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So, why should you care whether or not Asian Americans participate in the Census?
Each year, over $300 billion dollars is appropriated based on information obtained from the Census.
Census awareness is a salient civil rights issue for Asian Americans. Much like staying home on Election Day, not filing Census documentation severely restricts the growth of the Asian American community.
We may look at the same as our ancestors, but the landscape that we inhabit today is drastically different from the one that they inhabited.
We can make the government work for our community.
From the first Asian American immigrant to the United States back in the 1880s to the most recent, who just today set foot on American soil; from the hopeful prospectors in California to the aspiring convenience store owner in the New York Chinatown to the optimistic computer engineers in Silicon Valley, the legacy of the Asian-Americans has spanned over two hundred years, a history that has found itself inexorably intertwined with that of the United States. Yet even as Asian Americans enjoy an era of seemingly boundless opportunity, no one claims that the ride to today was a fluid one.
From being paid far less than their white counterparts while they laid the tracks of the Transcontinental Railroad to being passed over for managerial positions in the workplace of only forty years ago; from facing stringent immigration quotas as their European counterparts poured in far larger numbers to being ostracized and relegated to ethnic enclaves once they secured entrance, Asian-Americans have battled both subtle and explicit forms of inequity.
Yet, the success stories speak for themselves; Asian Americans have been praised as the "model minority," with endless rags-to-riches tales and countless accounts of immigrants overcoming dozens of obstacles to reach their goals. Asian Americans are not fleeting, insignificant American presence; we have shown over two hundred years how intricately entangled in the nation's affairs we truly are. We laid the railroad tracks, connecting the nation geographically; we furthered civil rights sentiment, bridging the nation culturally and socially.
We may look the same as our forbears, but the American landscape we inhabit today is drastically different from the one our ancestors faced, a stark comparison to the landscape that our parents lived in just under a decade ago. We live in at a time when opportunities abound for Asian Americans, when more doors than ever are open for our exploration, when the sky truly is the limit.
Despite the leaps and bounds that Asian Americans have made over the past decades, many outside the Asian American community selfdom reflect on those gains, neglecting to make changes necessary to address the ever-changing needs of the Asian American community. Asian Americans today are one of the fastest growing ethnic group in the US, and, yet, too-often, their concerns are overlooked; since over $300 billion dollars per year is appropriated partly on the basis of census data, resources available to speak to Asian American issues unduly become water under the bridge, only to be reapportioned to other, more vocal populations. And thus, the colorful nuances of the Asian American identity are left untouched by the wayside. The growth of the Asian American community is stunted.
Ultimately, overcoming such forms of inequity will never be easy, but the steps in combating these subtle forms of discrimination taken today help to ensure that we, as a people, can take proactive measures to solve the many problems facing our community: the census affords each and every individual the opportunity to quantify their successes while promoting the allocation of resources where they may be lacking. And thus, failing to complete census information would be one of the largest disfavors one could do to the community.
Census advocacy is a major civil rights issue for this upcoming year. Held every 10 years, the census is a nationwide head count of every person residing in the United States. The information is used by educators, policy makers, and community leaders for distributing government resources, redistricting, and other important decisions. During the last two censuses, the Census Bureau missed counting millions of people – mostly minorities and low-income people. Undercounting certain populations may reduce federal funding for hospitals, education, child-care, disaster preparation – as well as fair representation in Congress.
We believe that students are the best, most efficient vehicles for relaying this information to constituent Asian American populations throughout the United States. Foremost, the broad coalition of Asian American studies throughout the entire country reflects an existing structure of Asian American student groups that can be effectively mobilized to civilly combat inequities in representation. Further, through the engagement in these activities, we effectively expose Asian American student leaders to the importance of civic engagement—priming them for a lifetime of civic engagement and the necessary skills to live effective lives in public and community service.
Too often, the term “Civil Rights” prompts recollections of sometimes violent, often antagonized, protesters taking the streets to fight for the rights that they believe they deserve. And while such outpourings of action deserve acknowledgment in their own right, the term “Civil Rights” is not solely restricted to these mass very-public gatherings of followers. Rather, the struggle for civil rights is often one that is simple and goes unnoticed: it is as easy as completing a short census questionnaire, registering to vote, writing a letter to your Representative in Congress, or helping a friend translate an otherwise-foreign immigration form. Ultimately, civil rights is about ensuring that subtle and explicit forms of disenfranchisement facing Asian Americans today do not define the intricate role that Asian Americans play in today’s changing global atmosphere.
While fighting to ensure equal opportunities for Asian Americans and combating blatant forms of prejudice, we push forward with the recognition that Asian Americans have become an indispensible part of this nation’s infrastructure in the fullest sense, and that we, too, are entitled to the liberties guaranteed to all.
Remember, that you play a pivotal role in shaping your community. Through the census, you can make the government work for you. You can make your community thrive.
