AAPI Issues at the Federal Level

By Deborah Chang

The White House announced, in anticipation of Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, a White House Initiative that focuses on increasing access to Federal Programs for AAPIs. The initiative will bring together officials from the Federal government and community leaders to tackle issues of "education opportunities, housing, jobs, employment issues and health disparities."

What issues do you think are particularly important for the White House Initiative to tackle and what goals stand out to you?

This announcement is in fulfillment of President Obama's fall 2009 Executive Order to reestablish the President's Advisory Commission on AAPIs and the White House Initiative on AAPIs
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The goals as stated by the Executive Order are:
" 1. To identify Federal programs in which AAPIs may be underserved and improve the quality of life for AAPIs through increased participation in these programs;
2. To identify ways to foster the recruitment, career development, and advancement of AAPIs in the Federal Government;
3. To identify high-priority action items for which measurable progress may be achieved within 2 years to improve the health, environment, opportunity, and well-being of AAPIs, and implement those action items;
4. To increase public-sector, private-sector, and community involvement in improving the health, environment, opportunity, and well-being of AAPIs;
5. To foster evidence-based research, data-collection, and analysis on AAPI populations and subpopulations, including research and data on public health, environment, education, housing, employment, and other economic indicators of AAPI community well-being; and
6. To solicit public input from AAPI communities on ways to increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Federal programs considering a number of factors, including language barriers."

Of greatest interest to me are item #2, identifying "ways to foster the recruitment, career development, and advancement of AAPIs in the Federal Government" and item #5, fostering "evidence-based research, data-collection, and analysis on AAPI populations and subpopulations, including research and data on public health, environment, education, housing, employment, and other economic indicators of AAPI community well-being."

The reason #2 stands out to me is because I see a dearth of AAPI leadership in elected office, as well as in government positions. This may be a result of any number of factors running the gamut from lack of role models to cultural barriers, all of which can be the subject of numerous other posts and studies. However, it is clear that greater AAPI leadership can help bring about rapid change in terms of sensitivity and knowledge of AAPI issues, greater participation of AAPIs in the basic civil duty of voting, and degree to which AAPIs see government office as a viable career path.

#5 I feel is also of crucial importance because the data and research available for the AAPI community is very sparse. As mentioned in a previous post, too often AAPIs are lumped together for analysis, where the success of some subgroups mask the need of other subgroups and where the model minority myth takes hold to detrimental effect. Better data is crucial if we are to, as a community, and as a nation, be committed to transparency and to equal opportunity for all.