Community Voices
The APIAVote-Michigan Blog
Originally published on 18 Million Rising as part of their campaign called #MyAAPIVote In the last decades of the 19th century, an American named Wong Chin Foo tried to organize the small Chinese American community of New York City against mounting calls that “the Chinese must go!” During a time of economic hardship following the Civil War, Chinese in America became a perfect pincushion for aspiring politicians. Wong was part of a tiny politically active cadre. They were an exception among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who lived in America but outside of its politics. The whole lot were thus defenseless against racially charged attacks from soapbox speeches to the Senate floor to the lynch mobs in the Los Angeles night. In 1882 Chinese became the only ethnic group to ever be deemed ineligible for American citizenship. Wong would not live to see the end of his Sisyphean crusade; the Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943 after millions of Chinese had, and continued to die fighting the Empire of Japan, a fact that greatly aided America’s own war effort. Today, many Asian Americans still shirk politics. Our voter registration and turnout rates are the lowest of any racial group. Maybe we feel that we have nothing to gain or lose from an act as simple as voting. This year Asian Americans, especially non-Muslim and East Asian Americans, have not been targeted by racist and bigoted politics to the extent of many other groups. However, don’t think for a minute that this means we have achieved coveted “white privilege” status. What do you suppose a person that votes to ban Muslim arrivals or deport Latino immigrants thinks of people who look like us? How does opinion about our communities change when both political parties make a sport of bashing Asian countries for ruining the American economy and for threatening national security? Since the founding of our country, people from Asia have come to these shores in search of economic opportunity. We ascribe to a very American narrative that individual hard work is the secret ingredient to success. If we keep our heads down, slowly disappear, the rest of the country will live and let live. We carry on at the margins of society, hoping to have first pick of the crumbs that the dominant groups in this country let fall from their table. “Success” achieved this way is a privilege, not a right; we exist at the permission of the ruling class. How quickly that privilege can be taken away: from Pearl Harbor to Japanese Internment, the rise of Japanese manufacturing to Vincent Chin, 9/11 to the Oak Creek shooting, the renaissance of China to Xi Xiaoxing, when Americans taste bitter in world events, Asians among us suffer as scapegoats. Unlike in Wong’s time, our community is not only able but encouraged to participate in politics. Today we are the fastest growing racial group in the country. Although they still exist, we face fewer barriers at the ballot box than ever before. Multilingual ballots can be found at many polls. You can vote absentee from home or bring friends or family to assist at the voting booth. From the city council member who fixes the roads in your town to the president who directs our nation’s grand strategy, elected officials want to hear from our community. The responsibility is now on us to grasp these opportunities on November 8th and beyond. We are blessed to live in a democratic society under the rule of law. This means that although we are less than 6% of the population and 4% of registered voters, when Asian Americans vote, we create the institutions that protect our communities and sponsor our success. We shout that we are of this country and that this country is of us. ![]() Brendan Wu Brendan is one APIAVote MI's community organizers. He primarily works in Western Wayne and Oakland Counties, and in Ann Arbor. You can pledge to vote and create your own selfie badge like this one at 18 Million Rising's website
21 Comments
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11/2/2017 10:01:42 pm
It is scary when history repeats itself because of how many horrible things that have happened in the past. It is sad that racism still exists today because the people who gets criticized do not deserve to be judged. No one deserves to be judged just because of something that they did not choose to be or have. People do not have the right to judge other people because God is the only one who can do that. God is the one who created us and we should not let anyone treat us the way God would not treat us.
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3/25/2018 01:52:09 pm
This guy is a toxic malignant total narcissist who was also irresponsible as hell and caused us a $200 late fee on an electric bill that he said he'd pay, and refused to apologize for or cover it. He also deliberately went out of state on moveout day for our apartment and made up a lie about having another guy move out his stuff for him who never showed up in order to force me to move out and hold onto all of his stuff for him knowing that I had to in order to avoid losing our security deposit. Afterwards, he indignantly demanded an equal share of the security deposit despite doing nothing to help move out, forcing us to settle for a last minute cheap subletting deal due to not bothering to tell us his summer plans about whether or not he would be staying in the apartment, even when asked multiple times until the last minute, despite knowing about them beforehand, and losing his keys. He never once apologized for or took responsibility for any of this and never will. He exuberantly told me he wanted me and dead and that he wouldn't care if I died right after I said I would have had his back in a fight. He always jumped in on the other side when any other person or group of people criticized me without any desire or attempt to be impartial due to hatred for and a desire to destroy me just because I didn't see the world the way he did,. He always tried to get others to gang up on me and spread lies and half-truths about me to people because of a sick sense of satisfaction gained from ganging up on someone and beating them down. He then opportunistically exaggerated and took out of context a statement I made in an APIA experience narrative in order to publicly attack me in order get revenge for a years long grudge over me withholding part of our security deposit that he didn't deserve (reasons mentioned above) from him, and yet believes that doing so was some sort of action of progress.
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