Asian Americans and their Involvement in Politics

Even in the early 1800s Asian American started to become involved in politics. Their used their resources to lobby for equal rights and equal access to economic and occupational opportunities.

From the early 1800s to the 1920s, over one thousand lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts by Asian Americans seeking to receive proper legal rights.

During the same period Asian Americans tried to further their political presence. The circulated petitions, conducted letter-writing campaign, published their own newspapers and magazines promoting their political cause.

They also tried to gain political gain by pairing up with non-Asian organizations. All of these cases go to show that Asian Americans are not always quiet and complacent. The Asian American community has a very clear sense of political justice, and they have demonstrated their knowledge for quite some time. And their constant fight for justice has made the American political system realize that they are very aware of the justice system, and they will stop at nothing to get that.

But the political system is not an easy one to figure out, in fact during the 1996 presidential election President Clinton was accused of accepting money from foreigners. The media quickly changed foreigners into Asians, and accused them of trying to influence United States policy to benefit their Asian countries.

Bill Clinton and his campaign were forced to return all the money they obtained. Any donor who was of Asian descent or who was any way connected with any Asian country had their contributions returned. As a result several Asian Americans entered plea bargains after they had been accused of channeling foreign contributions to the Democratic Party.

Bear in mind that it is 100% legal for permanent residents who are not yet citizens to donate money to political campaigns. It is also legal for foreign corporations to donate money so long as they donate money that is donated within the United States. And it most certainly is acceptable for Political parties to accept monetary donations. So then why did the money have to be returned to the Asian American citizens who donated to the Democratic Party led by Bill Clinton.

The worst part about the money that was donated to the Democratic campaign in 1999, was that the Asian American community was publicly slandered for the monetary contribution, especially since it was only a small section of Asian Americans that partook. Political slander went so far to say that Asians were trying to "buy the White House".

All Asian Americans are affected by the generalized slander that is accused of one or more Asian Americans. Racial profiling will continue to be part of the political every day Asian American way of life.

It is important to note that this happened over ten years ago, and since then there has not been any wrong doing in the arena of politics. Since then Asian Americans have been able to partake harmoniously in the Political spectrum of the American way of life. Just as grave injustices have been committed in the past, there have been strides to make sure something like this will never happen again.

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