How do you know someone is “Asian American?”
You cannot use physical traits because there is no set of features that you can write down and everyone who has them can be Asian
Anyone who thinks they are Asian American is Asian American
Physical features matter but not determinative
Difficult to define American Americans

What is something suprising you learned about Asian Americans
Almost 80% of Asian Americans are foreign born
Sometimes “where are you from” meaning what country
Being foreign born a distinguishing feature of the community
Affects politics
Asian Americans lean left

IDs—how are these terms RELATED TO CLASS?

1.Hindu
Principle religion of India practiced by the majority of Indian Americans.
10% of all Asian Americans
Nonwestern relgion
Hard to quantify when studying correlation between religion 8 politics
Could be considered as important and important as national origin. Do these people look different because of national origin or religion?
Hindu was a racial category on the census at one time
Race changes over time based on social constructions
2. Limited English Proficient
Asian Americans are more likely to be foreign born
Linguisticv diversity makes it difficult to mobilize/teach unifying language
1/3 of AA’s are Limited English Proficient
Often use family members to vote (its legal)
Data in readings of proportions who would support more in language voting materials* Would you use in language voter education materials
Connect to myth that Asians are politically apathetic. But in fact Asians are LEP*
Debate over English only laws

3. Hillary Clinton
There was a large support for Hillary Clinton while she was in the primaries rather than Obama.
Was it because Asians are racist?
“Obama has an Asian Problem”
Many media outlets and Americans believe that Asian Americans did not vote for Obama in the primaries because they did not want to vote for a black man. However, after Obama won during the primaries, in the actual election in 2008 and 2012 Asian Americans overwhelmingly voted for Obama. 2:1 support over McCain
A lot of Asian Americans came over in the 1990s and Bill Clinton was the President at that time. Asian Americans believe that nationally the Economy and Jobs are top priority. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, the Economy was flourishing.
Because Bill Clinton was a great President, many Asian Americans knew her name
Name recognition
Asian Americans over time are the most changing to the Democratic side.
5. Kazakhstan
Problematizes “Asian”ness
Pheonotypically white, brown, etc. not traditionally like
Noticeable religious differences- Christians non traditional relgion
Geographically non “traditional” Asia- Central Asia under Russia
At the same we problematizes but we see that race does matter.
6. University of Texas
Affirmative Action
Abigail Fischer- white-claimed her 14th amendment rights were violated
Took a case against the texas because she did not get admitted into the University. Brought up Afirmative action because she said her application was better than minorities
Lost the case
Ideas that Asian Americans are smarter
Key supreme court case related to Affirmative Action- race could still be used as an array of factors in considered in college admissions. This case precursor to a current case; An Asian American