News

Ann Arbor News, November 6, 2006

“Affirmative Action Does Help Asians”

To the Editor:

Carl Cohen’s claim, in his Nov. 1 Other Voices essay, that affirmative action benefits blacks and Latinos to the detriment of Asian Americans is baseless and irresponsible. Affirmative action, in addition to helping Southeast Asians (including Vietnamese, whom he specifically cites), helps disadvantaged Asian-Pacific Americans attain educational equity and gain parity in a variety of other contexts like public employment and contracting.

According to Census figures, 45 percent of Hmong Americans aged 25 and over have never received formal schooling. In Michigan, Detroit’s growing Hmong enclave would be negatively impacted if institutions of higher education could no longer consider race among other factors in ensuring a diverse incoming class. Further, all Asian-Pacific Americans would face grave harm if public employers could not consider race in hiring decisions. Only 1.1 percent of all employees in Michigan’s Department of Civil Service are Asian-Pacific Americans, less than one-half of 1 percent of Asian-Pacific Americans in Michigan’s population.

Without race- or gender-based data, health care providers may have a difficult time identifying ethnic or gender populations at high risk of contracting certain diseases, or conducting targeted outreach to such populations. Collection of racial and ethnic data, for example, has shown that the primary cause of mortality for South-Asian Americans (including Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis) is cardiovascular disease, and that Pacific Islanders have a higher-than-average risk for cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Prop 2 would have a severe negative impact on all Michiganders, including Asian Pacific Americans.

Khin Mai Aung

The writer is a staff attorney for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City.