Asian Americans Don’t Know What to Do About Racial Discrimination

APAs' lack of collective effort to address racism except for extreme crises indicate we are pursuing the wrong strategy

By Frank H. Wu, Howard University

Asian Americans don’t know what to do about racial discrimination. Whenever I give a speech about Asian Americans and civil rights, at least one person of Asian descent in the audience comes up afterward to ask for legal advice about their civil rights case. Whatever their ethnicity or gender, professional status or political outlook, whether they are immigrants or the first-generation native-born, and whether they have an accent or could pass the "telephone test," they share a common grievance.

In graduate school or at the workplace, they have gained direct experience of racial prejudice. They have lost a job, a promotion, or an opportunity of some sort because of bias toward their race or for no apparent reason but within a context that strongly suggests race was the crucial factor.

Often enough, they add that they never believed it could happen to them, or they had been convinced before it did that other people complained too much about these matters. Ironically, sometimes they continue to insist that even though they now understand what it means to confront bigotry, they still do not wish to make a fuss about the matter. They say that they just weren’t raised that way, or they remark that perhaps they are imbued with Asian culture to a greater degree than they realized before.

I am saddened by these reports. Of course, without investigating the details, I would not assume that every individual in fact has a substantial claim based on their side of the story alone. Nonetheless, due to the overall statistics and my own life, I believe that despite our progress there remain problems that demand action.

I am troubled by more than the possibility of stereotyping and subjugation. I am worried that Asian Americans' responses, especially our lack of collective efforts to address problems except if there is an extreme crisis such as the Los Alamos spy controversy, indicate that we are pursuing the wrong strategy.

We celebrate our accomplishments and deny our setbacks. It is as if we would pretend that we are the model minority rather than ask critically whether it is worthwhile to play that ambiguous role. We are reluctant – well beyond the reasonable ambivalence of any human being to initiate conflict and particularly legal conflict – to pursue the allegations for which we possess proof. We seem to prefer to live up or down to the image of an ethnicity which is deferential and submissive, rather than demonstrate that we can be as demanding and aggressive as our neighbors and colleagues.

The glass ceiling is unmistakable. It is one example of a multi-faceted problem. It deserves attention because it is acute, but it also should not become the sole emphasis of attacks on discrimination because that would concentrate attention on the issues of the relatively elite while not acknowledging the equally if not more severe problems of the economically disadvantaged.

Asian Americans who enjoy being a quarter of the population on a college campus on the East Coast or West Coast can easily find that they are alone – the first and only – when they start work at a company in the Midwest or South. Even if they are among a handful of Asian American engineers, scientists, researchers, or other professionals, they can then even more readily discover that there are no Asian American managers, supervisors, directors, or owners in the corner suites and board rooms. On top of that, some Asian Americans avoid others like them in these situations. They overreact and try to avoid looking like a conquering yellow horde, so they become isolated and leave each other without peers, mentors, or proteges.

Women face the double barrier of gender inequity as well. The Asian American women who is in charge is more common in the portrayal of a dragon lady than in the reality of a leader.

In 1995, the federal Glass Ceiling Commission found that Asian Americans make less money than whites in many occupational categories – even controlling for educational level, immigrant status, and other variables. In strict social science terms, the data is robust: Asian Americans and whites are not treated equally, and the difference can be attributed either to race or nothing at all. The particular finding that should give us pause: Asian Americans who participated in the focus groups conducted by the bi-partisan blue-ribbon Commission chaired by Elizabeth Dole reported their belief that they were treated like white males. In other words, we have foolishly persuaded ourselves that we are better off than we actually are.

Scholarly studies confirm the same pattern. Asian Americans are doing relatively well. They have achieved economic parity with whites in some situations. But Asian Americans attain this status and compensate for the discrimination imposed on them by becoming more highly educated than their co-workers or putting in more hours. It could not be called fair and it cannot be dismissed as subjective perceptions on the part of Asian Americans.

Perceptions are self-fulfilling. If nobody of Asian background has held a leadership position at a company, then it makes sense even if it reveals a lack of imagination coupled to a focus on race when a critic says they cannot see an Asian as a leader. It takes a conscious effort for the earliest Asian to break through to the top. It becomes easier for the following Asians. They do not need to set precedent and they need not fear being a token.

Paul Igasaki, the vice-chair of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has lamented that Asian Americans appear to underreport allegations to his agency. He has tried to explain to them that doing so is not only accepted but also encouraged.

Many Asian Americans, like many people of all races, lead lives without being affected in an obvious manner by racial conflicts. It would be a mistake, however, for those who have had good fortune to assume that they are an example for a group.

In urban legend, Asian Americans who are not treated well on the job gain vengeance by quitting, starting competitors to their former employers, and defeating them in the marketplace. They ultimately are able to acquire the very firms that abused them.

It is a commendable ambition for an individual but not an ideal solution for a community. The Asian American who founds a high-technology manufacturing outfit according to this script, though, has achieved merely payback for herself or himself without improving society. Such individuals leave others vulnerable to the very risks which they have overcome through sacrifice and struggle.

In some versions of this anecdotal tale of triumph, the immigrant must return "home" to Asia in order to fulfill the American Dream. It would be pessimistic and cynical to rely on this reverse migration to reverse discrimination.

The better approach celebrates the potential of the New World, while insisting that its ideals be realized. The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the other great documents which set forth the core values of our civic culture – these are an inspiration and an aspiration. They can be given meaning only with exercise and effort.

Some of us must become activists, protesters, and even plaintiffs in lawsuits. We do not all need to take on these challenges, but the few of us who do so, more likely by circumstance than choice, deserve respect and support from the rest of the community. Their challenge to the status quo will produce benefits for everyone else as well.

We have rights – if only we would assert them.