photo from foxnews.com
Bill O'Reilly
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-bill-oreilly-hawaii-hardworking-asians-liberal-20130104,0,2738327.story
O'Reilly was focusing on why Hawaii is so liberal, then mentioned that Hawaii has a problem with homelessness, drug addiction, government spending and other stuff.
However, O'Reilly also showed his cultural cluelessness, when he sounded so shocked that a state with a 35% Asian population could be so liberal!
Back in studio, O’Reilly expressed his love for the physical splendor of Hawaii, but wondered at its liberal voting record, especially given its high Asian population. “You know what’s shocking?” he asked Watters. “Thirty-five percent of the Hawaiian population is Asian, and Asian people are not liberal by nature, they’re usually more industrious and hard-working.”
This stuff I highlighted in blue shows a pathetic cluelessness that many right-wing conservatives have about minorities. It is this cluelessness by the right-wing conservatives that made it easier for liberal Democrats to win the majority of the "minority vote", especially this recent election!
It's not just the African-Americans and the Latinos that Obama won a commanding lead. Obama also got a commanding lead of the Asian-American vote too!
Bill O'Reilly's stuff about "Asian people are not liberal by nature, they’re usually more industrious and hard-working" implies the stereotype that 1) the other minorities aren't as hard-working, 2) non-conservatives are not hard working and 3) every Asian came to the US as entrepreneurs and therefore automatic Republicans
Well, sterotypes #1 and #2 are so stupid that only those who live in a bubble would believe them!
I'll just go over sterotype #3
Let's look at Hawaii's Asian-American history.
A large chunk of Hawaii's Asian population (especially the Japanese and Filipinos) came as cheap labor for the plantations!
In other words, they have been historically attracted to labor union rhetoric that has helped the Democratic Party.
In fact, it was the Japanese Americans (with their recently deceased leader and former US senator Dan Inouye) that was a MAJOR part of the Democrat revolution that changed Hawaii's politics in the 1950's.
It's not just the labor unions that specialized in physical labor (ie construction, agriculture,etc) that helped the Democrats, it is the government workers unions that helped the Democrats. And as nearly everyone in Hawaii knows, a large chunk of the public school teachers, librarians, and other government employees are Japanese Americans.
That O'Reilly is shocked that those same people would vote Democrat shows O'Reilly's mega-cluelessneess
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Let's also put it in a way that O'Reilly could understand! The rich English businessmen who came to the northeastern US obviously had a different way of life (as well as different skills, perspective, etc) than the rural Scottish folks who settled in the mountains and farmlands of the southern US!
These people were already different when they settled in the US 300-400 years ago! Those differences still divides the "northern whites" and "southern whites" today.
So yeah, much of Hawaii's Asian population (especially the Japanese and Filipinos) came under totally different circumstances than a Korean store owner or a Hong Kong business tycoon! The first group came as cheap labor (more aligned with labor unions), the second group came as entrepreneurs (more aligned with fiscal conservatives)
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Let's also not forget that people tend to be more influenced by where they grow up instead of where their ancestors came from.
I mean, almost nobody in Mexico wears UH Warrior T-shirts or eat spam musubis. But then again, I'm NOT from Mexico, I'm from Hawaii.
And if some 5th generation Asian-American who lives in San Francisco, Seattle or New York has more liberal views.....................well, DUH, of course his/her current environment has more influence than some faraway land his/her ancestors left over a century ago!
Just like how Indian-Americans Bobby Jindal and Nicki Haley are both influenced by southern conservatives (DUH, they grew up in Louisiana and South Carolina), why would anyone with a brain be surprised by Chinese American and San Francisco mayor Ed Lee being influenced by West Coast liberals?
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Also, right-wing Republicans have advocated for mandatory Christian prayers at public schools. (Those voices got louder after Sandy Hook shootings, with Christian fanatics screaming "God doesn't help people where he wasn't wanted" )
But the reason we don't allow for mandatory prayers at public schools is because public schools aren't just for one religious group, and public schools can't exclude non-Christians.
(note: hey, if a bunch of students want to pray together before school or during lunch, that's fine with me. But that's totally different from mandatory prayers desired by right-wing conservatives)
But if the right-wing Republicans want to emphasize the US being a "Christian nation", obviously O'Reilly shouldn't be shocked if that scares some Asian-Americans from the Republican Party!
from Jonah Goldberg
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah121212.php3#.UOzGVXc7t8E
And maybe for similar reasons. The comparison to Jews is instructive. Perhaps the most common explanation for the GOP's problem with Asian Americans is the party's pronounced embrace of Christianity, which turns off many Jews as well.
According to Pew studies, barely a third of Chinese Americans are Christian and less than a fifth of Indian Americans are.
"Whenever a Gujarati or Sikh businessman comes to a Republican event, it begins with an appeal to Jesus Christ," conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza recently told the New York Times magazine. "While the Democrats are really good at making the outsider feel at home, the Republicans make little or no effort."
My friend and colleague Ramesh Ponnuru, an Indian American and devout Catholic, says the GOP has a problem with seeming like a "club for Christians."
You see that, O'Reilly? Read those 4 paragraphs again!
Look at what I highlighted in purple! Those are the major immigrant groups now! Last year, there were more Asians coming to the US than Latinos.
So if the Republicans have struggled with the mostly Christian communities of African-Americans and Latinos, just wait until they have to spend more time campaigning in Asian-American communities that are mixed with Buddhists, Shintoists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims as well as Christians.
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The recent election has shown that the Democrats know how to speak to different cultural groups. Some Republicans have tried and have occasionally been successful. But it hasn't been enough lately. If the Republicans don't adjust, they will be left behind. And O'Reilly shouldn't be surprised!
