The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity and Community

Asian Americans are one of the nation's most rapidly growing non-white populations, but their political strength has not grown in proportion with their numbers. As their numbers grow, will they flex their political muscle, or stay a diffuse, diluted voice? Journalists and politicians have tried to answer this question, but their answers have been mostly overly simplistic and incomplete, if not totally inaccurate, due to a lack of good data, rigorous analysis, and compelling underlying frameworks. To provide better answers, the authors ofThe Politics of Asian Americansundertook the nation's first multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-regional political survey on Asian Americans. The results of this survey explode many myths about Asian Americans: as a group, they're too different, and will never coalesce (in fact, they are growing in collective pan-ethnic identity), Japanese Americans are Republicans and Chinese Americans don't vote (in fact, they both did vote, going 3 to 1 for Al Gore),they're not really discriminated against (1 in 3 said they have been), and on and on.The Politics of AsianAmericanswill be a significant contribution, not only to our understanding of Asian Americans, but also to our understanding of the role of race and ethnicity in American politics more generally.

Pei-te Lien is Associate Professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah, and is currently U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar at ISSP Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy in Taipei M. Margaret Conway is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Florida Janelle Wong is Assistant Professor of Political Science and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California