DIVERSITY WATCH : Minority Report

It comes as no news to us in Southern California that Asian-Pacific Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the nation. No surprise either that this group’s problems, including poverty and discrimination, mirror those facing Americans from many other ethnic and racial groups. But these trends, underscored by a report from the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, may be news to the rest of the nation. How else to explain why national leaders have for so long failed to recognize the economic, social and political needs of Asian-Pacific Americans?

Researchers at UCLA and the Los Angeles-based Leadership Education for Asian-Pacifics (LEAP), who jointly authored the report, now estimate that the Asian-Pacific population will make up about 8% of the total U.S. population by the year 2020. In California alone, Asian-Americans will account for perhaps a fifth of the state’s population.

But the popular image of Asian-Americans as a “model minority”--self-sufficient, successful and assimilated--is largely a myth, according to the report. The poverty rate for Asian-Americans is twice that of Anglos. Anti-Asian violence is growing, as are allegations of “glass-ceiling” discrimination and restrictive college admission quotas.

As the Asian-American population rises, these problems will, inevitably, capture national attention. Far better, the researchers contend, to begin now to address them with programs that teach tolerance, help Asian newcomers adjust to U.S. society and end the discrimination against them. We agree.