As the city’s first Asian councilor, Yoon, a Democrat who is Korean American, garnered support during his run for mayor from Asians across America, in states like California and New York. What explains the dearth of Asian American mayors, and can it change? To gain insight on the unique challenges Asian American candidates face in mayoral elections, POLITICO Magazine spoke with Sam Yoon, the first Asian American to run for mayor of Boston, in 2009. Honolulu, a municipality of nearly 1 million people, 62 percent of whom are Asian, has never elected an Asian American mayor. Asian residents form the second-largest racial group in Seattle, at more than 15 percent of the population, but the city has had only one Asian American leader: former City Council member Bruce Harrell, who ran unsuccessfully in 2013 before serving as acting mayor for a mere five days in 2017, after his predecessor had resigned. Outside California, Asian mayors are almost non-existent. Even looking at the 25 large cities with the highest proportion of AAPI residents, just eight have ever elected an Asian chief executive - again, all in California. Of America’s 100 most populous municipalities, just three were led by Asian mayors in 2019 - all in California. population, held 21 percent of municipal seats. By contrast, Black people, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population overall, they made up just 2 percent of all elected city officials as of 2020.
While Asian people make up 7 percent of the U.S. Politicians like Yang may point to Trump, and rightfully so, for exacerbating racism against Asian Americans, but we shouldn’t forget who is also to blame.Yet, when it comes to municipal contests, Asian Americans consistently underperform, even compared with other minority groups. To people like Yang, it is Asian Americans who have the responsibility to “embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before” such as wearing “red, white, and blue” to avoid being the victims of hate crimes, rather than the responsibility of racists to not blame an entire group of people for a virus. One may find the things that I disagree with minor and insignificant, but in my opinion, they do more to showcase the anti-Asian bias of the Democratic party and American politics in general. Defending Harvard’s consideration of “different factors” does nothing to acknowledge the fact that many of these “different factors” are either things that applicants cannot control such as legacy status and race, or they are subjective, such as personality ratings, which can be used to discriminate against Asians, as noted in The Wall Street Journal. In the tweet, he called the lawsuit “misplaced,” saying,“schools should be able to consider different factors to achieve various goals.” This comment came at a time when reporters at The Wall Street Journal were already uncovering discrimination, such as Harvard admissions officers giving lower personal ratings to Asian American applicants. In 2018, he responded to a lawsuit alleging Harvard’s discrimination against Asian applicants by defending Harvard admissions. Electing him as mayor would not only be irresponsible and wrong, but would prove that identity politics are an effective way for politicians to campaign, rather than having values and beliefs that correspond to that of the American people.Īndrew Yang’s history of minimizing Asian American voices is not hard to uncover. The truth is, despite Yang’s message that he represents the interests of Asian American people, he has done his own share of neglecting our voices. However, it would be wrong to ignore Yang’s complicity in anti-Asian discrimination simply because of his ethnic background. It was unusual to see myself, someone from an East-Asian background, be represented in politics, and even more unusual to ponder the idea that such a person could potentially become president of the United States. I remember when I used to look up towards Yang during the Democratic primary. In early March 2021, Andrew Yang, a leading contender for New York City’s 2021 Mayoral race and former Democratic presidential candidate, spoke out about the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, stating, “Asian-Americans are human beings, Asian-Americans are just as American as anyone else.” He tweeted the hashtag #StopAsianHate and positioned himself as a candidate for successfully representing the Asian American community, saying he would support us in the face of acts that have left many distraught and hurt. Ever since Andrew Yang ran for president, he has expanded his recognition with voters through several podcasts and various media outlets.
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