Asian groups need a voice

AS YOU WERE SAYING . . .

Several Massachusetts Chinese immigrant organizations recently bought a full-page ad to attack a state bill that would require state agencies to report data by detailed origin (such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese) instead of simply Asian American.

The practice known as “data disaggregation” would help all Asian Americans, yet these organizations wrongly label it “the new discrimination,” and prey on the fears of Asian Americans by likening it to “the atrocious Japanese Internment Camps and the Chinese Exclusion Act.”

Based on our research, we know their real concerns are far more mundane; they worry that their Chinese American children will lose out in college admissions to underrepresented Asian American groups such as Cambodians and Hmong. This claim makes little sense since neither race nor ethnicity is reported on any high school transcript.

Data disaggregation is not discrimination. It has been a highly sought-after policy by Asian Americans for over 30 years to overcome various barriers and attract public and private investments. Detailed ethnicity data allows the federal government, state policy makers and community organizations to make more informed decisions about how best to serve all Asian Americans, especially those facing the most formidable economic challenges. This is because the catch-all category of “Asian” masks big differences within the population.

Take health care, for example. While 13 percent of Asian Americans lack health insurance, the rate is much higher for Koreans at 20 percent and Pakistanis at 19 percent, and less than half for Japanese at 6 percent. Data disaggregation would provide the statistics needed to know where to target resources for outreach programs on health care access.

Moreover, some Asian ethnic groups are more susceptible to certain health risks than others: Vietnamese men and women experience the highest rates of lung cancer among all Asian American subgroups while Asian Indians and Pakistanis experience the lowest. Japanese and Korean men and women experience some of the highest incidences of colorectal cancer — about three times as high as Asian Indians and Pakistanis, according to the American Cancer Society. This disaggregated data is critical for health intervention and the improvement of health outcomes for Asian Americans, and can mean the difference between life and death.

The proposed bill for data disaggregation in Massachusetts is not unique. Similar bills have passed in Oregon, Washington, California and Rhode Island, and all have been at the urging of broad coalitions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Data disaggregation is especially important because the dominant narrative of Asian Americans is that of the model minority, which has resulted in our exclusion from policy debates and denial of federal resources that are essential to improve the life chances of Asian immigrants and their children. Data disaggregation is not discrimination. It is a civil rights issue, and it is essential to the equitable allocation of federal, state and local funding for all Asian Americans.

Data disaggregation is not discrimination. It is a civil rights issue, essential to equitable allocation of funding.