Asian Americans are “In Play”

In the article Anderson Cooper Explains Little About Asian Americans at Huffington Post, Scott Kurashige criticized Anderson Cooper’s special report “Race, Gender and Politics” at CNN fell short on Asian American. By saying Asian Americans are “in play” is not just an understatement, I think, but an insult. Kurahige complains how little the mainstream media understands the political dynamics within the Asian American communities. Well, this isn’t a surprise.

To help the media understand how ethnic identity politics functions, Kurashige outlines how minority interest groups form. Such groups conform perfectly to niche marketing of politics. I couldn’t agree with him more on that. Yet winning endorsement of such groups is not enough, endorsements from minority politicians, community leaders and media are no less important.

Kurashige argues “ending the marginalization of Asian American voices and stopping the monolithic portrayal of Asian American political attitudes would be great strides toward eliminating the conditions that sustain the ‘bloc vote’ mentality.” Can everybody hear that?