This story was originally published by Georgia Asian Times.
A projected 15 million Asian Americans will be eligible to vote in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, with a large portion being voters under the age of 30.
There are a multitude of challenges facing the young Asian American community in Georgia that are impacting their vote in the upcoming election, from a growing distrust of the federal government to the lasting effects of increased racism during COVID-19.
Four Asian American students at the University of Georgia, including Albert Chen, Kodai Takano, Arya Kokate, and Pratistha Kunwar, share their perspectives on these key issues as they navigate being first and second-time voters.
Losing faith
Young Asian American college-age voters have grown up in a time marked by one crisis after another, including the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest that sparked movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, and most recently a national breakout of pro-Palestine protests across college campuses. Thus, it is not hard to see why Democratic backsliding has become a global trend. According to Freedom House, a democracy advocacy group, “the world’s young people are increasingly disengaged from political life: they’re voting less, rejecting party membership, and telling researchers that their country’s leaders aren’t working in their interests.”
This global attitude seems to also ring true in the United States, as Harvard recently conducted a national poll of America’s 18-to-29-year-olds, and found that, “nearly two-thirds (64%) of young Americans have more fear than hope about the future of democracy in America.”
When asking young Asian Americans at UGA what key topics are influencing their vote, three out of four brought up their frustration with the lack of choices among presidential candidates and the growing divide between the Democratic and Republican parties.
“This will be my 2nd time voting ever. And right now, I’m really torn because we are kinda given the same options as last time,” said Arya Kokate. “It’s either one side or completely the other, which I don’t think either is good. I think there needs to be some sort of balance.”
Credit: Emily Laycock/Georgia Asian Times
Credit: Emily Laycock/Georgia Asian Times
Kodai Takano shared a similar sentiment. “There’s a lot of aggravating factors on both sides, which has made for a lot of arguing and has intensified issues. So looking at that, I feel like choosing someone that might be able to bring balance to the political climate is probably what I’m looking for the most,” Takano said.
Kokate and Takano’s feelings seemed to align with a growing number of young American voters, under 30, who are rejecting both parties and turning independent.
Other students such as Albert Chen, have lost faith in the federal government and propose the need for, “some sort of big governmental reform.”
Racism
COVID-19 sparked a significant uptick in the amount of anti-Asian hate crimes around the nation, with many attributing this surge in numbers to the harmful rhetoric used by politicians at the time. New research has found that “a tweet by former President Donald Trump referring to Covid-19 as the “Chinese Virus” was linked with a rise in anti-Asian content on Twitter.”
The harmful effects of racist rhetoric such as, “Chinese Virus” have continued to be felt by the young Asian American community and are encouraging them to push for more representation in government positions.
“I think the hardest part with Trump being president at the time was the misinformation regarding Asian Americans,” said Chen. “I’m Chinese, so all the stuff that was spread about Chinese people or Chinese practices was really painful to see, and I think there was a lot of regression in the progression of Asian Americans.”
“I think it caused a lot of fear, especially in the Chinese American community because we’re gonna get targeted,” said Chen. “Even now, sometimes, depending on who I’m talking with, I’m hesitant to tell them I’m Chinese. So that carries a little bit of stigma and it’s still something I struggle with.”
Nepalese student, Pratistha Kunwar, grew up in Lee County which is located in Southwest Georgia, with Asian Americans making up only 2.6% of the population. Growing up in a predominantly white county affected her self-esteem and she says it was only exacerbated when Trump became president.
Credit: Emily Laycock/Georgia Asian Times
Credit: Emily Laycock/Georgia Asian Times
“I do not want a racist president. Someone who’s actively racist and who’s known to be so racist in the past, I do not want that, especially as an Asian American. I developed a lot of self-esteem issues, which isn’t direct policy, but it’s more like the people around me being told that they can only date a certain race and they should not branch out of certain races. And that’s more like a culture thing, I would say, than a policy thing. But that stems from racism,” said Kunwar.
However, both Chen and Kunwar believe one way to combat active racism in politics is by voting for people who represent their point of view.
“I think especially when coming up with policies, there’s still not a lot of representation within these groups that are coming up with the policies. Our vote helps choose those people who will be in that room to help create those policies,” said Kokate.
Credit: Georgia Asian Times
Credit: Georgia Asian Times
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