An American citizen recently found herself blocked from entering the White House, even though she had a security clearance. The reason: A security guard was suspicious of her Asian surname.
The woman, Yvonne Lee, happened to be a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and she was not pleased.
That episode and a similar one involving another person at the White House are just two of the more dramatic examples of what Asian-American leaders say is a disturbing new wave of anti-Asian prejudice, an apparent fallout of the Clinton-Gore campaign finance investigations.
Shortly after John Huang, Charlie Trie and the Buddhist Temple nuns emerged into the spotlight, reports began to emerge of a new anti-Asian bias.
Previously sought-after Asian-American donors and activists suddenly found they couldn’t get their telephone calls returned. A White House that had eagerly sought Asian-American support suddenly didn’t seem to want to be seen with any Asians at all.
Any stereotype that tarnishes an entire race or ethnic group for the sins of a few is a very serious scandal in itself. A coalition of civil rights groups and Asian-American organizations, including the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and the Organization of Chinese Americans, is pushing for a federal investigation.
The coalition recently filed a 27-page complaint with the Civil Rights Commission. It charges that a new wave of bias has derailed the political appointments of otherwise qualified Asian-Americans.
It also claims that new legislative proposals to block campaign contributions by legal permanent residents are an indirect slap at Asian-Americans and that reporters have questioned the loyalties of Asian-American politicians in ways those of whites are not questioned.
The groups also accuse the Senate committee of pursuing Asian suspects more vigorously than it pursues other suspicious foreign nationals. Why, they ask for example, were so many Asian-Americans pursued, but not Europeans like Thomas Kramer, a German national who was fined a record $323,000 in July for violating laws against foreign contributions?
Particularly aggravating were remarks by individuals as prominent as Sen. Sam Brownback (R–Kan.) and Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R–Utah) that coalition members considered racially offensive. Both are members of the Senate committee investigating campaign finance, and both also apologized for their remarks.
Some of these complaints are more alarming than others, but all deserve to be taken seriously. Americans had ugly experiences with anti-Asian prejudices that welled up, sometimes violently, during World War II and again in the 1980s, when there was great anxiety over Japanese economic competition.
For the many rewards that racial and ethnic diversity has brought to America, eternal vigilance against prejudice is a small price to pay. But it must be paid.
