Although ISTM in the current USA the trend in stereotypes for Asian men is more in the direction of the socially awkward supernerd, and for Asian women the “Tiger Mom” who’ll make us stay up doing our homework and demand high performance at everything. Which we probably fear far more than the inscrutable dragon lady, to be honest.
As it stands right now there’s even questioning about whether a candidate will “play favorites” with his identity group – Cruz, Rubio and Jindal will have to step gingerly around immigration issues – or not mainstream himself enough, we have seen officials and candidates with black children getting raked for admitting they’ve had “the police talk” with them.
I addressed that in the OP.
If the Chinese-American candidate were super pro-US and anti-China, maybe he could win, but being openly pro-China would be politically disastrous.
The OP is a bit confusing. Initially, it was about Chinese-Americans and attitudes toward China. Then it switched to the broader term Asian-American, which opens up a lot of possibilities. Our experiences with Japan or Vietnam or Korea are all quite different.
Also, the “yellow peril” assertion. Isn’t that something of a relic? If anyone thinks in those terms, they’re probably over 75 years old.
I don’t think it would matter too much. Asians are mostly considered honorary white people. Racist white people would much prefer an Asian to black or Hispanic politicians. YMMV.
Asians aren’t stereotyped nearly as much in America as blacks are, and yet Obama managed to win. And what stereotypes there are of Asians are mostly positive things: They’re better in school, and so on. If we don’t see an Asian-American president, it’ll mostly just be because it’s a relatively small demographic, but I don’t think their chances are any worse than any other similarly-small demographics.
I don’t see any fundamental problems other than their low numbers. Asian Americans, including Chinese Americans, have already been elected to various offices in western states. Such as congressman, senator, governor, and lots of other positions.
Less to governor or Senator than would be justified by their numbers. One governor, and only a few Senators. No Chinese I believe.
They don’t seem to get any deference as far as making it easier to elect Asians to Congress. We’ve made all sorts of efforts to draw district lines so that African-Americans and Hispanics can get representation in Congress but not so much to get Asians in Congress.
By contrast, Jews are abundant in Congress. Heck, my people even managed to get elected in a majority black district(Steve Cohen).
I mean we elected a president with the middle name of Hussein less than a decade after 9/11, Asian Americans have a good reputation and image than people who are commonly named Hussein.
I have no reason to doubt an Asian-American (of any ancestry, Chinese or otherwise) candidate could be nominated and elected President, if he or she is seen as the best candidate in that particular election cycle. Obama was twice elected, and IME anti-Asian sentiment is considerably less widespread in the U.S. than anti-black sentiment. If anything, an Asian candidate might be the beneficiary of favorable stereotypes (hard workers, overachievers, superpatriotic, etc.), not to mention a potentially very generous fundraising base.
While this is a long way from being elected president, I always thought Sheriff Harry Lee in Jefferson Parish (suburban New Orleans) was an interesting case study. He tapped into some of the sentiments that also put David Duke in office in the 1980s. The fact that he talked far more like a southern sheriff than Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night ever did also helped. Louisiana has elected Asian American Republicans from a rather conservative, heavily white base. Aside from Jindal, Joseph Cao is another example.
In the Mississippi Delta region, Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans have a long history - and perhaps conservative white voters have a history of supporting these candidates for similar reasons as Harry Lee’s support.
I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Yes, Asian-American racism is less prevalent than racism against African-Americans. However, two points that may cause special problems for an Asian candidate:
Asian-American racism is a lot like anti-semitism in that it’s unacceptable, but not as unacceptable as racism against more economically disadvantaged groups. Racism against Asian-Americans is particularly rampant among some minority communities, which could reduce turnout among non-Asian minorities if an Asian is the nominee.
Also like Jews, there’d probably be more talk about whether an Asian candidate has dual loyalties than we’d see with an African-American President. This would also apply to a Latino candidate. It happened a little bit with Obama because of his origins, but that centered more around whether he was actually born here than whether his loyalties lied here. From a political perspective, African-Americans at least have the advantage of being perceived as American. An Asian(or Jewish or Latino) candidate will get the JFK treatment. A lot depends on the specifics of their biography of course. A Chinese-American whose parents were Kuomintang won’t face the same scrutiny as one whose parents were from the mainland, not dissenters, and came here for economic opportunity.
But African-Americans (and let’s face it, Obama is identified much more as black than as a secret Muslim anywhere but on the lunatic fringe) are very visible and frequently hold high office. When there are always a couple of Asians holding Cabinet posts, then there can be an Asian POTUS. Not before.
You can count the number of Asian-Americans in high federal office on one hand. Jindal and Haley have been mentioned, but both are even less Indian than I am. I don’t think Haley even acknowledged that she was Indian-American until after she’d won election, and Jindal changed his name to sound less other.
I expect Preet Bhahara will be attorney general under a future Democratic administration (assuming he hasn’t collapsed the entire federal government by getting everyone convicted of bribery first). He’s not eligible to be POTUS, though.
I can’t think of a likely East Asian candidate for POTUS off the top of my head, either.
Do you think Louisiana and South Carolina are particularly progressive states?
Do you think the average American has a significantly higher opinion of Indian-Americans than Chinese-Americans?
In my opinion, the answer to both questions is “Of course not.”
So, the relative dearth of Chinese-American elected officials has very little to do with anti-Asian prejudice, in my opinion. What it DOES reflect is that Chinese and Chinese-American families tend to have different career ambitions for their kids from other families.
An Irish-American, African-American or Jewish kid with a high IQ and a lot of ambition is likely to dream of going to law school, and his/her family will see that as a great career move. But a smart Chinese-American kid is more likely to get pushed by his family into medicine or engineering. Needless to say, successful future politicians are more likely to come from law schools than from medical schools.
Now, are there ANY American politicians of East Asian origin who COULD move up to higher offices one day? Not many candidates come to mind, but… Jerry Brown is getting old, and I could see San Francisco mayor Ed Lee (who’s not a spring chicken himself) running for governor of California next time out.
Now, looking WAY ahead, in California’s Orange County, which used to be a bastion of conservative Republicans, the GOP is becoming heavily Asian. In the long run, we MAY see more Asian Republican candidates for statewide office in California.
I should note that Japanese-Americans have shown a lot more interest in politics than Chinese Americans (which is why Hawaii has had so many Japanese Senators and Representatives).
I’m sure you have data regarding Chinese-American law school applicants to back up that assertion, right? I’d hate to think you were pulling it out of your arse. Especially since you seem to think Indian-Americans are more likely to be steered into law, and that Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal were lawyers before seeking public office.
Certainly, there are a lot more Japanese-Americans in Hawaii than Chinese-Americans, but even in Hawaii, Japanese-Americans are a minority.
Daniel Inouye and Spark Matasunaga, among others, attracted a lot of white voters.
Outside of Hawaii, there are far more Chinese-Americans than Japanese-Americans. But for some reason(s), Chinese -Americans have proven far less likely to seek elected office.