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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is the D.C.-Baltimore Area the Center of Asian American Conservatism?
he greater D.C. metro area (including Baltimore and Northeastern Virginia) is not only the seat of the national government but the center of the U.S. defense establishment. The contractors and the large intelligence agencies -- most of which are headquartered there -- are easily the biggest employers of the region's affluent science and engineering professionals. An estimated 22% of these technologists are drawn from the 400,000 AA who make up 8% of the region's 5 million residents. This heavy concentration in the defense sector makes the area's Asian Americans not only the nation's most affluent, but also the most politically and socially conservative.
Home of AA Conservatism?
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The Asian influx into the D.C. area is largely a post-Vietnam
War phenomenon. The capitol's small but comely Chinatown on H Street between 6th and 8th boasts about 20 restaurants and a number of shops but they cater mostly to tourists and the lunch-hour crowd. Currently only about 1,000 Chinese live in Washington D.C. -- and that number has been shrinking steadily. Most live in the suburbs of northern Virginia (46,000) and southern Maryland (52,000). The D.C. area hosts only the 10th largest Chinese American population but a high percentage are degreed science and tech professionals with security clearances.
Similar credentials are found among the 110,000 Corean Americans who make up the area's largest Asian nationality. They enjoy access to 53 Corean restaurants, mostly in Annandale, Arlington, and in Aspen Hill in Maryland's Montgomery County. The vast majority of Coreans here are staunchly Republican -- not surprising since their fortunes turn on the dollars allocated to defense spending.
Vietnamese are another Republic-leaning Asian nationality with a heavy D.C.-area presence. Virginia is home to the nation's third largest Vietnamese population (40,000), mostly in the state's northeastern part. Less than half that number make their home in Maryland and D.C. combined. They do manage to support a nascent Little Saigon in Wheaton.
Indians, who received over half the H-1B visas issued to foreign tech workers beginning in 1992, have been drawn by the area's defense sector. In 2001 the 52,000 Indians living in Virginia surpassed Filipinos as that state's most numberous Asian nationality thanks to a 143% increase since 1990. An equally large number of Indians have immigrated to take advantage of Maryland's abundance of science and tech jobs.
Another good indicator of the D.C. area's political conservatism is the relative scarcity of Japanese Americans who have traditionally skewed strongly in favor of democrats. Neither Maryland nor Virginia ranks among states with the top 10 JA populations.
Is the D.C.-Baltimore area really the home of AA conservatism? Or have the more recent waves of young AA newcomers begun embracing the more liberal values of the Clinton era?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 04:38:55 AM)
Hannybunbun,
"Rent only starts at $800 here and that is an extreme rarity."
$800!!! That is amazing. Where did you see that?
I feel lucky to pay $1270 for a one bedroom with a parking spot. Shoot, for an $800 apartment I'd tear the wings of a butterfly! (j/k but I'd love to be able to save that kind of money).
NOVA/MD/DC apartments are expensive as hell, but at least the quality is pretty good. In Boston, we paid just as much if not more monthly rent and the condition of the apartments was awful! No parking, no washer/dryer units, no balconies, 1950's electrical systems (one outlet only), no gym, no front desk, no carpeting, crumbling plaster. NOVA apartment life is making me soft (and poor).
You mentioned earlier that you felt intimidated at times at the Eden Center b/c of some of the hostility the people there directed at you. Could you expand on that? Some of my friends who are not Asian have also felt a little initmidate there also b/c it is so strongly Vietnamese/Asian (not watered down and commercialized for tourists like most Chinatowns). Sometimes, I feel a bit out of place there (all the riceboys in the parking lot and huddled around the cafes smoking up a storm, hit and miss parking on the weekends), but it sure beats eating at Cafe Asia down in Rosslyn (lots of APA yuppies and trendy decor, but the food is generally disappointing).
Have you been out to the suburban K-town in Annandale? God, if there was a metro line out there, I'd move in a heartbeat. My wife and I have spent an obscene amount of money at those Korean BBQs and bakeries. The A&Js (Chinese) is nice (and cheap) too (the first time I had the "fried chicken noodles"/jipai mian, I was half expecting a bucket of KFC and a pack of ramen, but I'm a convert now!). I think NOVA is making me fat.
Man of Lha-sa(mancha)
Saturday, June 01, 2002 at 19:43:56 (PDT)
When you cross the Mason Dixon Line as an Asian, you essentially go into no man's land. the DC/NOVA/Baltimore area is essentially the south. although on the northern most aspect of southern influence, conservative roots, racial intolerance, bible thumping, and elitism prevail. and these aspects seem to penetrate directly into the local asian culture(s)to a degree. perhaps this is a survial mechanism from countless confrontations from the local whites, and especially the negro infuence of DC itself.
Not just Black and White!
Saturday, June 01, 2002 at 17:38:56 (PDT)
"NOVA is more tolerant and racially diverse than many places in this country."
This is true today. However, it was not very tolerant when I first came here back in 1979, exactly twenty three years ago as of May 27. My family was one of few South Asians who moved into Arlington, by the Columbia Pike. American Nazi Party had its HQ there. We were very poor. My sister was beaten up at Wakefield High School by white girls for being dark skinned. Not many blacks then at Wakefield..she was the closest in the class to being black, and so they used the N word and beat her up. My mother had coke cans thrown on her and white kids spat on her several times. Several Vietnamese kids were also beaten up and harassed during those days. Many did not like the fact that Asians were moving into Arlington.
However, by 1986 everything had changed. Whites began to flee mostly from Asians. Hispanics and Ethiopians took their place. The American Nazi Party moved first to Illinois and eventually to Idaho. Soon no one was a majority in Arlington and for that matter much of Northern Virginia. Arlington is one of the best cities to live. If Arlington is the future of America, I say let there be no majority. However, I must say that not all white majority places have the same level of racism as we faced here in the early 1980s. Seattle is 75% white, but my cousins who live there say there is no problem. Vermont and Maine are 97% white. I have visited both places frequently and I encounter no problems there either.
I think that the problem in Arlington was the old guard southern white, waving the confederate flag and idolizing traitors such as Confederate General Forrest (a murderer and a war criminal), and who have a major chip on their shoulders. Whites in Texas have the same attitude. Glad to note that the Texas whites would soon be a minority there as well.
South Asian resident of Arlington, VA
Friday, May 31, 2002 at 16:05:01 (PDT)
To Hannybunbun:
You're White. You do not know what it feels like being an Asian. Further, you do not know what it feels like being Black or being a member of any other minority group, to get my point across. Therefore, you couldn't have possibly felt the kind of hate minority groups have felt in NOVA coming from the White race within the last 10-15 years, to give you a specific example.
It has nothing to do with poverty or a command of English. It's more about predatory expression of anti-Asian hate. Masking racism, specifically anti-Asian hate, by using examples of poverty (and a poor command of English? What does that have to do with anything?) only flies in the face of deep-rooted anti-Asian hate. And don't use your Asian boyfriend as a shield; that's getting kind of old, too, in NOVA.
I don't mean to exclude you Hannybunbun; I just want to point out your lack of perspective, experience, and information. To state that NOVA is more tolerant and racially diverse than other places in the U.S. is like saying Asians are killed off more slowly in NOVA than other places, which still wouldn't be true.
To Man of Lha-sa(mancha):
"Is it blatant racism, like refusal to show Asians homes in certain neighborhoods, caps on Asians in certain high schools, desceration of Asian religious sites or businesses, or physical attacks on Asian people? More restrained perhaps like racial slurs, dirty looks, "chingchong" talking? Subtler things possibly like lousy service at restaurants and stores, teachers stereotyping children into math, or refusal to grant allowed absences for cultural holidays (lunar new year)?"
I've been through all of the above and more. I'll give you specific examples:
When I was growing up in the heart of NOVA, in areas like Fairfax, Fair Lakes, Annandale, and etc., teachers openly called Asians "chink." Just think about the openness of racial hate anywhere else in the area. It wasn't that long ago.
Hard to believe you say? They pointed to our skin and told us that we were yellow and the word "chink" was for yellow people and the word "nigg@@" was for black people, and how I shouln'd be angry at people shouting out the word, "nigg@@" openly in school, since it did not apply to chinks... and the principle agreed. I didn't even have the right, according to them, to become angry when White kids shouted the word, "chink," to my face, which was often the case, since, according to the teacher and principle, it was true, pointing at my eyes. I became immediately aware of the socialization efforts of Whites to undermine capable Asians and other minority members. The level of the conversation was beneath me, although I was just a child.
That was only the beginning. As I became more successful in academics and in other areas, Whites started to use other means and tactics to destroy and undermine Asians in NOVA. I saw it upfront. The police preyed upon young Asians, stopping them, without reason, trying to issue reckless driving tickets, to give these Asians a "record" of some sort, to rob them of their futures. If these Asians fought it, "they" oftern blamed it on "miscommunication" resulting from a "poor command of English" on the part of Asians in question.
I lived through seeing Governor Allen, who is popular in NOVA, a Republican, making reckless driving an automatic misdemeanor, giving the police force an effective tool to destroy futures of young Asians, young minorities, young immigrants, who are unaware. Just go through the public records available at the Chain Bridge Judicial Center in Fairfax, and look through the countless reckless driving charges issued to Asians. You wouldn't see it, unless you know the racial history of a region.
I am just giving you small, specific examples. The story doesn't end there. The experiences I've had as I became an affuluent Asian in NOVA are mind boggling. The anti-Asian hate will not go away. These teachers, and the students they have taught are still there, and those students are adults now, occupying positions in government agencies, religious organizations, corporations, and etc. You ask for the location of the "Old Guard," well, they are everywhere, since I grew up with them, and yes, they are still the same. They haven't changed a bit, and they are breeding, and I see their racist kids displaying all the familiar behaviors when they think we are not watching.
You ask how? Protect the young Asians, regardless of what "they" will say about them, or claim that they have done, because young Asians are the only ones that "they" can touch, easily, nowdays, without altercations in a courtroom. And young Asians, being who they are, easily feel guilty, even if they are remotely involved; they have to be reassured that it's not their fault. And don't trust the courtroom environment; they are no better, if you get my meaning. Create Asian political organizations; join Asian organizations; and get involved politically. Support Democrats and non-conservatives to open doors for Asians. Produce and support plenty of Asian lawyers and judges, who are not sellouts. Stay Asian, and raise Asians who will remain Asians for generations to come in NOVA. Effect change, and don't ever fall for smoke like the smoke Hannybunbun is blowing in your face, because without the proper perspective, you will often fall for their smiling faces and the slippery slope and red herring statments they spit out.
And who's trying to entrap and attract good Asians by claiming that Washington, D.C. is an Asian-friendly town? These Asians have no idea as to what is going to hit them and their children. Oh, get involved in public/private school organizations. And lastly, watch out... because, eventually, anti-Asian hate will hit you in NOVA like a mack truck.
Metropolitan Aware
Friday, May 31, 2002 at 12:43:51 (PDT)
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