The California Democratic Party is no longer democratic.
Instead of listening to the needs and concerns of the
citizenry, of their constituents, they heed the interests of power brokers in
Sacramento, whose sole interest is consolidation of power.
Consider the rushed legislative push for SB 3, Mark Leno’s
forced minimum wage hike. In six years, the base wage imposed on all
businesses, regardless of where in the state, will be $15.
Within hours of
casting the necessary votes for this terrible, job-destroying, future
killing bill, a number of assembly Democrats received huge payouts from the
state labor unions.
Including Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland).
Who knows which special interest Bonta is trying to placate
or please with his latest legislative nullity AB 1726.
On its surface, AB 1726 is designed to segment
Asian-American residents into more specific categories, as if to recognize the
greater diversity of the rich panorama of Asian communities in the state of
California.
One of Bonta’s press releases plays up the importance of this measure:
"Each of our
diverse communities has unique social, economic, and educational needs that
must be addressed differently. Instead of lumping many API [Asian Pacific
Islander] communities together under the catch-all 'other Asian' category, the
AHEAD [Accounting for Health and Education in Asian Pacific Islander
Demographics] Act would identify API subgroups that are being left
behind."
Since when was it the government’s job to target which “groups”
need help to get “ahead”? Have we not learned enough from the last fifty years
that any group of people targeted for government subsidy only gets worse?
This legislation already fails to consider the growing
number of half-Asian, half-other Californians, otherwise known as “Hapas”. In
the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, a growing number of residents share
half-Asian, half-Caucasian heritage. Many within that set style themselves
foremost as Americans. This state needs to go forward in rewarding hard work
and culture successes.
Bonta’s initial press release for AB 1726 continues:
"Beyond each race and ethnicity box is our community's
fight for self-determination for our community's needs and unique strengths to
be revealed, not concealed, by transparent data systems.”
Self-determination for … communities? Shouldn’t the power of
self-determination focus on individuals?
This measure is just another cheap move to segregate people into
government dependence. I do not see the state legislature looking to divide
white Californians into more distinct subsets, nor African-Americans or
Hispanics.
Why the targeting of the Asian vote?
Perhaps liberals fear the growing rift among Asians with the
Democratic Party.
By and large they are pro-life, pro-family (marriage defined
by one man and one woman). A diligent work ethic defines many Asian
communities.
In 2013-2014, Asian-Americans worked tirelessly to stop SCA 5, which would have reintroduced affirmative discrimination back into higher education.
The backward policy still remains a platform mainstay for the California
Democratic Party. In 2014, partly because of the inherent discrimination latent
in the Democratic Party, Asians broke for Republicans in larger numbers, and
now they are split 50-50 Democrat v. Republican.
The California legislature has a larger number of Asian
representatives … in the Republican caucus.
Assemblymembers David Hadley (R-Torrance) and Catharine Baker (R-Dublin)
specifically reached out to Asian-American communities, assuring them that
merit—not race—would determine enrollment in college campuses. Their success
politically has protected the academic achievement of all Californians,
particularly Asian-Americans.
Peter Kuo, a candidate for the 17th Congressional
District (also located in East Bay/Oakland area), shared further concerns about
AB 1726:
“This malicious bill strives to
subdivide the Asian American community into smaller subgroups: Bangladeshi,
Hmong, Indonesian, Malaysian, etc.
“We strongly question the real
intent of this bill hidden under the apparent disguise of “addressing the
diverse needs of the Asian Americans”, according to Mr. Bonta. We are very
concerned that these demographic data, if gets collected by government agencies
and state universities, will be used unlawfully in order to advance
racial-profiling oriented public policies.
“We are deeply troubled by the
divisive, offensive and abusive nature of this bill. If this bill is really
good for the people, then why not universally apply this subdivision method to
all Californian residents?
“It is not new to us that the
educational rights of Asian Americans are being under constant attack from our
representatives in the California legislature.
“In summary, as Asian Americans,
all we ask for is “fairness and equal treatment”; NOT being “singled out and
forced to accept special treatment” from state government agencies and public
universities. It is our firm belief that the racial-blind merit-based
principles, whether applied to governmental hiring, contracting or college
admissions, are the best ways to achieve this goal; while dividing people into
ever smaller ethnic subgroups and later pitching one group against another is
doing exactly the opposite.”
When will Sacramento Democrats learn that California
residents not only prize the ethnic diversity of their state, but more
importantly honor the individual skills and development of each person?
Perhaps assembly members like Rob Bonta need to review and
relearn the hopes and dreams of Martin Luther King Jr: “I have a dream, that
one day my children will no longer be judged by the color of their skin, but the
content of their character.”
African-American policy expert Ward Connerly forced out
affirmative action by ballot initiative twenty years ago. Governor Brown vetoed a similar bill last year!
It's time for our legislators to move past this.
If lawmakers want to improve education and health for all California students,
they should stop trying to divide them according to race, stop looking
backwards for solutions.
School choice, expanded economic opportunity, limited
government, free market reforms in education and medicine will ensure a golden future for all Californians.
Please contact your state representatives, and tell them “Vote
NO! on AB 1726”.
To whom it may concern,
ReplyDeletePlease support repealing the AB 1726 bill.
I am a Chinese-American high school student from a high school in California who has just completed 11th grade 6 days ago. I value education and hard work, because I have been taught that if you worked hard, were passionate about your education, and believed in the American dream of opportunity, you can at least open more doors of opportunity for myself (in this case, one of my stepping stones to success is to be accepted by a good college/university). At school, my teachers had taught me that if I worked hard academically and maintained a balanced and well-rounded lifestyle, I would improve my chances of getting into a good college. After all, the teachers were at least fair in the sense that if you studied hard for your test, you'd reap the reward of scoring higher on your tests on most occasions. Indeed, it made sense to me that since America's Olympic game's basketball team (composed of not a single Asian) didn't pull a good portion of the current players from the team out, on the basis of racial diversity in representation, to be replaced by a Asian-American players in order to strengthen Asian-American's foundation in the area of sports, it didn't occur to me that a different rule based on race would need to be applied to the educational field. However, I was never told by my teachers that I would have to score much higher on my SAT and have a much higher GPA than my non-Asian classmates sitting right next to me in class, because I was born into the "wrong" race (in terms of college entrance): the Asian race. This year, I witnessed some of my Asian classmates who were just as qualified or more qualified (from both the high school I had transferred from and the high school I currently am in) be rejected, rejected, and rejected by all of the IVY league schools. Many of these Asian-American students were well rounded and excelled in school. In the end, I learned that NONE of these Asian-American students from both high schools had been accepted by the IVY league schools. Who got in to the IVY leagues schools from both schools? The answer is, students from non-Asian decent did...because of the need for "diversity".
Some people seem to value the need of diversity over how much time, energy, effort, and sacrifices I have put into my education. They seem to think that because of the need to help other races have a leg up in education, it's ok to take advantage of the Asian-American students through Affirmative Action laws, such as AB 1726, by giving away their rightfully earned spots into their dream university to another equally qualified, but of non-Asian decent, applicant. They seem to think that it's ok to plant the idea into thousands of Asian students' minds that no matter how hard they work, they will have to sacrifice more and suffer through more of the pain in conquering more obstacles in life in their academic field, because they were born as an Asian-American. In this sense, they seem to think that it's ok to hurt thousands of dedicated Asian-American students' motivations, ambitions, dreams, and innocence in believing in equality.
As a high school student, fresh out of 11th grade, I can testify that it is extremely discouraging to have to fill in the bubble on my answer sheet of being from an Asian decent on my SAT bubble answer sheet, my 15 AP test bubble answer sheet, my ACT bubble sheet, and my college application-related bubble answer sheets. Why? Because I know that I will be categorized by my race and judged for that by the colleges that I have worked so hard to get into. I know that the moment the college admission officers see a dark bubble next to the word "Asian", they will expect a much higher SAT/ACT score, a much higher GPA, and an amazing extracurricular profile. In essence, they will be asking me to be a nearly perfect student in the eyes of many to get into an IVY league school.
Assemblyman Bonta, how would you feel if you were in my shoes?
I totally agree with your opinion. Asian was living in hard condition in the United States. No matter how hard we work, we still have glass ceiling in our career as long as the racial factor in the college admission. Your writing is super good and I can't believe you have just finished your 11th grade. You deserve to get into Ivy League School!!!!!
DeleteTo whom it may concern,
ReplyDeletePlease support repealing the AB 1726 bill.
I am a Chinese-American high school student from a high school in California who has just completed 11th grade 6 days ago. I value education and hard work, because I have been taught that if you worked hard, were passionate about your education, and believed in the American dream of opportunity, you can at least open more doors of opportunity for myself (in this case, one of my stepping stones to success is to be accepted by a good college/university). At school, my teachers had taught me that if I worked hard academically and maintained a balanced and well-rounded lifestyle, I would improve my chances of getting into a good college. After all, the teachers were at least fair in the sense that if you studied hard for your test, you'd reap the reward of scoring higher on your tests on most occasions. Indeed, it made sense to me that since America's Olympic game's basketball team (composed of not a single Asian) didn't pull a good portion of the current players from the team out, on the basis of racial diversity in representation, to be replaced by a Asian-American players in order to strengthen Asian-American's foundation in the area of sports, it didn't occur to me that a different rule based on race would need to be applied to the educational field. However, I was never told by my teachers that I would have to score much higher on my SAT and have a much higher GPA than my non-Asian classmates sitting right next to me in class, because I was born into the "wrong" race (in terms of college entrance): the Asian race. This year, I witnessed some of my Asian classmates who were just as qualified or more qualified (from both the high school I had transferred from and the high school I currently am in) be rejected, rejected, and rejected by all of the IVY league schools. Many of these Asian-American students were well rounded and excelled in school. In the end, I learned that NONE of these Asian-American students from both high schools had been accepted by the IVY league schools. Who got in to the IVY leagues schools from both schools? The answer is, students from non-Asian decent did...because of the need for "diversity".
Some people seem to value the need of diversity over how much time, energy, effort, and sacrifices I have put into my education. They seem to think that because of the need to help other races have a leg up in education, it's ok to take advantage of the Asian-American students through Affirmative Action laws, such as AB 1726, by giving away their rightfully earned spots into their dream university to another equally qualified, but of non-Asian decent, applicant. They seem to think that it's ok to plant the idea into thousands of Asian students' minds that no matter how hard they work, they will have to sacrifice more and suffer through more of the pain in conquering more obstacles in life in their academic field, because they were born as an Asian-American. In this sense, they seem to think that it's ok to hurt thousands of dedicated Asian-American students' motivations, ambitions, dreams, and innocence in believing in equality.
As a high school student, fresh out of 11th grade, I can testify that it is extremely discouraging to have to fill in the bubble on my answer sheet of being from an Asian decent on my SAT bubble answer sheet, my 15 AP test bubble answer sheet, my ACT bubble sheet, and my college application-related bubble answer sheets. Why? Because I know that I will be categorized by my race and judged for that by the colleges that I have worked so hard to get into. I know that the moment the college admission officers see a dark bubble next to the word "Asian", they will expect a much higher SAT/ACT score, a much higher GPA, and an amazing extracurricular profile. In essence, they will be asking me to be a nearly perfect student in the eyes of many to get into an IVY league school.
Assemblyman Bonta, how would you feel if you were in my shoes?
Dumb and dumber.
ReplyDeleteProponents of ab1726 center their argument around the benefits of racial data collection, yet offer absolutely NO justification why such a "fine " policy would apply to Asian Americans minorities alone, and not to the other 85 % of the population.
ReplyDeleteWithout addressing such a key concern, ab1726 is, at best, poorly crafted and suited for trash can, and at worst, extremely dangerous, leading down the path of racial discrimination.
Proponents of ab 1726 argue that our worst fear is unfounded and the bill is entirely "harmless and innocent". We have ample reasons to be skeptical of those who use all their might and cunning to push through, again and again, such an obviously flawed bill.
If Assemblyman Rob Bonta is not a racist, why not apply the same law to "Latino" American, "White" American, or "Black" American? I believe they will find more categories.
ReplyDelete