U.S. Asians Seen as ‘Alien,’ Study Finds

Open hostility and bigotry against Asian Americans may have declined since World War II, when Japanese Americans were incarcerated as security risks, but the nation’s estimated 11 million people of Asian ancestry still cannot escape being perceived as “foreigners,” a far-reaching public policy report released Wednesday says.

“No matter what their citizenship, how long they may have resided in the United States or how assimilated they are, the ‘common understanding’ that Asians are an alien presence in America is still the prevailing assumption in American culture,” said Robert G. Lee, associate professor of American civilization at Brown University.

When Matt Fong, a fourth-generation Californian, ran for state treasurer in 1994, he was asked by reporters whether his loyalties were divided between the United States and China, which the report cites as one of numerous examples of the lingering suspicion about Americans of Asian descent.

The 507-page study, titled “The State of Asian Pacific America: Transforming Race Relations,” was reported and written by more than a dozen scholars in disciplines from political science to urban planning at institutions ranging from UC Berkeley and UCLA to Harvard and Brown.

The authors reviewed reports of documented incidents, earlier studies, and statistical and poll data to present their analysis of U.S. race relations through the lens of Asian Americans.

The population of Asian Americans----the term favored by community activists is Asian Pacific Americans--has doubled each decade since 1970, with Los Angeles leading the way. By 2020, the number of Asians nationwide is projected to be 20 million, or 6% of the population.

It’s not the numbers alone that make Asian Americans important players in the transformation of the nation’s race relations, the report says, but also where they are situated in the professions, businesses and communities. As the most educated of all ethnic groups, they exert influence in academia, business and the high-tech industry, where South Asians alone make up a third of the work force. And, as the least residentially segregated of minorities, they live everywhere.

People of Asian ancestry in the United States come from more than 30 ethnicities, ranging from fourth- and fifth-generation Chinese and Japanese Americans to Southeast Asian refugees. No group in America displays such contrasts of affluence and poverty, education and literacy.

Asian Americans have the highest percentage of households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more--slightly ahead of whites. Asian Indians, whose English proficiency and education levels are high, lead the way. But Asians also make up the fastest-growing segment on welfare, with a sizable part of the community, particularly Southeast Asian refugees, living in poverty.

“We’re not simply another minority population,” said Paul M. Ong, professor of social welfare and urban planning at UCLA and principal investigator for the report.

“Asians Americans are unique because of their culture, their economic standing, their position with the educational system and the way they link up with other countries.”

Whether Americans realize it or not, the growing Asian American presence is changing race relations, according to the study, especially in the nation’s four most concentrated Asian American population centers outside Hawaii--Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Oakland.

Intended to reach policymakers, the report suggests that the prevailing narrow view of race as a white-black issue be broadened to include Asians and other population groups.

Consequences of not breaking out of the white-black paradigm would be tragic, Ong said, because that would deprive the country of the contributions of Asian Americans and other ethnic and cultural groups.

The growing presence of Asian Americans is affecting race relations by making culture, language and nationality a part of the equation, according to the report.

The report, released in Washington, is the fourth in a series issued every four years by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics Inc., a nonprofit group headquartered in Los Angeles.

‘New Agendas and New Styles’

Don T. Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, suggested that Asian Americans can become influential “new players and new actors” in the race relations debate because they are unencumbered by hardened positions. They could bring a sense of “new agendas and new styles” in bringing people and agenda together, he said.

The recent comment by Sen. John McCain referring to his North Vietnamese captors as “gooks” is a “chilling reminder” that race relations remains “the No. 1 issue facing this country,” J.D. Hokoyama, president of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, said Wednesday in releasing the report.

“Asians in America, immigrant and native-born, have been made into a race of aliens, Orientals,” said Brown University’s Lee. “The Oriental is a mode of representation which constructs the alien as a racial category.”

In a political context, Asian Americans are sometimes mistakenly linked to foreign governments because of this nation’s history with Asian countries, ranging from World War II to the Communist takeover of China and to the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

Wednesday’s report recalls the immediate response of the Democratic National Committee, when accused of accepting illegal campaign donations from foreigners in 1996. At that time, the DNC contacted Asian Americans with “foreign-sounding” surnames who had contributed to the party’s coffers, and demanded that they verify their citizenship or permanent resident status.

Suzanne Ahn, a Korean American doctor and civic leader in Houston, told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that DNC auditors threatened to turn her name over to the news media as “uncooperative” if she did not release personal financial information to them. Ahn said she had been investigated by the DNC, the FBI and the news media solely because she was an Asian American contributing to the DNC.

“American society doesn’t know what to do with Asian Americans,” said Henry Der, deputy state superintendent of schools, because Asian Americans make up such a diverse group with complex and conflicting images that range from being perceived as a “model minority” to being derided as “gooks.”

“They don’t know if we’re foreigners, spies or the silent minority who just drones away with technological work--and works very hard.”

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Asian American Presence

People of Asian ancestry have the highest educational attainment of any ethnic group nationwide, with the highest percentage of college graduates and people with advanced degrees.

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Education Levels for Americans Ages 25-64

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White Black Latino Asian Less thanhigh school 9% 18% 42% 13% High school 34% 38% 28% 22% Some college 27% 28% 19% 21% Bachelor’s 20% 11% 8% 29% Advanced degree 10% 4% 3% 16% * Asian Americans are well represented in management ranks and have the highest percentage of people in the professions nationwide. Despite their higher eductional attainment, Asian Americans still trail whites in earnings.

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Employment Characteristics for Full-Time Workers

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White Black Latino Asian Median earnings $33,200 $25,400 $22,000 $32,000 In the top 20% 23% 10% 9% 24% In management 19% 11% 9% 15% In professions 18% 12% 7% 24%

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Source: “The State of Asian Pacific America: Transforming Race Relations” report