When Mike Park first heard of the recent shooting in Atlanta, he felt angry and scared. But almost immediately he had another thought.
“We can not just sit back,” he said. “We can no longer sit in our small enclave.”
Born in South Carolina among Korean immigrants, Mr. Park grew up wanting to escape from his Asian identity. He was disgusted that he had to be the one student to speak on Asian Pacific Day and was embarrassed when his friends did not want to eat at his house because of the unknown pickled radishes and cabbage in his fridge.
Mr. Park, now 42, accepts his Korean heritage and an Asian-American identity that he shares with others of his generation. The shooting in Atlanta where eight people were killed, six of them women of Asian descent, made him feel a stronger sense of solidarity, especially after an increase in prejudice against Asians nationwide.
“I do think that this terrible crime has brought people together,” he said. Park, who works as an insurance agent in Duluth, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, a quarter Asian, said. “It really is an awakening.”
Asian Americans have for years been one of the least likely racial or ethnic groups to vote or join community or advocacy groups. Today, they are starting out in public life, leading their record numbers and working differently than ever before. They are now the fastest growing group in the US electorate.
But as a political force, Asian Americans are still taking shape. With a relatively short history of voting, they differ from demographic groups whose families have built party fidelity and voting tendencies over generations. Most of their families arrived after 1965, when the United States opened its doors wider to people in Asia. There are also large classrooms; the income gap between rich and poor is the largest among Asian Americans.
“These are your classic swing voters,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, president of AAPI Data. ‘These immigrants did not grow up in a Democratic or Republican household. You have a lot more convincing. ”
Historical data on Asian-American voting patterns have been tarnished. Analysis of exit polls shows that a majority in 1992 voted for George Bush, said Mr. Ramakrishnan said. Today, a majority of Asians vote for Democrats, but that obscures deep differences per subgroup. Vietnamese Americans, for example, lean more toward Republicans, and Native Americans lean heavily toward Democrats.
It is too early for the final breakdown of votes in Asia America in 2020, according to party or ethnic lines. But one thing seems clear – the turnout for Asian Americans appears to be higher than it has ever been. Mr. Ramakrishnan analyzed preliminary estimates from the catalyst firm Catalist it was based on available returns from 33 states representing two-thirds of the elections in Asia America. The estimates found that adult Asian-American citizens had the highest recorded increase in voter turnout among any racial or ethnic group.
As relatively new voters, many Asian Americans find themselves unique in both major parties, which are attracted to Democrats for their stance on guns and health care, and for Republicans for their support of small businesses and the emphasis on independence. But it does not fit into neat categories. The Democratic position on immigration attracts some and repulses others. The Republican anti-communist language is convincing to some. Others are indifferent.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s repeated reference to the “China virus” has deterred many Chinese-American voters, and Democrats’ support for affirmative action policies in schools has drawn strong opposition from some Asian groups. Even the violence and reproach against Asians, which began to increase after the coronavirus started spreading last spring, pushed people politically in different directions. Some blame Mr. Trump and his followers. Others see Republicans as supporters of the police and law and order.
Yeun Jae Kim, 32, voted for the first time last year. His parents moved from Seoul to a suburb of Florida from an early age and started a truck parts business. Mr. Kim studied at Georgia Tech and then studied at Coca-Cola in Atlanta, but like his parents, he was so focused on making it that he did not vote, or did not think about politics at all.
Last year changed plans. But how to vote and who to choose? He and his wife watched videos on YouTube for hours and chatted in church with a politically experienced friend, also a Korean-American.
“It was quite difficult for me,” he said. Kim said, describing himself politically as ‘in the middle’. “There are certain things I like that the Democratic Party does. And there are certain things I like that Republicans do. ‘
He wanted to keep his voice private. But he said a ballot made him feel good.
“It made me feel really proud of the country,” he said. ‘Like everyone here is together. It helped me feel connected to other people who also voted. ”
Part of the new energy in Asian-American politics comes from second-generation immigrants, who are now in their thirties and forties, forming families that are far more racially and civilly involved than those of their parents. A new Asian-American identity is being created from dozens of languages, cultures and histories.
“Right now it’s coming of age,” said Marc Ang, 39, a conservative political activist and business owner in Orange County, California. His father, an immigrant of Filipino descent of Chinese descent, came to California in the 1980s to do white-collar work in the steel industry. The state now houses about a third of the Asian-American population in the country.
“Suddenly we are top doctors, top lawyers, top business people,” he said. Ang, pointing out that the approximately 6 million Asians in California are equivalent to the size of Singapore. “It’s just inevitable that we become a voting bloc.”
Mr. Ang, a Republican, worked last year to defeat an affirmative action in California. But he praised the Democrats and their efforts to draw attention to the storm of obstacles and physical attacks over the past year, which he said was a galvanizing force that affected even the least politically involved people from countries like China, Vietnam, the Philippines united. and South Korea.
More Asian Americans eligible than ever before. These include Andrew Yang, among the early leaders in the race for mayor of New York, and Michelle Wu, the city councilor who is running for mayor of Boston. A Filipino American, Robert Bonta, has just become California Attorney General.
At least 158 Asian Americans participated in state legislatures in 2020, according to AAPI Data, up 15 percent from 2018.
Marvin Lim, a state representative from Georgia, calls himself a 1.5-generation immigrant: he came to the United States from the Philippines when he was 7 years old.
Mr. Lim spent a number of years on public assistance, saying his family “did not see the shoelaces working for us.” He became a civil rights lawyer and started voting for Democrats because, according to him, their values were more in line with his. Now 36, he won a seat in Georgia in November and met with President Biden last month during his visit to Atlanta after the shooting.
“I never felt like I mattered again,” he said.
Asian Americans lean toward Democrats. All the more so among the American-born. But there are things that are pushing Asians away from the Democrats as well.
Anthony Lam, a Vietnamese immigrant who fled as a refugee in the 1970s and grew up in Los Angeles as a working class, usually voted for Democrats. But as the owner of a hair salon in San Diego, he became increasingly frustrated with guidelines for closing the coronavirus. He turned off the unrest during the Black Lives Matter protests. Criticizing the looting, he said some white Democrats chastised him.
“They said, ‘You do not understand racism,'” he said. “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute.’ You just get racism now? I have been living with this for 40 years. ‘”
Mr Lam voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He told Mr. Yang supported in the Democratic primary. But he said he was finally up for Mr. Trump voted, mostly out of frustration with the Democrats.
Despite recent increases in political representation, some Asian-American communities still feel invisible, and some members argue that this could lead to a right turn.
Rob Yang, a Hmong American who runs shoe and clothing stores in Minneapolis and St. Louis Paul owned, became poor as a refugee. He watched the unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd in his traditional Hmong community, mainly workers. Its own stores were deprived of their merchandise during the Black Lives Matter protests.
Mr. Yang told Mr. Bid voted. He said he supports the Black Lives Matter movement, but that some in his community do not. Years of invisible feelings frustrated and demoralized them.
As he sees it, Asians still do not have enough voice, and he is concerned that the pressure to hold everything for years is reaching dangerous levels. He said he was concerned that a populist Asian leader, an Asian Trump, could have a large following by using this frustration. “We’ve been holding it for so long, it’s just going to take the right conditions to blow,” he said.
For mr. Park, the insurance agent in suburban Atlanta, said the attacks in his city and others in America were a serious reminder that economic success does not provide protection against the races that are part of American life. It is now, according to Asian Americans, to stand up and claim their place in American politics.
“It goes away from the idea that ‘the nail that sticks out is slapped in,'” he said. “We realize that it’s good to stick out.”