who could speak for all Asian Americans

Asian American, journal Tagged with: leader, political, representative, speaker

Nov 082008

Suppose a mainstream media outlets wanted to identify and interview leading Asian Americans. Someone recently asked me to suggest at least 3 community leaders for a news documentary piece. I need your help.

The African-American community has Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who do Asian Americans have? (Granted, Sharpton and/or Jackson do not represent everyone in the African-American community, but they are vocal representatives, even if self-appointed.)

So, who should I suggest as spokespersons or representatives of the Asian American community? Someone who could speak representatively for the 15 million Asian Americans?

I used 1 of my lifelines, and polled my followers at Twitter and friends at Facebook (which mirrors from my Twitter feed). Here’s the list of responses I got:

Ronald Takaki, retired professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and author of Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
Frank H. Wu, recently Dean of Law School and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White
Helen Zia, journalist, activist, and author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College
Van Tran, Orange County member of California State Assembly
John Liu, Councilman in New York City and co-founder of Asian Political Leadership Fund
Hyepin Im, President and CEO of Korean Churches for Community Development
Eugene Cho, Pastor of Quest Church, Seattle
Ken Fong, Pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles
Dave Gibbons, Pastor of NewSong Church in Irvine
Steve Wong, Pastor of Grace Community Covenant Church
Tom Lin, Regional Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Tony Sheng, mobilizer of student missions
Francis Chan, Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley
Jaeson Ma, President of Campus Church Networks

Because of my connections with Christian ministries, many responded with Asian American Christian leaders. My name was mentioned too, but I’m playing that bashful Asian race card, and left my name off the above list.

I’m not sure any one person could represent the whole 15 million, with over 30 different ethnicities and languages under the “Asian American” label; it’d take at least 30. The 3 who are most knowledgeable about the whole are probably Ronald Takaki, Frank Wu, and Helen Zia, listed above.

There are a number of Asian Americans who’ve been in government roles, elected or appointed, like Bobby Jindal, Gary Locke, Elaine Chao, David Kuo. Some would say that a political or government leader is more of a community leader than a leader in the realms of business, sports, arts, medicine, or media. There are plenty of Asian American leaders, just don’t recall any that speak out on mainstream media.

But, I can’t think of any one Asian American leader that’s a household name among even 50% of the Asian American population.