For African-Americans in the 20th century, few civil rights challenges took on greater importance than the issue of desegregation.
For Asian-Americans in the 21st century, one of the most important issues in the arena of civil rights is increasingly being summed up in a word that sounds similar and deals with similar things, only in a different way and on an entirely different level.
The word is “disaggregation,” and it is a word that was uttered dozens of times on Friday by a series of speakers — from presidential appointees to professional academics — at a public policy forum titled, “New Research and Policy on Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians: Meeting the Needs of the Fastest Growing Group in America.”
In many ways, the primary purpose of the forum — hosted by the Center for American Progress, a progressive, Democratic-leaning policy group — was to provide a platform to promote a special edition of AAPI Nexus Journal, a UCLA Asian-American Studies Center Press publication meant to infuse new energy into Asian American studies departments’ efforts to generate practical research.
The special edition, which touches on topics that range from the toxic hazards faced by large numbers of Vietnamese immigrant women working in America’s myriad nail salons, to the “bamboo ceiling” said to exist for Asian-Americans working in federal government, is titled “Forging the Future: The Role of New Research, Data, & Policies for Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians & Pacific Islanders.”
The publication was touted as a manifesto of sorts for anyone interested in bringing about better life outcomes for the diverse Asian subgroups whose distinct experiences and unique challenges often get obscured by the “model minority” myth that various panelists said tends to cloud America’s collective view of the plight of Asian-Americans as a whole.
“Only when we have the information to know what problems we have in our community and how to solve those problems can we really help the community reach its full potential,” said Chris Lu, President Barack Obama’s Cabinet Secretary and newly appointed co-chairman of the White House Initiative on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, in support of the new book.
