[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 ASIANS FEEL BIAS BUILT ON PERCEPTIONS

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, recently, the Chicago Tribune ran an 
item on its editorial page titled, ``Asians feel bias built on 
perceptions'' written by Melita Marie Garza.
  It tells a story that is not simply a story for the Chicago area but 
a national story.
  It quotes Nancy Chen, a Chinese-American who runs my Chicago office, 
my largest office outside of Washington, DC.
  Asian-Americans are contributing immensely to our country, and we can 
be proud of that contribution.
  But we also ought to be sensitive to some special problems that they 
face.
  I ask to insert this item into the Congressional Record at this 
point.

                [From the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 7, 1994]

                 Asians Feel Bias Built on Perceptions

                        (By Melita Marie Garza)

       The constituent was irate about the service she was getting 
     and wanted to complain to her senator's office. But when 
     Nancy Chen appeared on behalf of U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, the 
     woman balked at dealing with someone who was ``not American'' 
     and had ``bombed Pearl Harbor.''
       ``While others may not be as insensitive and crude as this 
     particular person, the perception that Asian-Americans are 
     foreigners contributes to many problems,'' said Chen, 
     director of Simon's Chicago office.
       Vilified by some for appearing ``foreign'' and by others 
     for appearing ``too successful,'' Asian-Americans are in a 
     Catch-22.
       The image of achievement is reinforced by numerous 
     studies--including one released last month by Northern 
     Illinois University, the Chicago Urban League and the Latino 
     Institute--showing that Asian-Americans as a group have 
     experienced greater economic and educational success than 
     other minority groups in the Chicago area during the last 20 
     years.
       But such studies mask the racial discrimination and slurs 
     Asian-Americans endure. And they hide the fact that when it 
     comes to achieving corporate, political and academic power, 
     Asian-Americans, like other minorities, still trail whites.
       The numbers also tend to obscure the economic and cultural 
     disparities within the Asian community, which encompasses 
     numerous national and linguistic minorities, immigrants, 
     refugees and those who have been in the United States for 
     generations. The community's complexity often is lost on the 
     rest of society, as in the case of Simon's constituent, who 
     didn't even realize that Chen was Chinese-American, not 
     Japanese-American.
       ``The feeling that Asian-Americans just do not fit into the 
     vision of America keeps Asian-Americans behind in their 
     professions, in politics and in their overall pursuit of 
     happiness in a country to which they or their ancestors as 
     much as five generations back have chosen to belong,'' said 
     Chen, a Naperville resident who is a member of the Illinois 
     Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
       Often given short shrift, Asian-American civil rights 
     issues were the subject of a committee-sponsored conference 
     earlier this year that focused on the ``model minority 
     myth,'' ``glass-ceiling'' barriers, hate crimes and the lack 
     of Asian-American political representation.
       Kwang Chung Kim, a Korean-American sociologist at Western 
     Illinois University, challenged the model minority label. 
     After crunching census data, he revealed a different story 
     about the economic and educational success of Asian-
     Americans.
       The United States' six major Asian ethnic groups--Chinese, 
     Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Asian Indians and 
     Vietnamese--are frequently labeled as ``model minorities'' 
     because unlike other minorities, their annual family 
     income is similar to or exceeds that of white families, 
     Kim said.
       But according to Kim's analysis, Asian-American workers had 
     greater educational credentials and worked longer hours to 
     achieve the same income as whites in their professions.
       Whites with a mean of 15 years of schooling earned $717 
     more per year for an additional year of schooling. However, 
     U.S.-born Japanese-Americans, with a mean of 16 years of 
     schooling, earned $577 more per year for an additional year 
     of schooling and U.S.-born Chinese-Americans, with a mean of 
     17 years of schooling, earned $596 more for an additional 
     year of schooling.
       In other words, Asian-Americans' high income appears to 
     come at a higher price--perhaps through longer workweeks and 
     greater educational investment.
       ``Based on a fairness model, the success image of Asian-
     Americans is a myth,'' said Kim, adding that the phenomenon 
     disguises discrimination against Asian-Americans in the 
     workforce.
       Chen pointed out that ``the working status of Asian-
     Americans ranges from unskilled workers staying at the bottom 
     rung of the job market to those highly trained professionals 
     in the rut of becoming `frozen talents,' forever stuck in 
     their technical station.''
       One of those areas in which Asian-Americans face many 
     barriers is the legal profession, according to Sandra Yamate, 
     a founding member of the Asian American Bar Association of 
     Greater Chicago.
       Of the 3,279 lawyers who are partners in large Chicago 
     firms, only 10 are Asian-American. Only 53 of 2,901 attorneys 
     at the associate level are Asian-American, according to the 
     1994 Chicago Lawyer Diversity Survey Yamate said. According 
     to the 1990 census, 1 percent of the 34,394 attorneys in the 
     six-county area are Asian-American, but only 0.3 percent are 
     partners.
       The single Asian-American judge on the Cook County Circuit 
     Court is Associate Judge Lynne Kawamoto, Yamate said. And 
     despite burgeoning Asian-American enrollment in the six area 
     law schools, only one, Northwestern University Law School, 
     has a fulltime tenure track Asian-American law professor. 
     Asians now account for about 10 percent of the law school's 
     student body, Yamate said.
       The growth in law school enrollment parallels the growth of 
     the Asian-American community. Between 1980 and 1990, the 
     Asian-American community in the Chicago area nearly doubled, 
     growing to almost 300,000.
       Nationwide, the Asian-American population grew dramatically 
     in the last three decades, increasing from 1 million in 1965 
     to 8.8 million in 1993, according to U.S. Census Bureau 
     estimates.
       The larger numbers of Asian-Americans and the resulting 
     higher visibility in key states, including California, New 
     York and Illinois, are partly the reason hate crimes against 
     Asian-Americans have been on the rise, said William Yoshino, 
     Midwest director of the Japanese American Citizens League.
       ``The heightened visibility is accompanied by assumptions 
     that Asian-Americans are foreigners--not American citizens or 
     permanent residents,'' said William Yoshino, Midwest director 
     of the Japanese American Citizens League, who noted that 60 
     percent of Asian-Americans are foreign-born.
       The 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1991 led to 
     increased anti-Japanese incidents on the West Coast, Yoshino 
     said. Although there were no dramatic incidents in Chicago, 
     he said, signs were taped to lampposts in the Loop declaring 
     ``the spirit of Tojo lives . . . the economic conquest of USA 
     . . . Let's remember Pearl Harbor.''
       He cited an incident last April in which The Queenship of 
     Mary Church in Glen Ellyn, which has a Vietnamese 
     congregation, was painted with graffiti proclaiming ``go home 
     gooks.''
       Although the Asian-American population is growing quickly, 
     they are still too few in number and too widely dispersed to 
     exert much political influence, said Chicago Urban League 
     Vice President James Lewis. Asian-Americans account for only 
     2.4 percent of Illinois' population and less than 6 percent 
     of Chicago's. They are the only minority group more numerous 
     in the suburbs than the city.
       Moreover, the Northern Illinois University study showed a 
     wide economic disparity between Asian-Americans in the 
     suburbs and those in the city. Asian-American median family 
     income was $53,500 in the suburbs, slightly higher than white 
     median family income. However, Asian-American median family 
     income in the city trailed that of suburban Asians by 40 
     percent and that of city whites by 10 percent.
       In the city, large numbers of Asian-Americans reside in 
     Chinatown, on the Near South Side, and on the Far North Side. 
     Only four precincts in Chicago, however, are at least 50 
     percent Asian-American in voting age population, Lewis said.
       In the latest political redistricting, Chinatown was 
     divided to accommodate creation of the first Latino 
     congressional district and a legally required black district, 
     as well as maintain a predominantly white 11th Ward, Lewis 
     said.
       Asian-Americans, who tend to be less dependably Democratic 
     and vote more like whites, likely will find it difficult to 
     forge coalitions with other minorities, Lewis said.
       Even within Chicago's Asian community, coalition-building 
     among various ethnic groups has not extended tangibly beyond 
     the Asian-American Coalition, whose principal activity since 
     1984 has been to sponsor an annual Lunar New Year Celebration 
     dinner, said Calvin Manshio, a Japanese-American attorney.
       Given that, the notion of joining forces with blacks and 
     Hispanics on civil rights issues would appear a difficult 
     task. But Chen, of Simon's office, believes it's crucial.
       ``To achieve full equality for Asian-Americans, we need a 
     lot of allies to help work on common goals,'' Chen 
     said.

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