Columns Making It in the USA Why Cuban Americans and Jewish Americans Have More Clout than Asian Americans
| Why Cuban Americans and Jewish Americans Have More Clout than Asian Americans |
Making It in the USA
Cuban Americans (only 1.2-million in population) and Jewish Americans (6-million) have more political clout and enjoy equal opportunity in America. Cuban Americans have two US senators, four members of the US House of Representatives and one cabinet member. The number of Jewish-American political leaders? I have lost count. :-) Aside from the State of Hawaii (where Asian Americans are actually the majority), how come Asian Americans don't enjoy equal opportunity yet, although we are 13-million in number?
If the emerging anti-China political undercurrent alarms you in that its aftermath may hurt Chinese Americans and/or Asian Americans for decades to come, then internalize the following two "MUSTS" to make ourselves politically much stronger.
(1) Politically, make very different choices while living in America
In Asia, we are members of the majority. A member of the majority can take or leave politics, since the society is not prejudiced against us.
In the USA, we are members of a very-small minority composed mostly of new immigrants. There is a lot of prejudice against "Asians" and "immigrants" in America. Hence, every Asian American MUST participate in politics to build up our GROUP political clout. At the very least, you must
1) Register to vote, and vote in all important elections,
2) Give at least 0.1% of your gross income to Asian-American political organizations that truly fight for you, and
3) Practice bloc votes to enhance our GROUP political clout.
(2) ONLY support politicians who help us achieve equality
Mainstream politicians have always known our folly to do just the opposite. That is, we support "apparent winners" rather than those who have performed services for us. Therefore, they never bothered to do anything to help us. When they wanted our money, they would sweet-talk us into believing that they would be the likely winners.
Even Asian-American politicians are now exploiting our folly. They know that the key to raising money from us is NOT their records of services to us. It is whether they are likely winners in the next election, or whether they have a high rank, or whether they will be holding the highest office in one meaningless sub-classification or another. We need to demand service from all politicians.
Please remember the above two lessons by heart, and we'll be much stronger politically. Pass this message.
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