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

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ilate into the main stream population (Walker, 1991; Lee, 1994; Asian, 1993). Undaunted, they stayed, they kept quiet, they lived where they would not be in the way, they worked hard at humble and sometimes demeaning jobs and they waited, and waited. Impact of Recent Political Economic Changes on AsianAmericans In late 1996, when Democratic National Committee fundraiser John Huang was the center of the campaign donation scandal, the normally reticent Bay Area Asian Community leaders began speaking in a loud, though not yet coherent voice. AsianAmericans, with their long history as victims of racism and xenophobia, are pushing back. In the most visible act, Professor Lingchi Wang, a scholar at the University of California, Berkeley launched a national committee called AsianAmericans for Campaign Finance Reform to mobilize the community to take a stand against both political corruption and racism. He stated: We will not allow this legitimate reform to degenerate into a partisan or racial fight. It is our intention to be a full participant in these processes. We will fight against any antiAsian expressions and behaviors whenever and wherever they occur, as we will fight against any attempt to turn this legitimat
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Some common words found in the essay are:
AsianAmericans Bay, Historically AsianAmerican, Progressive Association, Services Commission, San Francisco, Action Committee, Vietnamese AsianAmericans, Finance Reform, Bay Lee, Islander Americans, san francisco, vpac 1997, asianamerican community, lee 1994, asianamericans bay, walker 1991, asian pacific islander, nakao 1996, goldberg 1997, asianamerican population, francisco examiner, san francisco examiner, pacific islander americans, asianamerican community bay, asianamerican population bay,
Approximate Word count = 1755
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)