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80-20's 2004 Presidential Candidate QuestionnaireSeeking a Pledge to Eliminate Glass Ceiling Discrimination
Editor's Note: Following is the copy from a questionnaire delivered by the 80-20 political action committee to all major Presidential candidates during the short-lived primary season leading up to the 2004 presidential elections. Each questionnaire was accompanied by a cover letter, and was delivered to the campaigns of all major candidates. At the time of this writing, all candidates had returned responses to the proposal except for the Rev. Al Sharpton and President Bush, but may have arrived subsequently and been reported here.
"With liberty and justice for all." Thus ends our pledge of allegiance to the flag with a ringing commitment to all citizens. Unfortunately, liberty and justice remain an unrealized dream for Asian Pacific Americans, APAs. A low glass-ceiling hangs instead over our heads, denying us the opportunity to rise to the top of our professions, just as it hung over women and blacks until recently. Statistical evidence, mostly gathered by government sponsored studies, shows a dismal picture: APAs have only one-third the opportunity of all other Americans to "rise to the top," in the academic world, in corporations, or even in federal government. To illustrate, let's look at the situation in universities, the so-called bastion of idealism in our society. University administrators are recruited almost exclusively from the ranks of faculty and professionals already employed in universities. Hence the ratio of [administrators / (faculty + professionals)], broken down to races, is a measure of the opportunity enjoyed by American citizens of different races. Nationwide, for full-time staff that ratio for blacks (non-Hispanic) is 0.193. That is, for every 100 black faculty and professionals there are 19 black administrators. The ratio for Native American is 0.169; for white (non-Hispanic) is 0.157; and for Hispanic is 0.145. However, it is only 0.057 for Asian American. For resident aliens, it is 0.046. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/XLS/Tab224.xls.) The situation in the corporate world is worse, much worse. All Asian American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, with one exception, started the companies themselves. Therefore, we, Asian Pacific Americans, wish to know your answers to the following questions:(1) If elected, will you direct the Labor Secretary to hold public hearings regarding the validity of the huge amount of statistical data strongly suggesting discriminatory practices against Asian Pacific Americans in workplaces today? (2) If the data were shown valid, will you issue a directive to the Labor Department asking it to focus on enforcing Executive Order 11246 on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans, since in the past similar efforts have already been made on behalf of women and other minorities? (3) Two years after you have issued a directive described in item 2, will you meet with a group of Asian Pacific American leaders, put together jointly by 80-20 and the Labor Department, to review the progress in extending equal opportunity to Asian Pacific Americans?
My answer to Question 1 above is (Yes/No) ______________ My answer to Question 2 above is (Yes/No) ______________ My answer to Question 3 above is (Yes/No) ______________ (Name of Candidate)
To see how the candidates responded, visit 80-20's Presidential Elections page
Other Readings of Interest @ AAV
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