The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Young Asian Americans share their frustrations with politics
Four UGA students point to lost faith and racism as big issues.
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.
A multitude of challenges are facing the young Asian American community in Georgia that are shaping their votes 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 — 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
Asian American collegeage 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-Palestinian demonstrations across college campuses.
Thus, it is not hard to see why Democratic backsliding has become a 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-yearolds 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 issues 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 second time voting ever. And right now I’m really torn because we are kinda given the same options as last time,” Kokate said. “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.”
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
Pratistha Kunwar, a premed student, grew up in a rural Georgia county with very few Asian Americans. “I do not want a racist president,” Kunwar said.
someone that might be able to bring balance to the political climate is probably what I’m looking for the most,” Takano said.
Kokate’s and Takano’s feelings seemed to align with a growing number of young American voters under age 30 who are rejecting both parties and turning independent.
Other students, such as Chen, say they have lost faith in the federal government
Kodai Takano, a biology major, said both parties have issues, so he would like to have candidates that bring proper balance to the political climate.
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 COVID19 as the ‘Chinese Virus’ was linked with a rise in antiAsian 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,” Chen said. “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,” Chen said. “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.”
Kunwar, a Nepalese student, grew up in Lee County in southwest Georgia, with Asian Americans making up only 2.6% of the population there. Growing up in a predominantly white county affected her self-esteem, and she says it was only exacerbated when Trump became president.
“I do not want a racist president,” Kunwar said. “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.”
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,” Kokate said. “Our vote helps choose those people who will be in that room to help create those policies.”