Politics Briefing 4/9/2024

OMB’s use of the term as a racial category led numerous federal agencies to rely on aggregated figures to draw sweeping conclusions about AAPIs and actively reinforced harmful stereotypes.

Adding more detailed examples within each group based on the highest populations in the 2020 census. For instance, the “Asian” category now lists “Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Another group (for example, Pakistani, Hmong, Afghan, etc.),” as well as a write-in option. 

Replacing “Far East”—a term considered outdated and derogatory—with “Central or East Asia” and “Indian Subcontinent” with “South Asia” in the Asian definition. 

Removing “Other” from the “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” category title. The new definition similarly lists more detailed examples: “Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands, including, for example, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijian, and Marshallese.”

Adding “Middle Eastern or North African” and “Hispanic or Latino” as new minimum categories in a single combined question. The addition of the former would account for the 7 to 8 million people who previously had to identify as “White” or “Other.” 

Removing “Negro,” another pejorative term, from the “Black or African American” definition.

Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Southeast Asians especially suffered without disaggregated data to highlight the socioeconomic challenges they face.

For AANHPIs, improved data collection through the newest revisions is a step toward implementing policies more precisely and equitably, supporting fair electoral representation, and addressing language barriers, access to health care, and poverty levels, among many other issues. 

As of April 27, 2023, the Federal Register received 20,255 comments from the public. Several noted that the current two-question structure is confusing and suggested that respondents be offered a single combined question with the opportunity to select all categories that applied to them. 

The Biden administration has invested over $6 billion in Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions.

Born and raised in Hawai‘i, the third-generation Japanese American was one of only two Asian Americans in her law school class at the University of Chicago. After graduating, she opened her own practice, becoming the first Japanese American woman to practice law in Hawai‘i.

She served in the Hawai‘i legislature and the state Senate before successfully campaigning to represent the Rainbow State in the U.S. House in 1964.

Her achievements include co-authoring Title IX in the Education Amendments of 1972, the scope of which bans sex-based discrimination in education. 

Her quarter, which depicts Mink holding her landmark Title IX legislation and wearing a lei, is inscribed with the words: “Equal opportunity in education.”

The letter sent by the lawmakers cites a 2022 Washington Post article that covered a string of anti-Indian and anti-Hindu incidents, from verbal attacks in California and Texas to the toppling of a Gandhi statue in New York.

In their words: “The number of incidents and the closeness of the timing of incidents raise troubling questions about linkages and the intent behind them,” the letter states. “It takes relatively few coordinated acts of hate to create fear nationally within a community that has often been marginalized or neglected, and we must work collaboratively to combat hate against all religious, ethnic, racial, and cultural minorities in America.”

The letter is signed by all five South Asian Congress members: Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), Ro Khanna (D-California), Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), and Ami Bera (D-California)—and yes, the group refers to itself as the “Samosa Caucus.”

The lawmakers gave the DOJ until April 18 to hold the briefing.

The now-defunct office’s mission was to “cultivate a congressional workforce within USHR that is reflective of the American people” and “advance representation in the congressional workforce,” per its website.

On our radar: An effort is already underway to revive it, Andrew Solender reports for Axios. The push is being led by the Tri-Caucus chairs—Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chair Judy Chu (D-California), Black Caucus chair Steven Horsford (D-Nevada), and Hispanic Caucus chair Nanette Barragán (D-California). 

Of note: This is not the first attempt to shutter a DEI-centered federal office. House Republicans sought to authorize the Pentagon’s DEI offices last year through the National Defense Authorization Act, though the final legislation only froze new DEI jobs until the Government Accountability Office provides a report on the DEI workforce.

DEI proponents claim that offices such as ODI help remove structural barriers for women, people of color, and LGBTQ communities, The Hill’s Cheyanne M. Daniels writes.

On the other hand, opponents claim that such offices are divisive—Rep. Alex Mooney (R-West Virginia), who introduced legislation in 2023 to abolish ODI, called DEI efforts “cultural Marxism in the workplace.”

Kim would replace Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), who dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination after facing corruption charges.

The overwhelming support for Kim, who is running a grassroots campaign, led his main opponent, New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy, to drop out of the race in a bid to avoid “waging a very divisive and negative campaign,” per her video message on her exit.

His choice led to widespread surprise among his supporters. The Oakland native is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother and an Irish and German American father. 

“I wanted someone who would honor the traditions our nation, as a nation of immigrants, but who also understands that to be a nation, we need to secure borders,” Kennedy, who has faced criticism for suggesting that COVID-19 was designed to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, said at a recent rally in her hometown.

Shanahan has largely remained absent on the campaign trail but visited the southern border in Yuma, Arizona last week. “I’ll be honest: I didn’t understand the gravity of the crisis at the border until today when I sat with NGO leaders who are on the front lines,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.