re: Comment on 80-20

I was excited to get my first comment on the blog and would like to make a reply. Thank you very much anonymous reader for taking the time to make a response.

While I agree that 80-20 has laudable goals and achievements, I'm speaking to the fact that the membership base is not representative of all asian communities. The reason I feel this is a problem is because without the diversity of membership I fear that not all the opinions of these different communities are on the table. Perhaps other communities wouldn't focus on having federal judges first or targeting that particular executive order. This is not to say that those objectives are not worthwhile; simply that they might not be the targets of those other asian communities.

So, I ask if 80-20 is trying to bring these other communities to the table and not whether they believe their goals are representative without consultation.

Asians as a Political Action Group

As I've mentioned before, there is a glass ceiling for asians. Part of this problem stems from a lack of cohesion within the community. There are east asians who like being splintered into their various country groups, southeast asians who also enjoy splintering, and south asians who are often not included when east/southeast asians refer to asians. Often, we socialize in our groups based on the country of affiliation. Thus, there isn't as much chance to form the kind of relationship which invites mutual political struggle; rather, I find lots of splinter groups.

One of the groups which got a small bit of media attention in the last presidential election was the group 80-20 PAC. It strives to get equality in the government and in the workplace for asians, but if you look at the member rolls, they are overwhelmingly East Asian and mostly Chinese. How can a group claim to have the interest of all asians in mind when the member base just doesn't show that kind of diversity?

Groups like 80-20 need to extend beyond the East Asian subgroups in order to achieve a wider base of support for the opinions expressed and the political clout wielded. Only with this wider community can objectives truly be said to have been obtained for all Asian Americans.

Understanding as a Political Tool

Most Americans don't know very much about Asia beyond the fact that everything seems to be produced in China, the Japanese are kinda weird, and Indians get all of our outsourced work. This doesn't paint a great picture of Asia. We asians should try harder to spread a greater understanding of who we are. This is in keeping with my feeling that not explaining how we can't handle certain situations the same way as a white family in this post is lazy. Without an understanding of who we are, how can we expect our political goals to achieve the greater part of sympathy?

Many Taiwanese take part in political parties back home and may have some affiliation with groups in the US which are trying to break the glass ceiling for those who work here. We put the facts of how our numbers in high ranking positions are lower than they should be despite our obvious academic achievements. I feel that a part of our problem is a lack of understanding of our culture and who we are. We don't have that many notable artists (more on the lack in a later post) which try to bring our story into the American consciousness (beyond kung fu movies) so we have to get our story out in other ways. This includes explaining in better detail how are family situations are instead of just assuming others won't be able to understand.

The LGBT movement has had a great amount of success in part because most people know 1 or 2 and those 1 or 2 are very vocal about their situation. Obviously, our situation may not be quite as dire. We have a relatively good standard of living because of our high education level, but that ceiling is still there.

So, Asians, think about how to explain your life and tell people who are not asian because inside the group we understand. Outside, there needs to be more understanding.

India Reserving Seats for Women

Interesting bit of news. The upper house of the Indian Parliament passed a bill today with only 1 dissenting vote, which reserves a third of all seats in the parliament for woman. The bill will then be sent through the lower house where it has much support as well. This reminds me of affirmative action (while it was still popular) in the US. I hope it will serve its purpose of increasing the status of women in India, and then when the equality is better, this law can be repealed.

Part of what I hope this bill will accomplish is to reduce the sex ratio disparity in India. The disparity is thought to be caused by infanticide of female infants since they are not worth as much to the family, and the birth of a female is sometimes considered a drain on resources. With higher perceived worth on a national level, female infanticide may become less common as part of the trickle-down effect. Whether this occurs or not, I believe it is at least a step in the right direction.

Formosa Betrayed

I want to talk about supporting Asian-American artists in a later post, but for now I'm just going to pimp a movie that I have some interest in seeing. They have an official site here.

"Set in Chicago and Taiwan in the 1980s, the story follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent investigating the murder of a Taiwanese professor at a midwestern college. The search for his killers takes the agent to Taiwan where he discovers there is more involved in this murder than he ever anticipated." -blurb from Wikipedia

Taiwan, as you may or may not know, has an interesting status as to whether it's a country since China still believes that it owns Taiwan. This stance has made various countries wary of recognizing Taiwan as a nation because China is the 800lb gorilla in the room and no one wants to piss them off. The film explores some of the more shady happenings to people who are pro-independence for Taiwan.