AsianWeek Endorses Obama

AsianWeek's cover story this week features the staff's endorsement of Obama. The article points out that the mainstream media polls don't accurately portray the opinions of Asian Pacific Americans.

Here's a link to the story and the article pasted in below:

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/02/21/asians-for-obama/

Asians for Obama!

By: AsianWeek Staff, Feb 21, 2008

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama scored a triumphant landslide win Tuesday in his native Hawai‘i, the state with the largest percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders in America. Obama garnered 76 percent of the vote in Hawai‘i, which has an APA population of almost 71 percent.

This win is only the latest real evidence that Asian Americans are moving decisively toward a candidate whose platform is change. Former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, who served in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet, also endorsed Obama, calling him the only candidate who will both “change and unite America.”

Obama’s candidacy stands not just for change, but the ability to make change. That is the message which resonates with Asian Americans: We want change, and we have the intelligence and ability to make change happen. Indeed, the simple act of voting provides a chance for Asian Americans to do something to make change. And, as Tuesday illustrated, they’re doing it in droves.

It’s sad that the mainstream news media is so out of touch with our community, that their reports have consistently challenged Obama’s support among Asian Americans. Using polls of questionable validity, they have splayed on about Asian Americans widely supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton. But those pollsters have always misread the APA vote. The problem is methodology: English-only polls undercount those who speak primarily an Asian language. Multilingual polls underrepresent English-speaking Asian Americans.

No doubt, the diversity of language and culture make it difficult to gauge APA political sentiment, but this calls for more careful methodology, not the false media hype about Asian Americans voting against Obama. Even Time magazine was momentarily carried away in the hysteria, jumping to the conclusion that AsianWeek had endorsed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, despite AsianWeek’s strong front-page endorsement of Barack Obama (Time quickly issued a correction).

It is true that many Asian immigrants arrived in America during the 1990s, making them more familiar with Bill Clinton’s presidency. But no one should discount how Obama has energized APA political involvement to levels we have never seen before, particularly among the next generation of young Asian Americans.

Obama has brought tangible hope to all Americans. The reality of Asian American support for Obama presages the destiny of this country. Within our lifetimes, most Americans will be people of color, including the president of the United States.

Don't Believe What CNN Says About Asian Americans and Barack Obama

I found out about this CNN story from a member of the Asian American Journalists Association. I hadn't heard about this report. As always, beware of stories saying that Asian Americans wouldn't vote for Barack Obama. Not true!! There's now a petition circulating in the Asian American community asking for a new segment with balanced reporting. Here's the story from New America Media:

Asian Americans Outraged by CNN Election Report

New America Media, News Report, Jun Wang, Posted: Feb 14, 2008

Editor's Note: A CNN report that blames Asians' support of Clinton on their hesitancy to vote for a black president is insulting and inaccurate, argue Asian Americans.

Asian Americans are outraged over a recent CNN report that attributes their support for Hillary Clinton to their hesitancy to vote for a black president.

The three-minute video piece, “Asian Americans to Vote for Hillary Clinton Across the Nation,” aired on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees on Feb. 8.

People with different Asian accents unanimously spoke out one name -- “(Hillary) Clinton” -- when asked for whom they planned to vote. The report identified two major causes for Asian Americans’ support of Clinton, according to viewers: that they were “fearful of a black presidential candidate and/or fearful of change.”

Samson Fu, 27, a health care project manager with no former political experience, started circulating a petition among the Asian community on Feb. 10. The petition gained sponsorship from the “80-20 Initiative,” an Asian American political action committee headquartered in New York.

The petition called CNN’s coverage “a misleading portrayal behind why 75 percent of Asian Americans voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gary Tuchman (the reporter) seems to insinuate those Asian American votes as racially motivated and/or fearful of change.”

On the contrary, the petition points out that Asian Americans, especially first generation immigrants, “by their choice to come to a new land, are by and large the least fearful of changes.”

It urges CNN to take the video off of their Web site and run another segment with balanced reporting and include the rise of political cohesiveness within the Asian American community.

The petition collected more than 2,000 signatures and about 900 comments in two days. A copy of the petition letter, with more than 800 pages of signatures and comments, has been sent to CNN.

Samson Fu and S.B. Woo, the former lieutenant governor of Delaware and founder of the “80-20 Initiative,” have been in conversation with CNN’s top executives. John Liu, New York City councilman, plans to hold a press conference late this week if CNN doesn’t respond to the petition.

The CNN video is “biased, more of an opinion piece than investigative reporting,” Fu told New America Media. “CNN should be held responsible for making Asians appear racist, which is not true. Fu added that many of his friends were equally insulted by the report. “I initiated the petition to capture their feelings.”

Asian American viewers were also critical of CNN’s choice to interview only Asian Americans with heavy accents. One comment on the petition asks, “What is up with white people choosing only the non-fluent Asian population for the interviews… making Asian people look like dumb-asses, who don’t know English? I’m thinking prejudice and racism… What do you think?”

Another comment on the petition agrees, saying, “Many Asian Americans are educated and speak English very well. Perhaps you should represent our community more accurately.”

From Filipinos to Asian Indians, Asian Americans are a diverse group, says Samson Fu. They come from dozens of countries and cultural backgrounds. In cities like Seattle, Fu adds, it isn’t hard to interview a larger variety of Asians – instead of just talking to people in a Japanese teahouse.

Born in Hong Kong, Fu came to the United States at the age of five and spent 19 years in South Carolina before moving to Los Angeles three years ago. He says he didn’t know any other Asians in South Carolina.

“South Carolina’s population is black and white,” he says, “but I experienced no racial tension there at all. My black friends invited me home and cooked for me. They treated me like everyone else.”

As an Asian American growing up with black friends in South Carolina, Fu says he appreciates the idea of having a black president of the United States. “If you’ve ever traveled outside this country, you know that when people talk about America, they think of Caucasians, white people,” says Fu. “A black president will let people know we’re a multiracial country.”

Asian Americans have supported Clinton in large numbers for a variety of reasons, Fu argues in his petition. “One important factor in Asian Americans’ preference of Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama may be the endorsement of Sen. Clinton by the 80-20 Initiative, because she signed an iron-clad promise to bring equal opportunity in workplaces for all Asian Americans a month and a half before Obama did.”

The election is “not about race and skin color,” Fu adds. “We African Americans, Asian Americans and other racial groups are one America.”

S. B. Woo, who was born in Shanghai and moved to the United States in 1956 at the age of 18, shares Fu’s perspective of the unity of Americans and is hoping for a “win-win” resolution with CNN.

But with the American civil rights movement deeply rooted in his heart, Woo is more interested in uniting all Asians. His wish, reflected in the name “80-20 Initiative,” is to direct 80 percent of Asian Americans’ votes in one direction for the equal opportunity of all Asian Americans and the benefit of the nation.

When he moved here in the 1950s, Asians represented less than one percent of the American population. They were almost invisible. In half a century, Asian Americans have increased to more than four percent of the U.S. population, but their voices have still largely gone unheard.

One comment posted by Jo Ann from North Royalton, Ohio on CNN’s website touches on the invisibility of Asians, a race that she says “hasn’t been considered.” “It does seem that whenever we talk about race we seem to forget about the Asian-American population,” she writes. “I often wonder why it is that they never seem to complain about being left out. Shame on us for not considering them without being prompted!”

Woo says he has learned a lesson from “older Asian Americans” who he says surrendered too easily in the face of challenges. When he immigrated to the United States, African Americans were suffering greatly from discrimination. But they fought back and gained from the civil rights movement. Asian Americans, he says, also need to stand up.

“We Asians benefit from blacks. But we should not take it for granted,” he says, stressing the need for Asian Americans to take action to realize their own dreams.

Asian and Latino Voters

From my sister Deborah:

Since politics is mainly a numbers game (among other things), it would be interesting to see what the stats and voting habits are for Asians, Hispanics, and other people of color in general? I wonder if this will help support Obama's voting block.

My response:

A very good and important question and the painful answer is: NOT GOOD. For example in 2000 and 2004 45% of all Asian Americans voted for Bush and 43% of all Latino americans voted for Bush during those two elections. We can only hopE and pray that (especially) the Latinos (who now comprise the LARGEST MINORITY GROUP IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY--they are now 14% of the American population to the Blacks 13% WILL FINALLY WAKE UP FROM THEIR COLLECTIVE POLITICAL COMAS AND VOTE FOR OBAMA. But given these absurd numbers in the previous two elections there's no guarantee that will happen. The key for both of these groups (reminder: Asian Americans only comprise 3% of the national population and are not quite as key to all this as the Latinos) is that they weigh in on the side of Obama around the crucial issue of IMMIGRATION, which is a major issue in both communities. There's considerable political evidence which suggests that both groups are especially angry at Bush and the Republicans for not being politically supportive on this issue. So that's one very important area that MIGHT make them more supportive of Obama' (although ironically Edwards has a better record on this issue than either Obama or Hillary)...

In any event the key to the Latino and Asian American vote is YOUNG PEOPLE from 21-35 WHO TRADITIONALLY ARE VERY ALIENATED FROM THE POLITICAL PROCESS AND DON'T VOTE. However over HALF of their populations are UNDER THE AGE OF 40 so it will be absolutely crucial for Obama to tap into this youth sector in his campaign. I'm sure Obama knows all this and has Latino and Asian American organizers out on the ground trying to get these people out to vote. If they're successful in recruiting this voting bloc it will help Obama's chances immensely. Otherwise if the opposite is true as it was in 2004 and 2000 it will definitely HURT Obama's chances. Stay tuned...

Kofi