The Asian Republican Coalition Is Mostly White and Mostly Endorses White Candidates

[KamaAina]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/asian-republican-coalition

When Democrats tout their strength among minority voters, they're usually referring to African Americans and Latinos, but over the past few elections Asian Americans have increasingly gone blue as well. Now, a new group is seeking to thwart that trend. The Asian Republican Coalition launched with a splashy event at the Newseum in Washington, DC, in May, drawing GOP heavy-hitters including Sens. John Cornyn, Tim Scott, and Tom Coburn. And last week, the group announced its first set of endorsements, backing five Republican candidates across the country.

Yet, the Asian Republican Coalition appears to be in an awkward position: It seems unable to find many people of Asian descent to endorse or support its cause.

Take their recent batch of endorsements. Of the five Republicans who earned the group's backing, only one candidate is Asian American—Allan Fung, the gubernatorial candidate in Rhode Island. The group also endorsed incumbents Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. Chris Gibson of New York, along with House candidates Carl DeMaio in California and Barbara Comstock in Virginia.

But when his group held its kickoff party, apart from Ying the scene reportedly was full of white politicians and consultants. "We have a very broad definition of what constitutes the Asian American community," the group's vice chairman, Thomas Britt, told Vice. "The Asian Republican Coalition is open to all Americans, including Asian Americans and those of us like me who are not ethnically Asian but have spent 20 years living in Hong Kong."

[TlalocW]

1. I often repeat the story

Related to me through a friend who I met when he was Hispanic Student Services Coordinator at Oklahoma State. At one point a few years after we met, he had moved to El Paso and was in a similar position at UTEP. I'm not Hispanic, but one of my undergrads was Spanish so I have always had an interest in the culture and the issues important to it, and we were going to share a hotel room at the US Hispanic Leadership Conference in 2000 in Chicago. He brought several students with him. UTEP has an arrangement with El Paso's sister city across the border, Juarez, that allows Mexican nationals to attend college at costs similar to American citizens, and they're able to pass over the border more easily so it was a mix of American and Mexicans, and the Mexican nationals told me this story during one of the dinners.

They (the Mexicans) were approached by an "American political group" who knew they were Mexican nationals and offered them travel, room, and board for a program that would allow them to learn more about the American political process. Details were sparse, but they figured what the hell so they were loaded on a bus and driven to Philadelphia. Remember what was going on in Philly in 2000? That's right, the GOP Presidential Convention. If you also remember, each night was, "Different Ethnic Group Night," where the ethnic group du jour was featured in one way or the other to show how everyone loved George W. Bush. So still not quite understanding what was going on, they were herded on stage while George P. Bush talked about Hispanic support for Bush. They realized what was going on at that point, and they had a good sense of humor about it since they had gotten a free trip out of it. They showed me some of the photos of them on stage, and I have to say the wide-eyed, shocked looks on their faces were funny, but the point is that the Bush campaign - for whatever reason - either couldn't find or didn't want to use actual American Hispanics to show support for him.

Also during African-American night, the Black Baptist church choir who performed on stage were not there because they supported Bush. The director just realized it would be a national platform to show the choir's talent.

So, no surprise that a GOP Asian group has no Asians.

TlalocW

[KamaAina]

2. "and those of us like me who are not ethnically Asian but have spent 20 years living in Hong Kong."

My college girlfriend has him beat: around 25 years. (The lengths people will go to to get away from me. ) Thing is, she's a Dem.