Anderson Cooper 360: The Asian American Vote
by guest contributor Jenn Fang, originally published at Reappropriate
On Friday night I just happened to turn CNN on, and heard something I really though I would never have heard before. Anderson Cooper was telling his viewers to stick around for a segment on (gasp!) “The Asian American Vote”. We exist!
I dutifully waited about a half-hour for this segment, which turned out to be a short, two-minute piece by CNN reporter Gary Tuchman. After Cooper gave us a quick background about the California exit polls that revealed Asian Americans supported Clinton by a three-to-one margin, Tuchman was sent to Seattle Chinatown to interview Real Live Asians ™.
Let me get it straight: I’m delighted to see even a few minutes dedicated to trying to understand our community. But that doesn’t mean I really liked this segment.
Tuchman went to a local Chinese grocery store and asked the staff and customers who they voted for. Inexplicably, every single person interviewed had a thick Asian accent, and every single one chose Clinton (or in the case of one child, “Lincoln”).
Tuchman asked the interviewees why they chose Clinton, but seemed to edit out their answers. One person mentioned Bill Clinton’s experience, another alluded to Clinton being more qualified. A professor at the University of Washington suggested that Clinton’s name recognition and message of returning to the first Clinton administration appealed to immigrants, whereas Obama’s message of change will fail to resonate with immigrants (sounds a lot like what’s been said in the blogosphere already, including what I covered in my own post: “What Happened to the Asian American Vote“). However, overall, either a language barrier or apathy on Tuchman’s part left the segment scant on explanations as to why the APIA vote leans so heavily towards Clinton.
Tuchman did interview a fourth-generation Japanese American who supports Obama, but he was depicted as a minority, noting that other Japanese Americans are afraid to vote for a change from the status quo.
But what was most clear to me was that this segment was a half-assed fluff piece by a disinterested reporter. When Anderson Cooper asked for more details from Tuchman following airing of the piece, Tuchman launched into a description of the size of Obama’s rally compared to Clinton’s rally. No, not about Asian Americans — the focus of his segment. No, he talked about the size of the rallies. As if he really couldn’t give less of a shit as to why Asian Americans support Clinton.
So, I guess we exist. Sorta.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Paul wrote:
My question is how do we know how different groups vote? The networks and newspapers utilize exit polling, which is nototiously unreliable in terms of minority participation. Thus, I’m sketpical of this entire “Latinos-Asians won’t vote for Obama” trope. It makes copy which seems a little too good to be true.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 7:37 am ¶
Cynthia C wrote:
I do find it interesting that Obama, being a CHILD OF A FOREIGNER/IMMIGRANT doesn’t rally naturalized US citizens, but we do know that in general, Asians like big, recognizable names (remember my schools post?). You’d think that someone with true international experience would resonate. Maybe it’s that whole immigrant generation vs. non-immigrant born/raised generation adds to it.
How many Asian Americans are foreign born/raised vs US born/raised who are 18 or older? How many families have been here more than two generations? How many actually vote? How influenced are people by traditional customs, even if they were born/raised here? Lots of questions to look at and lots of these influence the vote.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 7:41 am ¶
Josh wrote:
why do people want to assign racial followers to a political candidate? its so typical of american media to try to divide the country along the “color line.” people really try to keep racism alive.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 9:28 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:
But Josh, don’t we want to know demographics, so that the party or parties/candidates who aren’t generally in favour can try to get their vote? Say John Smith and Mary Jones are running for office. John Smith is preferred by Group A while Mary Jones is preferred by Group B. Wouldn’t Mary Jones’ people want to take votes away from John Smith? And in order to do that, her people must sway voters from Group A. Ditto for John Smith’s campaign.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 10:04 am ¶
Mireille wrote:
I was under the impression that Asians seemed to be split by generation if they’re voting democratic at all. Which really isn’t the case in my family seeing as my mother is *cough* a republican. It pains me on the inside, seriously.
But seriously, the diversity in the asian american community due to age, ethnicity, religion and education is hardly ever discussed in these kinds of thing which annoys me to no end. Like any other group in America, there is stratification in the Asian American community that needs to be addressed if you’re trying to create cohesive description of behavior. I am generally annoyed that it’s still only white men who are viewed as being able to make unbiased political choices in american based on their convictions.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 11:57 am ¶
Brian Johnson wrote:
re: Obama’s international background as an attractor of immigrant-voters, it’s been my experience that most people are unfamiliar with the details of Obama’s childhood. Not really surprising, as it hasn’t exactly been a salient topic in the mainstream media. I have to wonder, though - given the xenophobia of many U.S.-ians, perhaps this ignorance is a boon to Obama’s electability?
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 1:02 pm ¶
nezua wrote:
yes…seems to me that asian americans are invisibled most of the time in the USA.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 1:51 pm ¶
Paul wrote:
Quick and serious question:
Are Filipinos East Asian, Pacific Islander, or Latino in terms of demographics? An argument could be made for each, yet none seems to come close work.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 2:42 pm ¶
Paul wrote:
Sorry for the extra “work” in there. Hit the post button accident.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 2:44 pm ¶
Orville wrote:
Perhaps the CNN segment should of been longer then just two minutes? Maybe if CNN actually interviewed a broader demographic of Asian Americans the story would work. But just going to a grocery store and interview a few people that’s not good enough. There are certainly Asian American political scientists and professors at universities in California. CNN should of also interviewed across age and gender demographics in the Asian American community to make the story more relevant.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 3:25 pm ¶
islandgirl550 wrote:
Brian Johnson: I find it interesting that you would say that most are unfamiliar with Obama’s background or his multiracial history. If anything, the media loves to focus on the fact that he’s, for lack of a better phrase, “a different kind of black American” being that he is bi-racial.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 4:13 pm ¶
Brian Johnson wrote:
islandgirl550: Well, I was referring more to the fact that his father was an immigrant, and that he himself lived with his mother in Indonesia for a time, not his racial status, which, you’re right, has seen more air-time.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 5:09 pm ¶
queerhapa wrote:
“Paul wrote:
Quick and serious question:
Are Filipinos East Asian, Pacific Islander, or Latino in terms of demographics? An argument could be made for each, yet none seems to come close work.”
Paul, the US Census classifies Filipinos as Asian (which includes East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian), and not as Pacific Islander, which merits its own racial category (and includes Hawaiians, Samoans, among others). “Latino” (or Hispanic) is designated an ethnicity, not a race, and is generally not applied to Filipinos.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 5:20 pm ¶
LeAnne wrote:
To be honest, they do not interview intelligent citizens when it comes to politics. But,the segment should have been longer and more complex, with a better representative. It also didn’t put the rumors to rest that Asians don’t like blacks and that Asians are too dumb to think outside of the box. Like, are you seriously saying that the only reason Asians are voting for Clinton is because of their brand name? How exactly did the
Clintons reign affect the asian community, and if it didn’t do anything for them, why would they vote for the Clintons? C’mon now CNN. I’m tired of you insulting people of color with this foolishness. But, at least they didn’t go to a beauty salon to get answers on the deep questions that plague this community.
hairsmystory.com
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 5:30 pm ¶
Wendy wrote:
I agree that the idea that *gasp* we do exist is somewhat a step in the right direction, albeit misguided and ill-informed. Often times, invisibility is replaced with a type of strictly controlled, segregated visibility. For me, this piece is no different. Deep political analysis of Asian American voters it’s not and the implicit assertion that Asian American voters fear a black candidate is particularly insulting to me. Actually, 80-20 and Samson Fu organized a petition I encourage you to sign if you have an issue with the piece:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wUs_2fa5IkCNYwyhf_2b_2biB9Tw_3d_3d
Although ideally, I would want to have CNN air the piece along with the various protests to promote dialogue, not just banish it, at least CNN will be aware of the issues we have with the piece.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 6:18 pm ¶
Jennifer wrote:
My pet peeve with the segment as described in this post has to do with where CNN chose to find Asian Americans to interview–why Chinatown??? If anyone has ever been to Seattle, you will realize that all you have to do is to go into any of the neighborhoods, hang around UofW, or stroll around the downtown area and you will come across a few Asian American citizens.
The whole idea of Asian American invisibility is so true–and when we are visible, we are sectioned off into ethnic enclaves, like Chinatown, and framed around an ethnic space, like a Chinese grocery store, rather than shown to be just hanging out at Pike’s place, eating lunch at an outdoor cafe, or playing basketball.
And as with any other racialized community in the U.S. (including white Americans), Asian Americans are a diverse group, by country of ancestry/origin, by generation, by income, and level of education. So this whole thing is just annoying–that we get 2 minutes on CNN and we are shown in this monolithic block, thick accents and all…sooooo, soooo sad.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 7:22 pm ¶
La - msviswan wrote:
Ok, I had one of those “narrow minded” curiosities. I always wondered if Obama would pull in extra points with the Asian community since his younger half sister has Indonesian background, and she’s also married to a Chinese American. Just wondered.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 10:14 pm ¶