11/13/06: Allen's Slur Against Asian American Cost Him Election for U.S. Senate
    According to CNN poll figures, Virginians cast 2,364,217 votes in the 
U.S. Senate race. 3% of the votes (70,926) were cast by Asian Americans. 68% 
of the Asian Americans voted Democratic, while 32% voted Republican. 68 - 32 = 
36. 70,926 x 36% = 25,534 votes. 
    Democrat Jim Webb won the Senate race by only 7,231 votes.
    If Asian Americans had voted 50-50, Webb would have lost and the Republicans 
would still control the Senate.
    In August 2006, incumbent Senator George Allen (R) had referred to S. R. Sidarth as "Macaca."  Sidarth is a 20-year-old Indian American attending the University of Virginia . 
He was born and raised in Fairfax County . 
    The word "macaca" refers to a type of monkey commonly found in Africa and Asia .  
In certain French-speaking societies, it is an ethnic slur against people with dark skin; 
Allen's mother is an immigrant of French Tunisian descent. 
    According to the Washington Post, Allen's remarks thrust his past — which includes 
a youthful admiration of the Confederate flag and an office that once displayed a noose 
— back into the public spotlight. 
    Statistics from 11/13/06 www.80-20.us e-mail and CNN exit polls: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/TX/S/01/epolls.0.html

11/9/06 New America Media; “Asians in Eight States Favored Dems, Nixed Michigan Affirmative Action Ban,”
    New York — Asian American voters in eight states continued a decade-long shift towards Democratic candidates, with 79 percent of those polled favoring Democrats in Tuesday's congressional and state elections. They also rejected an affirmative action ban that won in Michigan .
    Preliminary results of a nonpartisan, multilingual exit poll of over 4,600 Asian American voters, released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, showed Asian American voter turnout helping Democratic candidates in closely watched races in Virginia , New Jersey and other states.
    Most exit poll respondents (87 percent) said that they had voted in a previous election, while 13 percent said they were first-time voters. Over 625 pro bono attorneys, law students and community activists monitored polling places and surveyed Asian American voters in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
    Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director said, “Asian American voters reacted to sharp ideological differences among the candidates and displayed their awareness of party labels.”
    Fung added that the decade-long trend of Asian American voters favoring Democrats contributed to “the dramatic shifts in political power that took place in Tuesday's midterm elections."
    Exit Poll Survey Highlights
    Virginia -- The exit poll of more than 250 Asian American voters showed 76 percent voted for Democratic senatorial bet Jim Webb, 21 percent voted for incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen, and 3 percent voted for Glenda Parker. After maintaining a slim lead, Webb was declared the winner by 0.3 percent of the total vote (49.6 percent) beating Allen (49.3 percent). Allen is best known among Asian Americans for his derogatory “macaca” remark to a South Asian campaign worker.
    New Jersey -- this heated Senate race, among more than 370 Asian Americans polled, 77 percent voted for incumbent Sen. Robert Menendez, while 20% voted for Republican challenger Thomas Kean Jr.—a 57-point margin. Among all New Jersey voters, Menendez held his seat by an 8-point margin (53 percent to 45 percent).
    Maryland -- In Maryland 's open Senate seat, among over 200 Asian American voters polled, 73 percent chose Democrat Ben Cardin, with 24 percent for Republican Michael Steele, and 3 percent for Green Party candidate Kevin Zeese. Among the general electorate, 55 percent voted for Cardin, 44 percent for Steele, and 2 percent for Zeese.
    Pennsylvania -- Among more than 200 Asian American voters polled in Philadelphia , 71 percent voted for Democratic candidate Bob Casey, while 29 percent voted for Republican incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum. Among all voters, 59 percent voted for Casey and 41 percent voted for Santorum.
    Massachusetts -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick, who became the nation's second African American elected governor, received support from 75 percent of more than 350 Asian American voters polled in Boston , Dorchester, Lowell and Quincy , with Kerry Healey receiving 21 percent. Statewide, 56 percent voted for Patrick, and 35 percent voted for Healey.
    Michigan Proposal 2 -- Rejecting claims that Asian Americans are hurt by affirmative action programs, three in four Asian American voters voted No to Proposal 2, which seeks to end race- and gender-based affirmative action programs in education, hiring, contracting and health initiatives. More than 300 Asian American voters—including Arab Americans—participated in AALDEF’s exit poll survey in Michigan . Proposal 2 passed by a wide margin, 58 percent to 42 percent.
    Illinois -- Democratic incumbent Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich defeated his Republican opponent Judy Baar Topinka with a 10-point lead, 50 percent to 40 percent. In contrast, 99 percent of the 170 Asian Americans polled in Chicago voted for Blagojevich, with 1 percent for Topinka.
    New York -- Of over 2,300 Asian American voters polled in New York City , 82 percent voted for Democratic candidate for attorney general Andrew Cuomo. Republican contender Jeanine Pirro received 14 percent of the Asian American vote, with 4 percent voting for other candidates. Cuomo led Pirro 58 percent to 40 percent among all voters statewide.
    AALDEF has been conducting a nonpartisan exit poll of Asian American voters for 19 years. Volunteers—the majority of whom spoke one of 15 Asian languages or dialects—conducted the multilingual survey, which was translated into nine languages: Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, Bengali, Arabic, Punjabi, Urdu, and Gujarati.

11/9/06 aaa-fund.org: In Nevada, which recently became one of the early-primary states in 
the 2008 presidential election, 4.6% of the voting-age population is Asian American.  
Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Nevada increased by 66%, but the Asian 
American population increased at a rate almost four times as large.  

9/25/06 Press of Atlantic City: “Asian-American families hard work pays off,”
By Timothy Puko
    Fonny Lau and her husband, Siu Poy Lau, own their own business selling satellite
television subscriptions and wholesale gifts. Their daughter is getting a master’s degree
in education, and Fonny’s brothers are two doctors and a scientist.
    Alvin Ong’s father was a doctor, and he raised a doctor, a surgeon, a lawyer and a
doctor-to-be.  Man Ching and Cheong Ming Chan have never had white-collar jobs since
arriving in the United States about 40 years ago. They work at casino restaurants in
Atlantic City and on those wages, about $60,000 combined, have supported three
children, putting two through college so far.
    “Most of their life is spent working,” said John Chan, the oldest of their three sons.
“They did this consistently, seven days a week, and money, any income they got was
either saved or invested in me to buy items.”
    At 28 years old, John Chan has an apartment in Jersey City , works as an electrical
engineer at ITT Electronic Systems in Clifton and already makes about as much money
each year as his parents do combined. His youngest brother is still in high school, but
the middle child is a Web designer with Vonage.
    The success of all these Asian-American families is rather common. Despite a large
wealth gap across racial lines in the United States that finds most minorities on the
wrong side, Asian households surpassed even those of white Americans in their
median income in 2005, according to Census figures.
    Across the country, the state and Atlantic and Ocean counties, data released last
month by the U.S. Census bureau do not vary in this area. The median Asian-American
household in the state had an income of $85,723 last year. The median income of all
New Jersey households was $61,627.
   “There are ugly stereotypes (for Asian Americans), but they aren’t mostly the ones that
keep you out of prosperity,” said Barbara Robles, one of the authors of “The Color of
Wealth,” a book released this summer by United for a Fair Economy. “We actually say
this is an example of what can happen when the obstacles disappear.”
    The data do not necessarily mean that Asian Americans are richer than everyone else.
Whites still made more, individually, than did Asians — about $2,500 more in Atlantic
County and New Jersey last year, according to Census data.
   Economists point out that Asian households are larger than average, trailing only
Hispanic families, according to Census data. Most Asians live in the most expensive
areas of the country and are they are less likely than whites to be employed as the
highest-paid corporate executives.
    But the differences in median income across races are still stark. Asians and
Hispanics in Atlantic County have similar household sizes, but Asian households made
almost twice as much.
    The median Asian household in the county earned $63,514. The median Hispanic
household earned only $36,394. Black households earned even less: a median income
of $30,075.
    “It means (Asian Americans) are well off. There’s no denying that,” said James W.
Hughes, dean of Rutgers ’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
    Hughes and many others suggest the value of education in many Asian cultures as
the impetus for this phenomenon. Asians have the highest high school and college
graduation rates in the state.
    More than 65 percent of Asian Americans older than 25 have bachelor’s degrees,
according to the Census Bureau. The next highest group was whites, with 35.2 percent
owning bachelor’s degrees.
    “Asians value education, very much so,” said Ong, 39 of Linwood. “They value it more
than politics; they value it more than money. Family and education are key.”
    Ong, who is Chinese, lived with grandparents in the Philippines until he was 9. He
then moved to New York City to be with his parents, who had immigrated when he was
still a baby.
    His father was a doctor with a family practice in the city. Ong, who attended the
University of Pennsylvania and then the State University of New York Stony Brook
School of Medicine, is now an orthopedic doctor at the Rothman Institute’s office in
Egg Harbor Township .
   “Asian fathers are different,” he said. “They say, ‘You have to get 100 on your school
(test). I don’t need you to be an athlete, you have to do well at school.’
    “Their heroes aren’t necessarily Babe Ruth. They’re Albert Einstein or a famous
violinist or a famous doctor.”
   But the same emphasis that is often placed on supporting the next generation is
also placed on supporting the community. Businesses like laundries, restaurants and
grocery stores that are historically linked with segments of the Asian community have
been opportunities for the community to hire workers from within itself.
    Philip Hoang, 44, immigrated from Vietnam in 1975. Three years ago, he bought a
house for him and his two children and Mays Landing.
    It took him 20 years to save enough money for the purchase, and most of that time
he spent working in restaurants. Before moving to Atlantic City, where he has since
worked in restaurants at Bally’s Atlantic City and Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, he
would always be employed by or build partnerships with other Asian businessmen.
    Stories like Hoang’s stem from the larger history of Asian immigrants in the United
States , the authors of “The Color of Wealth” said.
   “In spite of, or because of, the marginalization of Asians, within ethnic enclaves,
there was a high degree of self-sufficiency and wealth creation, as business and
service enterprises owned by Asians and serving Asian consumers sprang up,” the
book says.
    The book also builds an argument that there is a connection, often ignored,
between public policy and wealth. It credits the GI Bill, designed to help World War II
veterans pay for college, as being one of the most important government acts in
helping increasing middle class wealth after the war.
    While Asians had often been victims of discriminatory taxes and citizenship laws,
Asians could benefit from the GI Bill, which allowed their culture value of education to
flourish. Blacks and Latinos were mostly excluded, a factor that played a large role in
the wealth disparity, the book says.
    Traditional Asian family values also had been encouraged in previous decades
by discriminatory policies. While Asian immigrants could not become citizens, after
the Civil War their children could, encouraging them to invest more in their children’s
lives than their own.
   Although the Laus, Ongs and Chans immigrated about 100 years later, the cultural
values have yet to change.
    “My income might not be high,” Fonny Lau says, “but hopefully my daughter’s and
son’s will be.”

9/19/06 INDOlink News Bureau: Asian-American Buying Power Tops $427 Billion
     New York , Sept. 19, 2006 - Per new statistics released earlier this month by the 
Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia , Asian consumer 
annual buying power in the United States has reached $427 billion, representing 
a 59% increase since the beginning of the decade. Furthermore, Asian buying 
power has the second fastest projected rate of growth, slightly behind Hispanic 
buying power. By 2011, Asian buying power will grow 46% over the current 
benchmark to reach $626 billion.
    Reflecting the Asian population distribution by state which was recently 
documented in the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey (ACS),
California and New York remain in first and second place for annual Asian 
buying power, with $140.5 billion and $41.5 billion respectively. 
    New Jersey 's Asian buying power has now reached $26.8 billion, followed by 
Texas with $25.9 billion. Remaining states on the top-10 list include (in rank 
order): Hawaii ($20.4 billion), Illinois ($18.7 billion), Washington ($13 billion), 
Virginia ($12.6 billion), Florida ($12.2 billion), and Massachusetts ($10.9 billion). 
These state figures have grown significantly in the last five years. According to 
Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center , only six states had more than 
$10 billion in Asian buying power in 2000, whereas 11 states have already 
reached that benchmark in 2006.
    Although the financial services, automotive, and telecommunications sectors 
have long recognized the value of Asian consumers in their marketing programs, 
many marketers in other categories have yet to consider the viability of Asian-
targeted programs. Such categories include consumer packaged goods, 
pharmaceutical, travel & leisure, retail, and consumer electronics, among others.
    The Selig data also highlights one important characteristic of the Asian 
American market that many marketers frequently overlook - namely, that Asian 
consumers wield a disproportionately larger clout in terms of their purchasing 
power than the absolute size of the Asian population would otherwise imply. 
"Most often, marketers hesitate in considering Asian programs because they 
overly focus on the comparatively smaller size of the Asian population vis-à-vis 
the larger Hispanic and African American audiences," said Saul Gitlin, 
Executive Vice President - Strategic Services, Kang & Lee Advertising. 
"However, while the Asian population may be only one third the size of the 
Hispanic population, Asian annual buying power already represents 53% of 
Hispanic buying power. Similarly, since 2000, the total Asian population of the 
country has grown by almost 20% (per ACS), but Asian buying power growth 
has outpaced Asian population growth three-fold in the same period. As such, 
when evaluating whether or not to consider developing an Asian American 
marketing program, many marketers should transcend a mere analysis of 
Asian population size in order to better understand the viability and potential 
bottom-line impact of the opportunity," concluded Gitlin.  

9/12/06 Associated Press: “Where you live linked to life expectancy,”
By Lauran Neergaard
    Washington - Where you live, combined with race and income, plays a huge
role in the nation's health disparities, differences so stark that a report issued
Monday contends it's as if there are eight separate Americas instead of one.
   Asian-American women living in Bergen County , N.J. , lead the nation in
longevity, typically reaching their 91st birthdays. Worst off are American Indian
men in swaths of South Dakota , who die around age 58 — three decades sooner.
   Millions of the worst-off Americans have life expectancies typical of developing
countries, concluded Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health.
   Asian-American women can expect to live 13 years longer than low-income
black women in the rural South, for example. That's like comparing women in
wealthy Japan to those in poverty-ridden Nicaragua .
   Compare those longest-living women to inner-city black men, and the life-
expectancy gap is 21 years. That's similar to the life-expectancy gap between
Iceland and Uzbekistan .
   Health disparities are widely considered an issue of minorities and the poor
being unable to find or afford good medical care. Murray 's county-by-county
comparison of life expectancy shows the problem is far more complex, and that
geography plays a crucial role.
   "Although we share in the U.S. a reasonably common culture ... there's still a lot
of variation in how people live their lives," explained Murray, who reported initial
results of his government-funded study in the online science journal PLoS Medicine.
   Consider: The longest-living whites weren't the relatively wealthy, which Murray
calls " Middle America ." They're edged out by low-income residents of the rural
Northern Plains states, where the men tend to reach age 76 and the women 82.
   Yet low-income whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley die four years
sooner than their Northern neighbors.
    He cites American Indians as another example. Those who don't live on or near
reservations in the West have life expectancies similar to whites'.
   "If it's your family involved, these are not small differences in lifespan," Murray
said. "Yet that sense of alarm isn't there in the public."
   "If I were living in parts of the country with those sorts of life expectancies, I
would want ... to be asking my local officials or state officials or my congressman,
'Why is this?'"
   This more precise measure of health disparities will allow federal officials to
better target efforts to battle inequalities, said Dr. Wayne Giles of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, which helped fund Murray 's work.
   The CDC has some county-targeted programs — like one that has cut in half
diabetes-caused amputations among black men in Charleston , S.C. , since 1999,
largely by encouraging physical activity — and the new study argues for more, he
said.
   "It's not just telling people to be active or not to smoke," Giles said. "We need
to create the environment which assists people in achieving a healthy lifestyle."
   The study also highlights that the complicated tapestry of local and cultural
customs may be more important than income in driving health disparities, said
Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging, which co-funded the research.
   "It's not just low income," Suzman said. "It's what people eat, it's how they
behave, or simply what's available in supermarkets."
   Murray analyzed mortality data between 1982 and 2001 by county, race,
gender and income. He found some distinct groupings that he named the "eight
Americas :"
   _Asian-Americans, average per capita income of $21,566, have a life
expectancy of 84.9 years.
    _Northland low-income rural whites, $17,758, 79 years.
    _Middle America (mostly white), $24,640, 77.9 years.
    _Low income whites in Appalachia , Mississippi Valley, $16,390, 75 years.
    _Western American Indians, $10,029, 72.7 years.
    _Black Middle America , $15,412, 72.9 years.
    _Southern low-income rural blacks, $10,463, 71.2 years.
    _High-risk urban blacks, $14,800, 71.1 years.
    Longevity disparities were most pronounced in young and middle-aged adults.
A 15-year-old urban black man was 3.8 times as likely to die before the age of
60 as an Asian-American, for example.
   That's key, Murray said, because this age group is left out of many government
health programs that focus largely on children and the elderly.
   Moreover, the longevity gaps have stayed about the same for 20 years despite
increasing national efforts to eliminate obvious racial and ethnic health disparities,
he found.
   Murray was surprised to find that lack of health insurance explained only a small
portion of those gaps. Instead, differences in alcohol and tobacco use, blood
pressure, cholesterol and obesity seemed to drive death rates.
   Most important, he said, will be pinpointing geographically defined factors —
such as shared ancestry, dietary customs, local industry, what regions are more or
less prone to physical activity — that in turn influence those health risks.
   For example, scientists have long thought that the Asian longevity advantage
would disappear once immigrant families adopted higher-fat Western diets.
Murray 's study is the first to closely examine second-generation Asian-Americans,
and found their advantage persists.

9/7/06 The UCLA Asian American Studies Center: The New “Sleeping Giant” in
California Politics: The Growth of Asian Americans
by  Letisia Marquez
     Los Angeles , CA (September 6, 2006) – In the 1980s and 1990s, Hispanics were
considered the “sleeping giant” in California politics because of their growing numbers.
Asian Americans are now the new “sleeping giant” and are at a point where Hispanics
were about two decades ago.(1) They have significantly increased their potential power
at the polls in California , according to an analysis conducted by researchers affiliated
with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and with the UC AAPI (Asian American
& Pacific Islander) Policy Initiative. The analysis uses data from the 2005 American
Community Survey (ACS) released on August 15 and 29, 2006 by the U.S. Census
Bureau, along with previously released data from the Census Bureau.(2)
   The number of Asian Americans in California eligible to register to vote (citizens who
are 18 and older) climbed by over a half million between 2000 and 2005, from 2 million
to 2.5 million. The Asian American share of the a proportion of the state's population
eligible to register as voters increased from 10% to 12% during this time period.
   Two factors behind the emergence of the new “sleeping giant” are the overall increase
in the total Asian American population and the higher rate of citizenship. Between 2000
and 2005, the number of Asian Americans residing in California ’s households increased
from 3.8 million to 4.7 million, accounting for 38% of the net gain of 2.2 million persons
in California ’s population.(3)
   Along with population growth, Asian Americans experienced an increase in their
citizenship rate -- 71% of Asian American adults are U.S. citizens by birth or
naturalization, representing an increase from 67% in 2000.(4) These figures show
that Asian Americans are not an alien population, but a population that has become
fully integrated into American society through citizenship.
   The growth in the potential Asian American electorate over the last five years is a
continuation of a pattern that began in the 1990s. In 1990, there were slightly more than
one million Asian American adult citizens, comprising about 6% of all adult citizens in
the state.(5) If recent trends continue, there will be over 3 million Asian American adults
eligible to register to vote by the end of the decade, making up about 14% of all
Californians eligible to register.
   The growth in the absolute number of Asian Americans and those eligible to become
voters can have political ramifications. California State Assembly Member Judy Chu
states that the overall growth of the Asian American population will open up new
opportunities and challenges:
   "The incredible growth of Asian Americans in California and in the United States
brings as much opportunity as it does challenges. Asian Americans continue to
contribute to the cultural diversity and economic success of this nation, but the growing
population also means that public services and elected representation will need to
grow to accommodate the unique needs of our community.”"
   Community leaders point to the potential impact on a number of public policy issues.
Vivian Huang, Legislative Advocate of Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality,
states, "With increasing population growth, Asian Americans are poised to dramatically
escalate their political representation and power in politics and highlight key issues
important to the community, such as civil rights, immigrant rights, and access to language assistance."
   This opinion is widely shared by other community leaders, including Lisa Hasegawa
(Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community
Development), JD Hokoyama (President & CEO of Leadership Education for Asian
Pacifics, Inc.), and Elena Ong (former member, California Commission for Women).
   According to Professor Don Nakanishi, a political scientist and director of UCLA’s
Asian American Studies Center,
   "This growth has contributed to the increasing number of Asian American state and
local elected officials in California and nationwide. The Asian American political
infrastructure of voters, donors, politicians, and community groups has also undergone
remarkable growth and maturation, and will likely have an increasingly significant
impact on state and national politics."
   However, there are still barriers to fully translating the population numbers into voting
power. According to Paul Ong, an economist and professor in UCLA’s School of Public
Affairs , “The challenge is to convert the growing numbers of Asian American citizens
into voters.” Previous research and data for California from the 2002 and 2004
November Current Population Survey show that Asian American citizens are less
likely to register and vote than non-Hispanic whites and African Americans.(6)
(See Table 3.)
   For the upcoming November elections, community activists have focused on voter
registration and voter-turnout drives. David Lee, Executive Director of the Chinese
American Voters Education Committee, notes "Our bilingual voter registration efforts
are yielding record numbers of Asian American voters in the immigrant community.
Thanks to absentee ballots Asian American voter turnout has been growing rapidly."
   Leading Asian American scholars believe that this group can become an effective
voting bloc by formulating a common political agenda both among Asian Americans
and across racial lines. The Asian American population is culturally, linguistically
and economically heterogeneous. Despite these divisions, Professor Yen Le Espiritu,
a sociologist in the department of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego notes that, “history
has shown that Asian Americans can overcome differences to build viable pan-Asian
political coalitions to promote and protect both their individual and their united interests.”
Moreover, Professor Michael Omi, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley,
predicts, “different racial and ethnic groups will increasingly see the necessity of
defining areas of common political concern and mobilizing significant voter blocs to
wield political power."
   The UCLA Asian American Studies Center is the nation’s leading research center
in the field of Asian American Studies and houses a Census Information Center , which
will continue to analyze data from the ACS as they become available.
   The UC AAPI Policy Initiative brings together University of California researchers
and community organizations to conduct research focusing on the policy concerns
of the AAPI community. Attachments: Graphs; Tables; Technical Note; Contact Sheet
    (1) In 1990, Hispanics made up 14% of adult citizens in California . In 2005, Asian
Americans approach that level, with 12% of California ’s adult citizens.
See Table 2: Percentages of California adults who are eligible to register to vote by
race.
   (2) See technical note.
    (3) The 2005 American Community Survey covered only individuals living in
households, that is, it excluded those living in institutions, college dormitories, and
other group quarters. In California , Asian Americans represented over 13.4% of the
total population in 2005, an increase from 11.8% in 2000. California ’s population grew
by 2.2 million (33 million to 35.2 million), with the Asian American population growing
by over 850,000 (3.8 million to 4.7 million). Nationally, the Asian American percentage
of the nation's population grew from 4% to 4.8%, an increase of over 3 million Asian
Americans (10.8 million to 13.8 million). The national population increased by over
14 million persons, with Asian Americans accounting for more than 20% of this
national population increase.
   (4) See Graph 1.
    (5) See Graph 2.
   (6) The national statistics for Asian American citizens are very similar, and there
is very little difference in the statistics for U.S. born Asian American citizens and
naturalized Asian Americans.

9/7/06 India-West: “Indians Largest Asian Group in U.S. Outside the West,”
by Richard Springer
    Asian Indians are now the largest Asian American group in the combined area of
the Midwest, Northeast and South in the United States , according to recently released
data from the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey (I-W, Aug. 25).
    While nationwide Chinese Americans are the largest Asian American population
with 2,882,257 - ahead of 2,319,222 Indian Americans and 2,282,872 Filipinos -
Chinese are numerous in the West.
    The ethnic Chinese population in the Western states, including those born in Taiwan
and Hong Kong , is 1,361,065 compared with 564,927 Asian Indians.
    But in the South, Asian Indians lead all Asian groups with 370,553, followed by
278,590 for the Chinese. Indians are also more numerous than Chinese in the Midwest
390,643 to 256,705, while Chinese have a larger population in the Northeast - 834,701
to 738,676.
    Asian Indians have increased more than 640,000 from the 2000 census when they
numbered 1,678,765 (See table). Asian Indians also jumped 73,938 from 2004, when
the last American Community Survey was conducted. Census officials cautioned that
the numbers in the ACS, unlike the Census, are based on estimates.
    Populations nationwide for some other Asian American groups in 2005 are:
Vietnamese, 1,418,334; Korean, 1,246,240; and Japanese, 833,761.
    California still leads all states with the most Asian Indians with 449,722. In more
than 20 states Asian Indians are the largest Asian group.
    In New Jersey , for example the 228,250 Asian Indians, up from 169,180 in 2000,
far surpass the second largest Asian group, the Chinese, who number 122,931.
    In Georgia , Indians double the total of the second and third largest Asian groups
combined, the Koreans (37,900) and the Vietnamese (37,159). In Illinois , Indian
Americans are the largest Asian group with 157,126, followed by the Filipinos with
103,059 and Chinese at 90,569.
    (Note: In the Aug. 25 issue of India-West, the article on the American Community
Survey had the wrong totals of India-born for some states, counties and cities. The
totals listed for those states, counties and cities were actually the estimates from the
ACS on all Asian Indians, not just the India-born. For the correct numbers of both the
India-born and total Asian Indians by state in the 2005 ACS, see table. The total
number of 1,422,492 India-born mentioned in the Aug. 25 issue in the ACS survey
is the correct figure. -- R.S.)

8/18/06 New York Times: “Asian American Students Increase in Top New York Schools;
Blacks and Hispanics Decline” [re-written to remove liberal bias]
    Over the last ten years, Asian American enrollment at New York ’s three most elite
specialized high schools: Stuyvesant High School , the Bronx High School of Science
and Brooklyn Technical High School .  White enrollment has declined at two of the three
schools.  Even though the city created a special institute ten years ago to prepare black
and Hispanic students for the entrance exam, the percentage of such students has
declined.
    The drop mirrors a trend recently reported at three of the City University of New York’s
five most prestigious colleges, where the proportion of black students has dropped
significantly in the six years since rigorous admissions policies were adopted.
    Supporters of the entrance exam, which tests verbal and math skills, say it ensures
that admissions are based on merit, while critics argue that elite colleges would never
judge applicants on test results alone.
    The Asian American population has reached as high as 60.6 percent at Bronx Science,
up from 40.8 percent 11 years ago.
    During 2005-6, blacks made up 4.8 percent of the Bronx Science student body,
according to city figures, down from 11.8 percent in 1994-95, when the institute was
created. At Brooklyn Technical High School , the proportion of black students has declined
to 14.9 percent from 37.3 percent 11 years ago, and at Stuyvesant, blacks now make up
2.2 percent of the student body, down from 4.4 percent.
    Hispanic enrollment has also declined at the three schools, as has white enrollment at
two of the three although it has risen at Brooklyn Tech.
    Over all, Hispanic students are the largest group in the city’s schools at 36.7 percent,
and black students are next at 34.7 percent. The 1.1 million-student system is 14.3 percent
Asian and 14.2 percent white.
    In 1971, the State Legislature passed a law requiring that entrance to the specialized
schools be determined by competitive examination alone.
    For years, exclusive public schools throughout the country have been places where
advocates of strict, color-blind standards have clashed with proponents of racial diversity.
    Courts imposed a race-based admissions system on the Boston Latin School , but a
federal appeals court struck the system down. In the 1990’s, Chinese-American families
whose children were rejected from San Francisco ’s selective Lowell High School sued;
the resulting settlement reversed a citywide admissions system that took race into account.



8/14/06 Sacramento Bee: “Trial judges don't reflect state's diversity, bar says,”
by Aurelio Rojas
    Sacramento — As California has become one of the most ethnically diverse states in
the nation, so has its Legislature. But one branch of state government has been slow to
change: the courts.
    Whites account for less than half the state's population, but slightly more than 82 percent
of the lawyers and the same percentage of trial judges, according to the State Bar.
   To be a judge currently requires membership in the State Bar for at least 10 years,
a criterion met by relatively few Latinos, Asian-Americans and African-Americans.
   While nearly a third of Californians are Latino, they account for only 7 percent of the
judges. Asians comprise about 11 percent of the population and 5 percent of the
judiciary; African Americans 6 percent of the population and a little more than 5
percent of the judges.
   But Mike Belote, a lobbyist for the California Judges Association, said the pool
of judicial candidates is too small to make a comparison based on population.
   "It's not fair to say the bench doesn't reflect the diversity of the state, because you
can't just pick anyone," Belote said.
   Of the 429 superior court judges in Los Angeles , 116 (27 percent) are ethnic
minorities, according to the Judicial Council.
   Governors wield far more influence than voters over who sits on the bench.
    Gov. Gray Davis' most lasting legacy may be his judicial appointments. The
Democrat picked a greater percentage of female and minority judges than any
other governor in state history.
   When he left office in 2003, after being recalled, Davis had appointed 360 judges.
Women and minorities each made up about a third of his appointments.
   Latinos fared particularly well, accounting for 45 of the judges appointed by Davis .
    Sabrina Lockhart, a spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the
percentage of minority judges named picked by Schwarzenegger is higher than their
representation in the State Bar.
   Of the 176 appointments the governor has made thus far, 7.4 percent identified
themselves as Asian-Americans, 6.3 percent as Latinos and 3.4 percent as African-
Americans.

High School