AAPI issues in their groups
Archives: Training Videos
Summit Event: AAPI & Census 2020 Complete Count, 1:20 pm
- Moderator: Edwin Tan, AACI Director of Advocacy & Development
- Nick Kuwada, Manager, Office of the Census, Santa Clara County
- Anne Im, Immigration Program Officer, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Kelly Batson, Senior Vice President, Community Impact, United Way Bay Area
- Discussant: Karthick Ramakrishnan, Director, Center for Social Innovation
The panel discussion focused on the following subjects:
Why does the Census Matter?
Funding:
- $ 675 distributed annually
- California’s share $ 76 billions
- Funding is distributed based on Census
Political Power:
- Congressional representation
- Reapportionment and redistricting
- 1990 undercounted cost a California Congressional seat
What are some of the barriers to an accurate count?
- Citizenship question may be intimidating
- Language barrier
- Multiple families live under one roof
- Not enough ethnic volunteers, community outreach persons, paid staff
- Undocumented status
- Distrust of immigration enforcement
- Cultural barriers
- The census will be taken online which could be a barrier to participants who are less computer literate.
What actions are being taken?
- Santa Clara County established the Office of Census with a website to inform and to make sure that our communities are not undercounted.
- United Way is hiring staff and giving grants to ensure the 2020 census is taken correctly.
- SVCF (Silicon Valley Community Foundation) is engaging in advocacy and grant-making to Bay Area nonprofits as part of the Bay Area Census Funders Collaborative.
- All the participating organization has websites where you can find more information.
- AAPI Data has many sources of census information as it relates to Asian Americans on their website.
Summit Event: AAPI Mobilization for Voter Registration, 2:30 pm
- Moderator: Richard Konda, ALA Executive Director
- Mary Ann Dewan, Superintendent, SCC County Office of Education
- Angelica Cortez, LEAD Filipino
Dr.Dewan mentioned that the Santa Clara County Board of Education and Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) have taken action to improve outreach to hard-to-count populations in Santa Clara County by adopting a resolution that the Santa Clara County Board of Education and County Superintendent of Schools will encourage Santa Clara County school districts to promote participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. “It is an education campaign to raise awareness in our schools, in our neighborhoods and our communities,” stated Dr. Mary Ann Dewan.
Angelica Cortez, Founder of LEAD Filipino, mentioned that efforts are underway. LEAD is pleased to be working in concert with the San Francisco Veterans’s Equity Center, Bayanihan Community Center, Filipino American Development Foundation, and Filipino Advocates for Justice on devising strategies and materials to ensure that the Filipino/a community in the 9-County Bay Area is completely counted in the 2020 Census under the rubric of a Filipino Complete Census 2020 Count Committee.
Summit Event: Opening Remarks at 12:30 pm Dr. Michael Chang, APALI Executive Director
Michael Chang formally kicked off the event by welcoming everyone and thanking all the volunteers and participants for attending.
Summit Event: Keynote Speech, 12:50 pm Building AAPI Civic Capacity
Dr. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Director, Center for Social Innovation
Dr. Ramakrishnan introduced the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) at UCR (UC Riverside) and described the work they do. CSI promotes collaborative research, policy innovation, and narrative change in the inland region (away from the high tech coastal area) of California. CSI tries to understand and to realize the potential of the inland region’s civic activities and to promote philanthropic investments in the nonprofit sector.
CSI has coined the term DNA as an acronym for Data and Technology, Narrative Change (Framing, storytelling, messaging) and Action (Advocacy, Civic Engagement, Social Enterprise) to describe the work that they do. By studying immigrant status in the inland California areas, CSI hopes that the new data will help community service providers to address local needs and assist the lawmakers to use these data to work on immigration policies in the region.
Dr. Ramakrishnan pointed out that 1/7 of Asian Immigrants are undocumented and that” there are many troubling findings about perceptions and barriers related to Census 2020 among communities of color”. ”Asian Americans were the least likely of any racial group to report that they intended to complete the survey form. Only 55% of Asian Americans said they were “extremely” or “very” likely to fill out the Census form, compared to 69% of Whites, and 65% of Latinos, and 64% of Blacks.”
Asian Americans were also the least likely to express familiarity with the census and are the group most likely to say that their answers to the Census “will be used against them.”
1) Why is College Admission controversial?
Asian particularly Chinese culture attach great importance to education as a means of enhancing a person’s worth and career. China’s imperial civil service examination played an important role in Chinese history of education. It created a group of well-educated officials serving the country. Many Asian American parents, both rich and poor, are willing to make great sacrifices to have their children attend and graduate from elite colleges.
The admission policies of Harvard (and other elite universities) are not transparent and have higher bars for AAPI applicants, requiring them to have higher SAT scores, scoring them lower on personal traits and in general placing higher “barriers” on them.
2) Does an elite college degree set you up for life?
Many parents think that a degree from an elite college will make a lifetime difference for the graduate. However, for most students, it simply doesn’t matter, according to many and notably, a paper by Stacy Dale, a mathematician at Mathematica Policy Research, and Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University*
Other researchers have concluded that “C” students do better than “A”s later on in life. C’s are not necessarily less intellectually capable, they just do not place such a high value on letter grades. Furthermore, C’s are not afraid to fail and are willing to be innovative and think outside the box.
3) How does the University of California handle “Diversity”?
In the early 1970s, Allan Bakke sued the UC Davis Medical School for their quota system. His case went to the Supreme Court which ruled 5-4 that “quota” is unconstitutional while promotion of “Diversity” is allowed.
The University of California has a policy of admitting all students graduating in the top 9% according to their admission index.
* https://www.nber.org/papers/w171592019.05.24
1． What is Affirmative Action?
It all started with the Civil Rights Movements that changed the Immigration Act which allowed Asians and other non-Europeans immigration to the US. In 1961 President Kennedy signed EO #10925, strengthened in 1965 by President Johnson with EO #11246 which requires government employers to take “affirmative action” to “hire without regard to race, religion and national origin” to prevent employers from discriminating against members of disadvantaged groups. In 1967, gender was added to the anti-discrimination list. Affirmative Actions are important in leveling the playing field in the workplace and in College Admission. The latter has been a divisive issue for Asian Americans!
2．Has Affirmative Action benefited Women and Minorities?
From 1972–1993, % of Female:
– Architects from 3% to 19%;
– Doctors from 10% to 22%;
– Lawyers from 4% to 23%;
– Engineers from less 1% to nearly 9%;
– Chemists from 10% to 30%;
– College faculty from 28% to 42%.
Similarly, it has benefited African and Hispanic Americans, many have entered the executive ranks. Now Women and minorities are running for the Presidency of the US.
3．How can Asian Americans take advantage of Affirmative Action?
Up to recently, Asian Americans did not have political savvy nor power to take advantage of Affirmative Action. In 2006, Candidate Obama signed a six-part questionnaire from 80-20 PAC promising to evaluate data on Asian American and level the playing field.
As a result, Obama appointed many Asians, notably, Steven Chu to run the Department of Energy, Gary Locke as Ambassador to China, Preet Bharara as US Attorney, Denny Chin to 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, Kal Penn and Hines Ward as Public Liaisons and tried but failed to appoint Goodwin Liu to 9th Circuit Court.
Moderated by Chuck Ng, Director of Community Outreach and Development for Civic Leadership USA (CLUSA), this panel focused on the importance of civic leadership at local, state and national levels. C.C. Yin, Founder of APAPA (Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs), which is currently strongest in California, is actively expanding his organization to additional states. Anthony Ng, Executive Director of CLUSA, emphasized that social enterprises must make money to provide scalability, even if they are non-profits. Amy Kwok, Founder and CEO of PenguinSmart, spoke about using medical technology to do social good in her work with children who have communication delays. Margaret Conley, Executive Director of Asia Society Northern California, organizes events in 14 centers worldwide to bridge understanding between Asia and the U.S, despite the headlines in the news about China-U.S. relationships. David Wu, the former congressman from Oregon, described the government as “not very good at innovation,” and cited the involvement of the private sector in the successful rollout of Obamacare.
The energy level at the conference was high, with the noticeable buzz in the hallways and conference rooms. The attendees “loved the agenda” and the opportunities to network with entrepreneurs and investors, and looks forward to an even larger vent next year.
The forum closed with a performance by the top 10 Indian American dancers from the Abhinaya Dance Company, who gave an interpretation of “I Have a Dream,” the life of Martin Luther King and his leadership in the African American community. The performance reflected American multi-ethnic diversity, and the challenges minorities face in gaining civic leaders
