Breaking past the Asian bubble

Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is meant to be a time of understanding and respect, and some student leaders said it can also be a time to dispel common stereotypes about Asians.

One key to change is the University of California’s plan to include more Asian groups in admissions data, starting with the 2009 application for undergraduate admissions.

The plan ““ announced at a conference last November by Judy Sakaki, the UC vice president of student affairs ““ will allow students to more specifically state their ethnicity on applications. There will be 23 categories from which students can choose, and Pacific Islander will be completely separate from Asian American.

Asian and Pacific Islander student group leaders said they hope that the statistics from this plan will show that contrary to the popular stereotype, not all Asians are rich, smart and have access to multiple resources.

“It’s stereotypical to say that all Asians are successful and smart, because that’s not always the case,” said Charisma Urbiztondo, first-year biochemistry student and a member of the Pilipinos for Community Health.

Urbiztondo said that this stereotype has existed for many years. Often, first-generation Asian Americans were expected to do well in school because their parents thought education was the only way to escape poverty. They hoped that their kids would do well in school and become successful. This philosophy passed from generation to generation and certain stereotypes emerged as a result.

But these stereotypes fail to represent the whole picture. A number of Asian subgroups such as the Hmong and the Tongans face economic hardship. Their needs are not addressed because people follow the stereotype and assume that they are successful and do not need help.

UC officials said new policies will be enacted to attempt to recognize groups that have specific needs.

Bill Kidder, a special assistant to the UC vice president of student affairs, said the plan to include more Asian groups in admissions data will allow the UC to better pinpoint the specific needs of certain communities that need to be addressed.

For example, there are a large number of Hmong communities in the Central Valley, and with this data the UC hopes to address their needs through programs and outreach, because they are one of the most disadvantaged groups in California, he said.

According to Christine Santos, the cochair of the Pacific Islands Student Association, the plan will only affect undergraduate admissions because graduate school admissions have different data processes. The UCLA School of Law, for example, has already disaggregated admissions data for years.

Joaquin Suaverdez, a first-year physiological sciences student and a member of Samahang Pilipino, said the plan will help defeat stereotypes while promoting diversity at the university.

“I know that the university strives for diversity, so it’s not a good idea for them to bunch different Asian groups into one large group,” he said.

Suaverdez said he believes people falsely assume that Asians do not have major life problems.

“I really hope that this change will help people realize that we all are not the same. Asians aren’t all smart. They aren’t all successful. They’re like everyone else. They have their problems, and people need to recognize that,” he added.

The plan was influenced by State Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, an active campaigner against Asian and Pacific Islander discrimination.

“For too long, the Asian and Pacific Islander American communities have been seen as one monolithic group,” Lieu said in a press release last November. “This masks the true diversity of our cultures and can cloud our ability to see very serious problems facing some of our people.”

It’s better to have distinct categories because the term “Asian” is so broad, Urbiztondo said.

“I find it disrespectful that people will generalize so easily. Why do people expect that Asians all excel in math and not English? Why do people assume that all Asians are the same? They aren’t. Each group is distinctly different,” she said.

Pongphat Ben Sangthongkum, a first-year sociology student who is Thai, said he hopes these statistics will provide a compelling reason for the UC to provide funding for educational assistance programs.

“I hope that there will be some aid given to these different groups because we all have different values and ways of going about things,” he said.

Sangthongkum said the new policies will benefit the lesser-known communities.

“It’s a good thing that there will be more categories. The public as a whole needs to realize that there are tons of subcategories of Asians. Hopefully this will give more of an individual identity to each of the subgroups,” he added.

Urbiztondo said she hopes the disaggregation will help ethnicities such as Tongans and the Hmong.

“Some underprivileged groups really need the help, and I hope that the data will provide this,” she added.