asianweekly northwest
YOUR VOICE
MAY 11 – MAY 17, 2019
■ EDITORIAL
11
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
It’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), a full month of celebrating our community’s culture, history, and traditions, while looking towards the future. APAHM came about when Congress passed a resolution in 1978 to designate a week to celebrate Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. May was chosen because it’s when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in America in 1843, and when Chinese laborers finished the transcontinental railroad in 1869. But the celebration soon outgrew the constraints of a week, so President George H.W. Bush extended it to a month in 1990. According to Pew Research, over 20 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries, in East and Southeast Asia, as well as the Indian subcontinent.
BLOG from previous page in the receiving line because I was too busy taking everyone else’s photo. Right before he shook my hand, someone interrupted us and whispered in his ear. He turned to me and said, “I’ll be right back.” Believe it or not, when it came to my turn, he could have rushed through it, and I would have been content. And if he didn’t come back, I would have understood. I was a nobody from the other Washington. I waited, not knowing how much longer I should wait. Here is the difference between Biden and other politicians. More than five minutes later, he came back with a smile. We posed for pictures. “Mr. Vice President, I heard you wrote a book,” I said while handing him my business card. “Yes,” he beamed warmly. “I want to read it. How can I get the book?” I asked. In those days, if a book was out of print, you couldn’t get it easily. He took my business card, and he wrote a note on the back of my card to remind himself. He said if he didn’t do so, he would forget. Did I expect him to remember — to follow through? Negative. Eighteen days later, a big package arrived. Wrapped in big plastic bubble bags, Biden’s paperback, “Promises To Keep,” was mailed to the Asian Weekly office. The title tells a lot about the man. You could imagine the look on my face when I opened the package — with awe and astonishment. Inside the cover page, he wrote:
Choosing to celebrate all the richness and diversity of AAPIs is to affirm the beauty and inherent goodness of our cultures, to say that traditions are not merely foreign — that our foods are not exotic, and that our traditions are not perilous or immoral. We celebrate eating durian or biryani, and it is as normal as eating meatloaf and casseroles. For families that were forced to resettle in the United States due to crisis, war, and trauma often means losing precious history. Due to generational gaps, language barriers, and repressed memories, many in the AAPI community have to do more work to preserve and proclaim our stories. Many of us can’t communicate with those two or three generations back. There are often no official family trees, heirlooms,
“To Assunta With very best wishes Joe Biden 5-3-09.” The book represented him: loud, sincere, personable, and crystal clear in his beliefs and politics. He was real then and now, too, whenever I watch him on television.
Yang seized the moment
I first saw Yang’s face on the national news. What, an Asian face among more than 10 Democratic presidential candidates? Did I see it correctly? It was just a two-second shot. Soon, many from our community learned that there’s an Asian running for the highest office in the land, and yet no one remembered his name or knew who he was. At the small, private meeting before his public appearances, Yang, an entrepreneur for high-tech startups, showed his wit and charm — it worked like magic. He walked into a small conference room at the Hyatt, and everyone (mostly Chinese Americans) was amazed as he sat in front of a long conference table. “I am proud to represent the Asian community and my background heritage,” Yang said. “Asian parents don’t encourage their children to run for office. My parents certainly didn’t tell me to run for office,” he said. Asian children are supposed to achieve economically, by becoming doctors and lawyers. However, Asian Americans are seen as “lower” and a “non-entity” in this country for five reasons, he explained. First, voter turnout is low among Asian Americans. Second, Asian voters don’t give as much money to
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photo albums, or written stories. The schools in the United States rarely teach AAPI history. And while it is improving, the AAPI experience is still underrepresented in the arts and media. So to celebrate APAHM is the opportunity to celebrate our histories, to make our voices heard and our history known. Today, there is a growing group of AAPI leaders and mentors who are visible and taking a stand on social justice issues. It is important for us to be visible, to serve as role models, and to know that we are a community that is thriving and learning from one another. We may not be white, but we are here, we matter, and we are enough.
political causes. Third, Asian candidates only run for lower office. Fourth, the Asian population is not big enough to make a difference in swing states such as New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Fifth, the Asian community is divided politically. Yet, Yang said he is not running on his “identity,” but economic ideas. Upon greeting Bellevue City Councilmember Janice Zahn, Yang said it’s easier for him to run for higher office as he campaigns and then leaves town. But it’s tougher for Zahn to run for local office because you have to face the people and “they know where you live.” In less than a half an hour of dialogue between Yang and his attendees, Zahn said she would endorse Yang’s presidency. Soon, Redmond City Councilmember Steve Fields followed suit. Yang quickly seized the moment and reciprocated — endorsing both Zahn and Fields. Zahn is running for re-election. Fields is running for Mayor. Zahn said she gave her endorsement because she has been studying Yang’s website. “I read his platform. He talks about evidence before putting ideas and policies together. He has many ideas in different areas. He’s pragmatic, proactive, a visionary, encouraging tough conversations to look at underlying issues so a country can solve problems… He looks at technology... in shaping the country’s future.” Attended by over 460 people at China Harbor, the Chinese community raised over $40,000 for Yang’s campaign. Yang recognized that his campaign has energized the
Asian community as a whole. And that’s exactly what Yang has accomplished on May 3, despite the fact that there were Republicans in the audience. Several disagreed with his basic income of $1,000 to citizens between 18 to 64. Still, they came. The organizers didn’t want to address the question of his chances of winning. Many reminded the Asian Weekly that President Bill Clinton and President Obama were dismissed early on in their campaigns, that they had zero chance. Then, Clinton and Obama defied all odds and rewrote history, despite the fact they were unknown and their opponents had strong brand and name recognition. One guest said at the Hyatt meeting, “The outcome is not important. What is important is his courage to run. What Yang is doing is iconic.” Wait until the Asian community watches Yang on the national stage during the presidential debates on June 26 or 27 — it will inspire more Asian Americans to run for office or get involved in politics. It will also change Americans’ narrative about Asian Americans and break stereotypes. Yes, we Asian Americans can lead. That accomplished mission will be good enough for me. So why talk about endorsements or who we should vote for now! It’s still too early to make a decision for 2020. Stay tuned. Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.
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