including af­firmative action policies and voting rights protec­tions, have been rationalized by a false narrative that minimizes the persistence of racial inequities. Peo­ple and communities of color who give voice to their experiences of racism are shamed, silenced, and in­validated; accusations of “playing the race card” place the onus on the victims of racism to adapt and accept while shielding perpetrators from being held accountable for their racist actions.

Within this landscape of post­racialism, JACL continues to combat racism and discrimination directed toward the AAPI community. JACL ap­proaches this work with the understanding that rac­ism in U.S. society is endemic, foundational, and systemic. This framework allows JACL to work in coalition with other AAPI organizations, national racial advocacy groups including the National Council of La Raza and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liber­ties Union and the Anti­Defamation League. JACL works to confront racism in all its forms. A portion of JACL’s recent work has concentrated on respond­ing to and countering ignorant and stereo typical media images that depict AAPIs as model minorities,

perpetual foreigners, yellow perils, and worse. These depictions perpetuate misguided and racist framings of the AAPI community. JACL’s re sponses work to correct misperceptions and nor malize the image of AAPIs in mainstream society. As part of the Asian Pacific American Media Coali tion (APAMC), JACL monitors portrayals of AAPIs on television pro­gramming and works with major networks to in­crease their diversity both on­screen and behind the camera. In addition, JACL is creat ing a series of trainings to edu cate media executives on identifying and rejecting limited AAPI characters that conform to and reinforce stereotypes.

By combating racism at all its levels, from the seemingly innocuous microaggressions and media portrayals to violent hate crimes and discrimina­tory legislation, JACL works to eradicate the roots of bigotry and intolerance that continue to impact the AAPI community.

Christine Munteanu

See Also: Japanese American Internment; Japanese Americans; Stereotypes About Asian Americans.

Further ReadingsChou, R. S., and J. R. Feagin. The Myth of the Model

Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2010.

Hosakawa, Bill. JACL: In Quest of Justice. New York: William & Morrow, 1982.

Sue, Derald Wing, et al. “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice.” American Psychologist, v.62/4 (2007).

Japanese American InternmentDuring World War II, approximately 120,000 Japa­nese Americans were held against their will, and the majority of those detained were U.S. citizens. An at­mosphere of intense prejudice was a key factor lead­ing to this unprecedented mass imprisonment of Americans. The first steps were taken immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with some Japanese

Korean American Coalition | 159

Korean American CoalitionThe Korean American Coalition (KAC) is a non-profit, nonpartisan community advocacy organiza-tion. KAC was established in 1983 in Los Angeles, California, where the organization is still headquar-tered today. By 2014, KAC consisted of 17 chap-ters in nine states and in Washington, D.C. The group’s mission is to promote the civic concerns, civil rights, and community affairs of the Korean American community. The organization fulfills its mission by offering a range of services to the Ko-rean American community, including naturaliza-tion assistance, voter registration, conflict media-tion, and leadership training for college students. KAC has also been involved in facilitating commu-nication between the Korean American community and other communities of color.

From its beginnings, KAC was involved in help-ing recent immigrants adjust to life in the United States, particularly in terms of overcoming the ob-stacles Korean immigrants faced as an ethnic mi-nority group unaccustomed to a multicultural so-ciety. KAC launched voter registration drives and held forums, debates, and educational symposiums on political issues in the United States. As a bilin-gual organization, KAC also helped to resolve inter-generational conflicts within the Korean American community. The organization was also instrumen-tal in the founding of the Black–Korean Alliance—a biracial group established after the shooting deaths of four Korean merchants in 1986—with co-chairs

consisting of one African American and one Korean American.

Without strong governmental or institutional support, however, the Black-Korean Alliance was limited to reactive rather than preemptive mea-sures. In 1991, the Los Angeles Times praised the Alliance’s efforts to avoid confrontation through dialogue, but the death of African American teen-ager Latasha Harlins at the hands of Soon Ja Du, a Korean immigrant and convenience store clerk on March 16, 1991, exacerbated tensions between the two communities.

Security cameras revealed that Harlins put a $1.79 bottle of orange juice in her backpack and approached the counter with money in her hand. Du didn’t see the money, however, and confronted Harlins over what Du concluded was an attempted theft. After a brief scuffle in which Harlins knocked Du to the floor, Harlins left the orange juice on the counter and started out the door. Du shot her in the back of the head.

In November 1991, a jury found Du guilty of vol-untary manslaughter, an offense that carried a max-imum prison sentence of 16 years, but Judge Joyce Karlin suspended the sentence, giving Du five years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $500. The African American community was outraged by the judge’s decision, and many, in-cluding journalists, academicians, and politicians, believe that the simmering resentment that resulted was a contributing factor to the explosion that came the following year.

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160 | Korean American Coalition

1992: A Turning Point in KAC HistoryThe riots erupted on April 29 after a largely white jury acquitted Los Angeles Police Department of-ficers Stacey Koon, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind, and Laurence Powell on charges of excessive use of force against Rodney King. The first violence, recorded in a video seen by millions of television viewers, involved white trucker Reginald Denny being yanked from his vehicle by a group of black men who then bashed him in the head with a claw hammer, a brick, and an oxygen tank, nearly killing him and leaving him with permanent brain dam-age. Less than 30 minutes later, three blocks from the Denny attack, five African American youths de-cided to steal armloads of malt liquor from the Pay-less Liquor and Deli, a Korean-owned store known as “Mr. Lee’s.”

When the owner’s son tried to stop the theft, one of the youths struck him in the head with a bottle. The other youth hurled bottles at the glass door, shattering it. The violence and looting spread through south Los Angeles, Koreatown, Hollywood, and beyond. The U.S. Army, Marines, and National Guard were called in. The final toll included about 2,000 people injured and more than 50 killed, more than 1,100 buildings damaged, and more than 3,000 fires set. Property damage was set at $1 billion. Costs to the Korean American community were heavy: 2,280 Korean American–owned stores were looted, burned or damaged, amounting to about $400 mil-lion in losses. One Korean American, 18-year-old Edward Song Lee, was killed in a gunfight between two Korean American groups who misidentified each other as looters.

During the period after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, the Korean American Coalition emerged as a leading voice for the Korean American commu-nity. Hundreds of Korean American merchants were faced with burned-out stores, but their efforts to re-build were often stymied by a lack of political capi-tal. The merchants felt that their concerns were ig-nored at both the city and state levels. Additionally, many Korean Americans felt that they, as a group, were being scapegoated as the cause of the city’s ra-cial problems when the Soon Ja Du incident was cited as a major factor in the violence. These feel-ings gained greater credence when the incident was used to account for the disproportionate economic

loss of the Korean American community. KAC rep-resented the concerns of the community to main-stream media, elected officials, and government agencies. The organization also increased its citi-zenship drive and voter registration campaigns to increase the number of Korean American voters, co-ordinated relief efforts for victims of the 1992 riots, and successfully lobbied for bilingual voter registra-tion forms and sample ballots in California.

The lack of Korean American representation in the “Rebuild Los Angeles” (RLA) effort underscored KAC’s message about the need for Korean Ameri-cans to establish a greater political presence. Even when an Asian co-chair was added to RLA leader-ship, the appointment was given to Linda Wong, a Chinese American. The rebuilding agenda was a key topic when both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clin-ton campaigned in Los Angeles, but Korean Amer-icans were noticeably missing from the group of local officials who defined the agenda. However, Ko-rean Americans played a larger role through un-official channels.

The peace rally that drew 30,000 participants on May 11, 1992, was organized by Korean Americans, and the placards calling for “Justice for All People of Color” and “More Jobs for the Inner-City” indi-cated the commonalities Korean Americans felt with the African American and Latino communities. KAC, along with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, and the Mexican Ameri-can Legal Defense and Educational Fund, founded the Multicultural Collaborative, which became a powerful voice in Los Angeles politics. In the more than two decades since the Los Angeles riots, KAC has continued in its role as a leader in Korean Amer-ican activism. When the Los Angeles City Council drafted new boundaries that split Koreatown’s coun-cil districts in 2011, KAC fought the redistricting, and Grace Yoo, then KAC executive director, spear-headed the lawsuit seeking to stop the changes.

KAC ProgramsKAC cofounded the 4.29 Resolution Center in 1997 in collaboration with the Korea Society and the Martin Luther King Legacy Association, an agency of the Southern Christian Leadership Con-ference (SCLC). Although the center began as an

urban-area interethnic relations initiative to address inner-city intergroup tension, particularly between Korean merchants and African American residents in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, it has grown into a comprehensive conflict resolution and community education/outreach project spearhead-ing the Korean American community’s efforts to reach out to other communities in the Greater Los Angeles area. The 4.29 Center successfully mediated over 1,000 cases in its first decade of service.

In 2011, KAC created the KAC’s Mentorship Cir-cles program to bridge the gap between generations of Korean Americans and to foster the transfer of the benefits of experience and knowledge from estab-lished community and corporate leaders to young Korean Americans. Through interactive group and individual sessions, from guest speaker panels to professional networking events, the mentorship pro-gram raises in mentors and protégés the awareness of social issues vital to Korean Americans.

KAC’s National College Leadership Conference is the longest continuously running annual leader-ship conference for Korean American students in the United States. With the support of State Farm Insur-ance, the conference offers young Korean Americans an opportunity to meet established professionals in their field of interest, to learn essential leadership skills that will assist them in their future professions, and to interact with other bright, ambitious Korean Americans. The purpose of the association’s Sum-mer College Internship Program is to provide per-sonal and professional development opportunities to highly qualified Korean American college students and to prepare them for future leadership roles in the Korean American community. The program places participants in sponsor offices four days a week. In-ternships are available in Government/Politics, Non-Profit, Corporate, and Media.

KAC also sponsors a uniquely designed Model United Nations (MUN) program for high school students in the Los Angeles Koreatown area. MUN is an educational simulation that gives students an opportunity to learn not only about the United Na-tions and past and current global issues but also to develop skills in critical thinking, research, public speaking and debating, writing, and collaboration.

Wylene Rholetter

See Also: Asian-Owned Businesses; Korean Americans; Political Leadership.

Further ReadingsChung, Angie Y. Legacies of Struggle: Conflict and

Cooperation in Korean American Politics. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007.

Chang, Edward T. and Jeannette Diaz-Veizades. Ethnic Peace in the American City: Building Community in Los Angeles and Beyond. New York: New York University Press, 1999.

Korean American Coalition. “About Us.” http://www .kacnational.com/about.html (Accessed November 2014).

Korean AmericansKorean Americans are Americans of Korean descent or naturalized Koreans immigrants to the United States. As of the 2010 Census, 1,423,784 individuals who identified as Korean alone lived in the United States, while those who identified as Korean alone or in addition to any other race numbered 1,706,822.

In 2012, census predictions estimated 382,757 of those who identified as Korean alone were native to the United States and 674,757 individuals who identified as Korean and one or more other race or ethnicity were native citizens of the United States. The number of foreign-born Koreans numbered 1,067,644 of whom 603,033 were naturalized U.S. citizens.

The first Korean American was Philip Jaisohn (So Jae-pil), who immigrated to the United States in 1895 after leading a failed coup to modernize Korea. He received his citizenship certificate on June 19, 1888; at a time before Anti-Asian laws barred Kore-ans from American citizenship.

Organized Korean immigration to the United States began in the early 20th century, when Hawai-ian plantation owners imported Korean workers as cheap laborers on sugar and pineapple farms through the help of David Deshler’s labor bureau in Korea. The first group of Koreans, numbering 102, arrived in Honolulu on January 12, 1903 aboard the S.S. Gaelic. That date is now known as Korea Day in the United States. Before the Korean emigration bureau closed in

Korean Americans | 161

Military, Asian Americans in the | 195

affine Springer fibers arising in the Hitchin fibra-tion. This allowed them to employ the tools of geo-metric representation theory, namely the theory of perverse sheaves, to study what was initially a com-binatorial problem of a number-theoretic nature. Chau eventually succeeded in formulating the proof for the fundamental lemma for Lie algebras in 2008. Together with results from Jean-Loup Waldspurger, who had earlier deduced stronger forms of the fun-damental lemma from this result, this completed the proof of the fundamental lemma in all cases. In 2004, Chau and Laumon were awarded the Clay Re-search Award for their achievement in solving the fundamental lemma proposed by Robert Langlands for the case of unitary groups. Chau’s proof of the general case was selected by Time as one of the Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2009. In 2010, he re-ceived the Fields Medal and in 2012, the Legion of Honour. In 2012 he became a fellow of the Ameri-can Mathematical Society.

Hidayath Ulla

See Also: Chinese Americans; Nobel Laureates; Vietnamese Americans.

Further ReadingsHowe, Roger. “Harish Chandra: A Biographical Memoir”,.

Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 2011.Jackson, Allyn, and Dieter Kotschick, “Interview with

Shiing Shen Chern” Notices of the AMS, v.45/7 (1998). Overbye, Dennis. “The Emperor of Math” New York

Times (2006).Wang, Danhong, and Lizhen Ji. “Vietnamese

Mathematician Ngô Báo Châu”, Asia Pacific Mathematics Newsletter, v.4/3 (2014).

Military, Asian Americans in theAsian and Asian Pacific Americans account for over 50 ethnic and language groups and subgroups, such as Americans with Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Fili-pino, Korean, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Samoan, and Hawaiian ancestry, among many others. Moreover,

many Asians and Asian Pacific Islanders have ances-try across several different cultures.

Asian Americans have fought for the United States as far back as the early 19th century, in con-flicts that include the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and in the war theaters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Statistical data show increasing military enrollment of Asian Americans from areas such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. The military experienced a peak in Asian American military enrollment start-ing in 2009; a National Public Radio report (2010) cited the military’s educational benefits as one of the most important reasons for Asian American enlistment.

Statistics show that Asian Americans today amount to less than 4 percent of active-duty mili-tary, a small number relative to their actual num-bers in U.S. society. However, the number of Asian Americans currently joining the military is growing. In 2014, West Point announced that about 25 per-cent of incoming freshmen were minorities. Asian Pacific Islander Americans, for example, comprise between 9 and 15 percent of incoming 2014 classes at the Air Force and the Naval academies, and at West Point as well.

Warfront ParticipationAsians began to migrate to the Americas at the be-ginning of and throughout the 19th century, seek-ing a better life, like many other immigrant groups. Work opportunities abounded in the incipient re-public of the United States and Asians were ini-tially welcome as a source of much-needed labor. They worked in railroad construction and mining, among other industries, and suffered much bias and discrimination. Reportedly, Asian American sol-diers fought in the War of 1812. By the beginning of the American Civil War (1861–65), there were thousands of Asians already living in the country, and many served honorably in the military. Another wave of East Asian immigrants arrived in the first decade of the 20th century.

In 1918, at the outbreak of World War I, there were approximately 180,000 Asian Americans liv-ing in the United States, mainly of Japanese, Chi-nese, and Filipino descent. Despite suffering much discrimination from government policies

196 | Military, Asian Americans in the

and the American public, many joined the mili-tary and served in World War I. In recognition for their service, Asian soldiers were allowed to be-come naturalized citizens of the United States, de-spite a history of anti-immigrant legislation target-ing Chinese immigrants. By the early 1940s, over 500,000 Asian Americans lived in the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans and Hawaiians were considered national security threats based on their appearance and cul-tural ancestry. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is-sued Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which autho-rized the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and aliens, to internment camps.

Tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly removed to internment camps, and many lost all they possessed. Despite suffering such prej-udice and discrimination, many Japanese Ameri-cans joined the U.S. military voluntarily and served honorably and courageously in World War II. The famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for in-stance, an infantry regiment of the U.S. Army, was formed entirely by Japanese Americans. The reg-iment fought with great distinction in Italy and France and won many battle honors. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team achieved great victories and suffered over 800 casualties. A significant num-ber of its members won medals of valor as well, be-coming known as the most decorated unit for its size in the history of the United States. Other Asian Americans also participated in World War II; for example, approximately 20,000 Chinese Americans were drafted during World War II.

Other Asian Americans participated with dis-tinction in the war and its aftermath, the Korean War (1950–53). In fact, a great number of Asian Americans remained in the military after the end of World War II and the Korean War and continued to serve. They participated in the war effort against Communist North Korean and Chinese forces, as well as in the Vietnam War (1955–75). Today, ap-proximately 2.6 percent of active duty servicemen, many of them deployed to the Middle East and Asian fronts, are Asian American.

Many other Asian Americans distinguished themselves in U.S. wars. During the Vietnam War, Asian and Asian Pacific Americans also participated to a greater extent and were distinguished for their

dedication. In 2003, the George W. Bush administra-tion thanked Asian and Asian Pacific American sol-diers for their service, stating “Generations of Asian/Pacific Americans have proudly served our nation with honor and courage in wars and conflicts . . . Today, as in the past, their dedication and service to advancing peace in a troubled world upholds the val-ues that make our country strong.”

StereotypingAsian Americans have had to endure their share of racist bias. Some of the stereotypes originated within the U.S. military during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and others were older still, such as the “yellow peril” slur, which sprouted in late-19th-century California, when East Asians became feared as an economic threat. Racial bias has also affected Asian Americans in the military, as proven by some cases recently brought to light. One of the forms in which racial prejudice becomes overt action in the military is harassment and bullying, which can have deleterious emotional effects, as the examples of Danny Chen and Harry Lew demonstrate. Danny Chen, a Chinese American private in the U.S. Army, is believed to have committed suicide. Chen was the only Asian American in his unit and suffered racial slurs and relentless bullying and attacks by his unit members before his death.

During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Defense Department presented nine service members representing the four active-duty services, reserve components, and the Coast Guard with the Federal Asian Pacific American Council’s Military Meri-torious Service Award. In 2012, about 65,000 immigrants served in the U.S. armed forces. About 23 percent of those were from the Philippines. (U.S. Department of Defense/Rudi Williams)

Model Minority Stereotype | 197

Another soldier, Harry Lew, committed sui-cide after suffering threats and brutal hazing at the hands of his fellow soldiers. These and similar inci-dents serve to illustrate the ongoing prejudice that affects Asian Americans. The experiences of Asian Americans in the military vary. Some have come forward to express that Asian Americans often en-dure various types of harassment, from milder forms of racial stereotyping to hazing. Others, how-ever, have suffered none. But the incidents described raised a large public outcry and led to issues of rac-ism in the military being highlighted.

ConclusionAsian Americans have fought with great distinc-tion in many U.S. wars since the early 19th century. However, Asian Americans have traditionally repre-sented the lowest number of volunteers of any eth-nic group in the country. Today, in some Califor-nia areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, numbers for Asian American recruited soldiers have risen to almost double their representation in the general population. In 2010, the proportion of enlisted soldiers grew to nearly double that of the previous year. Reportedly, how-ever, Asian Americans do not serve often in the front lines. Most Asian Americans serve in some area of technical support. In some cases, reportedly, Asian Americans seek noncombat jobs due to cultural or religious issues and others because they tend to be more academically inclined and seek training that may be useful in careers beyond the military.

The role played by Asian Americans in the U.S. military and their distinguished military service have highlighted their contributions as American citizens. Consequently, this has helped dispel much of the ste-reotyping traditionally disseminated about people of Asian descent. This has contributed, some argue, to open doors for Asian Americans in public service arenas, such as judicial courts and the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. For example, Dalip Singh Saund, an Indian Asian American born in Punjab, in 1957 became the first Asian American elected to Con-gress and served until 1973. He had become a U.S. cit-izen in 1946. Saund was the first Indian American to be elected to Congress and was re-elected twice.

Daniel K. Inouye, from Hawaii, became the highest-ranking Asian American politician in the

history of the United States. Inouye was a veteran who had fought in World War II as a member of the renowned 442nd Infantry Regiment and received many military medals as well as the Congressio-nal Medal of Honor. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1959 and to the U.S. Senate in 1962. From 2010, he served as the senate’s president pro tempore until his death in 2012. The following year he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trudy Mercadal

See Also: Chinese Americans; Japanese Americans; Filipino Americans; Political Leadership.

Further ReadingsBielakowski, Alexander M. Ethnic and Racial Minorities in

the U.S. Military: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013.

Moy, Victoria. Fighting for the Dream: Voices of Chinese American Veterans From World War II to Afghanistan. Los Angeles: Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, 2014.

Moy, Victoria. “History Through the Eyes of Chinese Americans Who Served Their Country.” TeaLeaf Nation (July 8, 2013). http://www.tealeafnation.com/ 2013/07/history-through-the-eyes-of-chinese -americans-who-served-their-country (Accessed November 2014).

Test, Samantha. “Attention Turns to Asian Americans in the Military in Light of Recent Suicides and Increased Enrollment.” Northwest Asian Weekly, v.31/17 (2012). http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2012/04/attention -turns-to-asian-americans-in-the-military-in-light -of-recent-suicides-and-increased-enrollment (Accessed November 2014).

U.S. Army. “Asian Pacific Americans in the United States Army.” http://www.army.mil/asianpacificamericans/history (Accessed November 2014).

Model Minority StereotypeThe model minority stereotype (MMS) is an over-simplified perception of Asian American and Pa-cific Islanders (AAPIs) that casts AAPIs as the ideal

because they either find the naturalization proce-dures too complex or are afraid of the examination.

Steps for NaturalizationImmigrants must go through the following pro-cess in order to become a U.S. citizen. The first step is application. Once immigrants meet the require-ments for naturalization and intend to become a U.S. citizen, they must file Form N-400 Application for Naturalization. The next step is to go through an interview with the USCIS. During the interview, they will take the English and civics tests, unless ex-empt. Once they have passed the tests and their ap-plication is approved, they will receive a notification from the USCIS. The final step is to take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States during a ceremony for U.S. citizenship.

Determinants of NaturalizationWhy do immigrants become naturalized citizens of the host country? Additionally, what factors deter-mine or explain immigrant naturalization? Built on previous works, in 1994 Philip Yang put forward a comprehensive framework called “contextual per-spective,” which incorporates immigrants’ individ-ual characteristics and larger social contexts in the country of origin and the country of destination to explain the likelihood of citizenship acquisition. A number of hypotheses derived from this framework were proposed for testing. Specifically, poorer eco-nomic conditions and lower standard of living in the home country, tighter political control in the home country, an origin from a refugee-sending country, cultural similarity between the home and host countries (e.g., use of the same language, com-mon history, similar traditions), and recognition of dual citizenship by the country of origin encourage immigrants to take roots and become naturalized citizens of the host country, while proximity of the home country to the host country reduces the like-lihood of naturalization. A larger immigrant com-munity from the same country of origin and greater urban concentration of an immigrant population in the country of destination also facilitate the natural-ization of immigrants. The better the immigrants’ cultural and economic adaptation to the host soci-ety, the more likely the immigrants are to naturalize. In addition, several demographic variables such as

age at immigration, gender, marital status, presence of minor children, and service in the U.S. Armed Forces also influence the likelihood of naturaliza-tion. The framework and hypotheses were tested for a cohort of immigrants, using the Public Use Micro-data Sample data from the 1980 U.S. Census with appended records of the countries of origin. The re-sults show that, to a large extent, economic, politi-cal, social, cultural, and geographical conditions in the country of origin, and immigrants’ ethnic com-munities and urban concentration in the country of destination, influence immigrants’ propensity for naturalization and that, net of the contextual fac-tors, many of the immigrants’ adaptation and de-mographic characteristics are also significant pre-dictors of citizenship acquisition. Notwithstanding some refinements later, Yang’s analytical framework has remained to this date the most influential model that predicts immigrant citizenship acquisition.

Philip Q. Yang

See Also: Green Cards; Immigration Reform; Voter Registration and Voting.

Further ReadingsU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Home Page.”

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis (Accessed November 2014).

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Citizenship and Naturalization Guidance.” http://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume12.html (Accessed November 2014)

Yang, Philip. “Explaining Immigrant Naturalization.” International Migration Review, v.28 (1994).

Network of Indian Professionals of North AmericaThe purpose of the Network of Indian Profession-als of North America (NetIP) is to meet the needs of south Asian professionals in the United States as those professionals grow in their work and personal

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lives. NetIP is the voice for this group, which has excelled in Western society, and in business, poli-tics, and the arts. Many NetIP former and present members hold respected positions of leadership in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors around the world.

NetIP describes its mission as serving as the voice for south Asians through development of and engagement in a cohesive network of professionals who are of benefit to the community. Besides being a networking forum, the group aims to improve and enhance the communities in which members work and reside. Lifetime relationships are of ben-efit to those leaders who are emerging in business, politics, and civic life. A strong personal bond be-tween members strengthens communities and in-terpersonal relationships. NetIP focuses specifi-cally on economic growth and security, cultural awareness and preservation, family needs, and pro-motion of education. The group gives back to their local communities by recruiting experts in health care, banking, education, finance, and technology. Passion, energy, and drive describe NetIP and its members. NetIP provides for the human connec-tion desired by its members, as well as the develop-ment needs of south Asian professionals.

The organization focuses on four primary pil-lars: professional development, cultural aware-ness, community service, and political awareness. NetIP’s professionals are interested in various areas of the economy and the opportunity for successful careers in those areas. The organization educates its mem bers through speakers, literature, news-letters, semi nars, etc. It also holds events that pro-vide opportuni ties for networking. Besides net-working, the events hosted by NetIP raise awareness about south Asian culture. They also raise aware-ness through book clubs that feature south Asian authors, concerts fea turing south Asian artists, cul-tural shows, and par ties. The organization also puts together trips for members to attend museum ex-hibits, gallery displays, theatrical premieres, and fashion shows. NetIP’s members work together to pool their time, re sources, and connections to help local and interna tional charities. Chapters have hosted volunteering events at soup kitchens, food banks, and commu nity centers. They have also raised money through members’ companies,

universities, and associations to increase awareness of community organizations in the United States, Canada, and India. The fourth pillar, education and learning, is facilitated through forums where cur-rent issues are presented and dis cussed. Experts and elected officials are present to increase understand-ing, with many of those also speaking at local chap-ter events and annual NetIP conferences.

The organization was founded in 1990 by Satish Chandra. It originally started in Chicago as a forum for south Asians to meet and network. Cur-rently, there are 23 chapters in North America, and more than 350,000 members. The organization had its 20th anniversary in 2010. A primary focus since then has been on renewed efforts toward philan-thropic endeavors and social responsibility. Nation-ally, NetIP has supported the Clinton Foundation AIDS/HIV Initiative and currently supports the Grameen Foun dation. With a focus on social re-sponsibility, the or ganization has embraced the ideas of sustainabil ity and reduction of the car-bon footprint on the planet. In 2010, it held its first green confer ence in Seattle. The primary efforts at this confer ence included a focus on paperless tech-nology and local produce and organic foods at the conference. The aim was for every facet of the con-ference to have a green component.

The NetIP Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that operates for charitable purposes with the mission of promoting leadership and ser-vice to benefit the community. Its 2014 charity is the Colorblind Initiative. Resurgence: Charity Be-gins With Children addresses the future of chil-dren as citizens of Earth. Fifty percent of the funds raised will go toward the foundation to support Day of Service activities. The other 50 percent will go to Asha for Education’s (Atlanta chapter) Nishtha Project. NetIP is concerned about the mil-lions of children who suffer from poverty, malnu-trition, illness, and child labor (especially in devel-oping countries).

Asha for Education works toward socioeco-nomic change in India through education of un-derprivileged children. Specific focus is on female illiteracy, women empowerment, poverty, and eco-nomic self-sufficiency through education. Educa-tion is supplemented with vocational skills to create self-sufficient adults who contribute to society. Asha

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for Education has many positives associated with it, namely, a near-zero operational budget, annual au-dits, and 100 percent transparency. The charity has also been the recipient of many awards. The Nishtha Project, in particular, is a shelter project for children of sex workers (Baruipur, West Bengal). There are currently 32 children ages 2 to 14 years in the pro-gram. The program focuses on preventing pros-titution with female children and preventing a life of crime with male children. The program has suc-cessfully assisted two female children of sex work-ers graduate from college and gain government em-ployment.

NetIP has a number of alliance partners. The South Asian MBA Association (SAMBAA) provides a platform that fosters the next generation of corpo-rate executives and entrepreneurs who are interested in south Asia and desire to become global leaders. The Nanubhai Education Foundation, organized in 2004, is dedicated to achieving equal access to India’s growing economic opportunities with rural pub-lic high school students (especially female) through education. Upakar provides scholarships for Indian American students who have exhibited academic ex-cellence and have a financial need. It was founded in 1997 by a group of Indian American leaders from Washington, D.C. South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is a national nonprofit that sup-ports the voice and perspective of south Asians in an effort to build a more inclusive and just society. Mis-sion India Foundation (MIF) is a nonprofit based in the United States dedicated to providing mater-nal and child health care for poor and marginalized rural populations in India. Pratham is the biggest nongovernmental organization working in India that provides a quality education to underprivileged children. Lend-A-Hand India, founded in 2003, is a nonprofit organization based in New York City with a focus on issues related to youth. Its programs have expanded to include vocational training, ca reer de-velopment, employment, and entrepreneurial op-portunities for young boys and girls in urban and rural communities.

Jessica Hammer

See Also: Asian American Advertising Federation; Japanese American Citizens League; Korean American

Coalition; National Organization of Asian American Professionals; Network of Indian Professionals of North America.

Further ReadingsGrameen Foundation. “Connecting the World’s Poor to

Their Full Potential.” http://grameen foundation.org (Accessed November 2014).

Mehra, Shital Kakkar. Business Etiquette: A Guide for the Indian Professional. Delhi: HarperCollins India, 2011

Network of Indian Professionals of North America. “About NetIP.” http://na.netip.org/aboutus (Accessed November 2014).

Nichi Bei TimesFor more than a half-century, the Nichi Bei Times was the oldest, most established Japanese Ameri-can newspaper servicing the Asian American Pa-cific corridor in northern California, particularly the wide Japanese American populations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. In giving voice to the thriving immigrant communities, the Nichie Bei Times came to articulate a philosophy of assimila-tion and racial harmony that reflected the profound political and religious beliefs of its founding editor, Kyutaro Abiko (1865–1936), who was a first-gen-eration Japanese immigrant and Christian convert who championed the responsibility of immigrants to become part of their new culture. That credo, of course, demonized Abiko and his newspaper to those first-generation immigrants—and their news-papers—unshakably committed to preserving the customs and traditions of their homeland, includ-ing loyalty to the Emperor and fidelity to the prac-tices and beliefs of Buddhism.

The mission statement of Nichi Bei (the name translates to “Japan and America”) tirelessly re-f lected the assimilationist agenda—indeed, for more than 30 years the newspaper was actually bi-lingual, printing both Japanese and English in the same edition. After cutting back from publishing daily to publishing four times a week in 2006, the newspaper finally folded in 2009; its editorial board cited the catastrophic impact of Internet news as the

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opportunities among many Vietnamese Americans, including not only second- and third-generation members of the community but also with regard to allowing more people to explore what they can do in order to improve their communities at-large.

If there is one consideration that could be ex-plored with regard to Vietnamese Americans it is the fact that this is a part of the American experi-ence that is more than likely going to expand in size as time goes by. Many Vietnamese Americans came to the United States as a result of a political war that they did not want to be involved with. Today these people are moving into the United States in the hope of having better and more productive lives. There is great potential for these people to become strong leaders in the future but the big question will entail whether or not these people are going to continue to advance beyond the many movements that they have reached over the years.

Michael Fox

See Also: Asian-Owned Businesses; Assimilation and Acculturation; Southeast Asian Americans.

Further ReadingsGlaser, Steph. “Why Vietnamese Americans Rule the Nail

Salon Scene.” Matador Network (January 16, 2014).Nguyen, Trung. “Study: US Vietnamese Tend to Live in

Separate Communities.” Voice of America (July 12, 2013).

“Vietnamese Americans.” Asian Nation. http://www .asian-nation.org/vietnamese.shtml (Accessed January 2015).

Voter Registration and VotingA century ago, the majority of Asian Americans in the United States were low-income, low-skilled workers packed into racial enclaves, facing official inequity and exclusion. A nationwide survey shows that today Asian Americans are the most rapidly growing, highly educated, and highest-earning ra-cial group in the United States. They place a greater worth on parenthood, marriage, and professional success than other Americans. In addition, they are

the most likely of all racial groups to marry outside their race and live in a mixed neighborhood. How-ever, when it comes to voting, Asian Americans have had a long and turbulent history in the United States.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that over 3.9 million Asian Americans voted in 2012, represent-ing almost 3 percent of all voters and an increase of over 500,000 from 2008. However, those are rel-atively small numbers considering the size of the Asian population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that there were an es-timated 18.2 million Asian people—including those of multiple race—in the United States. The five larg-est Asian groups were, respectively, Chinese (except individuals of Taiwanese descent), Filipinos, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Koreans and Japanese. The CDC anticipates that by 2050, there will be 40.6 mil-lion Asians residing in the United States, comprising 9.2 percent of the population. However, the number of Asian Americans among voters becomes much thinner once origin, naturalization, hurdles to voter registration, and voter turnout are taken into ac-count. Still, these numbers are not insignificant, particularly considering how fast the Asian Amer-ican population has been growing.

Asian American Road to CitizenshipAsian Americans were not regarded as a visible polit-ical force in the United States until the 1970s, when they became the quickest-growing ethnic group, amassing high concentrations in top electoral states such as New York, Texas, and California. Histori-cally, to gain the right to vote, they faced many diffi-culties, with naturalization being the first.

Based on the Naturalization Act of 1790, only “free white persons” were allowed to apply for nat-uralization, deeming Asian Americans ineligible to vote or run for public office, regardless of how long they had been living in the United States. After the Civil War, in 1870, the laws were altered, enabling individuals of African descent to seek citizenship. However, Asian Americans still were not permit-ted to apply for citizenship, and after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, their chances seemed even smaller. Following the gold rush of 1849, the Chinese flocked to the West Coast, where economic opportunity was on the rise. Their labor for the Central Pacific from 1864 through 1869

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resulted in the construction of the first transconti-nental railroad. The Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first major law limiting immigration to the United States, was established to quell economic fears, particularly on the west coast where U.S.-born individuals blamed Chinese workers—whom they saw as racially beneath them—for declining wages and unemployment.

The implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act successfully stopped Chinese immigration and nat-uralization for 10 years. The Geary Act of 1892 pro-longed the policy for an additional 10 years and be-came permanent in 1902. In addition, the National Origins Act of 1929 restricted overall immigration to the United States to 150,000 annually and prohib-ited Asian immigration. This law was revoked by the Magnuson Act of 1943, when China became a U.S. supporter in the World War II fight against Japan. However, the Magnuson Act allowed only 105 Chi-nese immigrants yearly. After a lull of more than 80 years, the Immigration Act of 1965 was passed, al-lowing large-scale Chinese immigration and elimi-nating prior policy pertaining to national origin.

Voting Rights Act and Asian Americans in OfficeOn August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, an expansive and pow-erful civil rights legislation created to ensure that el-igibility to vote was not denied because of color or race. The act removed the blocks preventing Asian Americans from participating in the political sys-tem and shaped a new electoral era for minorities in general. The act has since undergone amendments in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006.

The Voting Rights Act’s language assistance pol-icies, coded under Section 203, have made the po-litical process more available to Asian Americans. In 2011, the Census Bureau stated that language as-sistance and bilingual ballots must be provided in six Asian languages to Asian Americans in 11 states, covering 22 cities and counties. Depending on the jurisdiction, these languages generally include Chi-nese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Indian. Through translated ballots, Asian Ameri-cans can exercise their right to vote privately and in-dependently inside the voting booth. Language as-sistance is a significant benefit for Asian Americans

who cannot speak English proficiently. For example, when three counties in New York first offered the program, over 54,000 Chinese Americans in Queens and Manhattan benefited from the accessibility of Chinese-language materials. Records from previous and current community exit polls reveal that those who benefited the most were newly naturalized cit-izens, first-time voters, and voters with less than a high school education or no official U.S. education.

Some of the progress Asian Americans made in the voting arena can be attributed to the efforts of the first Asian American U.S. Congressman, Dalip Singh Saund. In 1958, Indian-born Saund was elected to Congress in California and became in-strumental in creating the law that would permit Indian immigrants to become naturalized citizens. Since then, many other Asian Americans have been elected to political office. For example, George Ari-yoshi, the first elected Asian American governor, served as governor of Hawai‘i from 1974 to 1986. Gary Locke—who was elected governor of Wash-ington in 1994—was the first Asian American to be

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Neither the Republican nor Democratic Party has given significant attention to the registration of Asian Americans to vote. However, Asian Americans have become more politically active as a whole, with an increase in voter participation in 2008 by 4 percent, bringing the voting rate to 49 percent of the Asian American community. (Wikimedia Commons/April Sikorski)

elected governor outside the state of Hawaii. Also in 1994, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which consists of Asian American congres-sional members, was established. Toward the end of the 1990s, Asian Americans had developed such a visible political presence that President Bill Clinton formed the White House Initiative on Asian Amer-icans and Pacific Islanders to ensure government agencies address community-specific needs.

Despite the headway Asian Americans have made, election monitoring by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) has detected language assistance breaches in some cov-ered locations. Voters have raised concerns about the lack of interpreters or interpreters who spoke the wrong dialect or language. For example, at a Queens, New York, poll site, a Chinese American voter was sent to a Korean interpreter (who was in-capable of assisting) after requesting language as-sistance. In multiple elections in several cities and counties, translated materials were kept hidden from voters; and in another instance, translated headings were switched, listing Democrat candi-dates as Republican candidates and Republicans as Democrats. These deficiencies compelled the U.S. Department of Justice to assign attorneys the re-sponsibility of monitoring Section 203 compliance. The Justice Department has filed a number of law-suits to rectify compliance issues.

ConclusionThe Asian American population increased by 46 per-cent between 2000 and 2010. However, those figures do not necessarily carry over to the voting polls. His-torically, Asian American voting rates were below the national average mainly because of lower rates of citizenship and lower voter registration rates. Voter registration is still a significant barrier for Asian Americans, with only 56 percent of adult citizens registering to vote in 2012, compared to rates of 72 percent and 73 percent for whites and blacks and 59 percent for Latinos. Some Asian Americans simply do not register to vote, while others are hindered by the inability to speak English proficiently. To assist with the language barrier, some states are working to provide voting materials in even more languages, such as Thai, Hindi, and Khmer.

Despite low voter registration numbers, the Asian American share of votes is increasing as more Asian adults become naturalized citizens and their U.S.-born children become adults. Once registered to vote, Asian American turnout is comparable to other groups. Studies show that in 2012, turnout rates were 84 percent for Asian Americans, 91 per-cent for blacks, 87 percent for whites, and 82 percent for Latinos. As the number of Asian American vot-ers increases, engaging them through voter-mobili-zation efforts becomes even more critical. Because a large portion of Asian Americans do not iden-tify with a political party or are independent vot-ers, it is important that mobilizing organizations, candidates, and parties reach out to Asian Ameri-can communities to understand how they vote, why they vote, and how to reach them.

Grace Ferguson

See Also: Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Elected Officials; Political Leadership.

Further ReadingsAmerican Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Voting

Right.” http://aaldef.org/programs/voting-rights (Accessed November 2014).

Asian American Justice Center. “Behind the Numbers: Post-Election Survey of Asian American and Pacific Islander Voters in 2012.” http://www.naasurvey.com/resources/Presentations/2012-aapipes-national.pdf (Accessed November 2014).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Asian American Populations.” http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/asian.html (Accessed November 2014).

Dhingra, Pawan and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez. Asian America Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2014.

Min, Pyong Gap. Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2006.

Nakanishi, Don T. and James S. Lai, eds. Asian American Politics: Law, Participation, and Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Trinh, Linda. Mobilizing an Asian American Community. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004.

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