Posted by Wesley Phung
Following the recent presidential election, there were a ton of surprises that were concealed by the president elect, Donald Trump, shocking victory. Despite the eye-opening results, there certainly were statistics from the polls that made people wonder, just how important this election was to a lot of different ethnic groups. The Asian American group in particular, had voting results fairly different from the past elections. Considering the success and wealth of many Asian Americans in the country, you would expect that a part group would shade towards Republican viewpoints, but this election would tell you otherwise. Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, etc. All of these groups shown a larger support to the Democratic party than the Republican party during this 2016 election.
Of course there are a variety of factors that could play into these outcomes, but perhaps, the plan that Mr. Trump set out weren’t the most appealing to the Asian Americans. Certainly, speaking of the flaws of the biggest Asian country, China, wouldn’t be the best way to attract the Chinese voters and also blaming them for several issues in America wouldn’t either. Another plan of Mr. Trump’s presidency was to enforce a stricter policy of homeland security. With the controversies that arose from this statement, it is quite obvious that a lot of citizens don’t agree with his ideas. Especially the one about establishing a ban on Muslim immigrants. Considering that 62% of Muslims relate to Asian-Pacific regions around of the world, it would understandable to see why a lot of Asian-Americans disagree with this policy. Maybe this was a big factor in a huge amount of Asian Americans voting for the Democratic party.
After speaking with the Youth Advisory Council about this surprising news, we shared similar reasonings to why this might be. In fact, we even heard that a lot of Asian families were motivated to vote when they haven’t in the past. With the amount of Asian Americans in the United States, they clearly can express the voice just as strong as any other group. It’s written all over the recent election results.
Want to speak out against the hate speech of the last election cycle and demand the policies of the next administration are fair to our communities? Check out these Bay Area actions this weekend, or march with API Legal Outreach and Filipino Advocates for Justice at the Women’s March! Email us at yac@apilegaloutreach.org if you want to participate.