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GOLDSEA |
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
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:06:34 PM)
Maryland was not a Confederate state!!!
XXXO... I must be dealing with a devious mind or two in this particular board room. It's ok. I am not frustrated. However, don't patronize me about NOVA. It's full of anti-Asian hate.
Check the map Mr. UnED, both current and old going back to the 16th Century, and you will find where the Mason-Dixon line is... and how it developed in the first place. You would know this if you have had any formal secondary education, or to give you the benefit of doubt, I must guess they don't teach that in a racist environment, such as the environment in NOVA. Talk about being educated... Gee. look yourself in the mirror and ask a question...
Don't want to get sidetracked here...
NOVA is full of anti-Asian hate, and this is well know within the region, unless you are White, denying once again the existence of racism, Asian, Uncle Toms, defending the Whites who are feeding them with misinformations and misconceptions, or other minority groups that are happy to see Asians being controlled and destroyed by various uses of anti-Asian hate.
Man of Lha-sa is an Uncle Tom. Just look at how he described other Asians in one of his earlier posts. He calls Asians at Eden "Rice Boys." What a pathetic attempt at a racist slur by a typical Asian Uncle Tom. I am convinced that Man of Lha-sa is either White, posing as an Asian, or he is an Asian Uncle Tom. Enough said... Such anti-Asian hate in NOVA. I feel it everyday.
XXXO
Friday, June 21, 2002 at 11:47:50 (PDT)
"Am I blinded and white-washed b/c I don't see the effects of the local "anti-Asian hate system" here?"
Actually, I have not seen any either, although the public transport system has considerably deteriorated since the mid 1970s and rarely ever runs on time. Let us take the example of Ballston Metro...Number 10 bus no longer stops where it used to, but they have not even changed the signs yet and most folks frequently miss the bus, and this is hardship on sundays as we have only one bus every hour. Never used to happen when whites were a majority in Arlington. Bus service is shoddy perhaps because the whites no longer live in the area in large numbers? I also see the metro breaking down more frequently than it used to...perhaps because the minorities use metro more?
"Are you guys all being slurred once a week?"
Have not heard a slur in twenty years.
"Are Klansmen at your door with crosses burning?"
No. They used to burn crosses at Bailey's Cross Roads back in the early 1970s...at the spot where Today's Man and Circuit City now stands.
"Do skinheads acost you at the grocery store?"
No.
"Are Asian restaurants and grocery stores being vandalized?"
Have only heard of this near Littleton, Colorado and in Dillard, Georgia (because they were competing against local white mom and pop stores). Definitely not in NOVA...May be down in Fredericksburg or Warrenton...I am not sure.
"Has a boycott been called on Asian convenience stores in the city?"
Not to my knowledge.
"Has a rioting mob burned down Asian businesses?"
Actually a mob of whites occupy all Thai restaurants and I can rarely ever get a seating. So, I have to be satisfied with take out.
"Do employers ask you if you know English (or C++)?"
Yes.
Depends on what you call Anti-Asian hate. Definitely not in Atlington or Montgomerry County, although I would hope that they keep Connie Morella home, so that we can keep DeLay and his Enron tainted friends in the minority. But, whites who were really racist have run away from Northern Virginia...they have moved to Fredericksburg and other places along the Chesapeake Bay and far away from Asians. So, you do not get much anti-Asian hate. Actually, Arlington is a great place to live becuase no one group is a majority
Novasian
Thursday, June 13, 2002 at 13:09:04 (PDT)
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