Asian Americans in the Bay Area Political Economy

Historically, the AsianAmerican community of the Bay Area which numbers well over one million people, has had trouble organizing itself into activist collectives and learning to speak with one voice (Lee, 1994). During the last several months, events have forced the disparate community to put aside certain cultural and ethnic differences and join forces to fight a formidable foe  the modern, American metroplex. This paper studies the AsianAmerican population of the Bay Area in three main parts. The first section provides a statistical overview of the AsianAmerican population. The second section discusses two recent events which have had a major impact on the AsianAmerican community. The third section shows how those same events have forced the AsianAmerican community to completely reevaluate and, in some cases, discard its cultural heritage. In the final section, there is an analysis of how the AsianAmerican groups are letting their presence be known. The following statistical overview demonstrates that that presence is impressive.

Political Economy of The Asian Community in the Bay Area

The Bay Area is a metropolitan region with a population of more than six million people and includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Concord, San Rafael, Napa, and Sonoma. The Bay Area is the nation's fifthlargest metropolitan market and is among the rich