In One Suburb, Local Politics With Asian Roots (New York Times)
According to the article, 9 out of 28 local elected officials are Asian American. That’s amazing! The question is how to encourage public service from Asians.
Apple Headquarters Asian American Activism Arena?
There’s been a lot written up in the local papers about Cupertino. Cupertino is about 50-50 White & Asian (read: Taiwanese/Chinese descent). It’s obviously caused some friction but all normal stuff.
Public service is an interesting issue. I think that will take a couple more generations before it’s encouraged and accepted by the Asian Americans. It’s still 2-3 generations from the first big wave of Asian immigration. It’s still all about stability, hard work, and a good life. Public service doesn’t fit well in this kind of mentality. It also helps when there’s a critical mass of Asian Americans.
However, I want to caution there’s a major difference between West Coast Asian Americans and East Coast Asian Americans. My coming here and seeing it for myself has validated my intuition about it. East Coast Asian Americans will need to come up with their own models and path to greater political influence.
=YC