Asian Americans are one of the nation's most rapidly growing non-white populations, but their political strength has not grown in proportion with their numbers. As their numbers grow, will they flex their political muscle, or stay a diffuse, diluted voice? Journalists and politicians have tried to answer this question, but their answers have been mostly overly simplistic and incomplete, if not totally inaccurate, due to a lack of good data, rigorous analysis, and compelling underlying frameworks.
To provide better answers, the authors of The Politics of Asian Americans undertook the nation's first multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-regional political survey on Asian Americans. The results of this survey explode many myths about Asian Americans: as a group, they're too different, and will never coalesce (in fact, they are growing in collective pan-ethnic identity), Japanese Americans are Republicans and Chinese Americans don't vote (in fact, they both did vote, going 3 to 1 for Al Gore), they're not really discriminated against (1 in 3 said they have been), and on and on. The Politics of Asian Americans will be a significant contribution, not only to our understanding of Asian Americans, but also to our understanding of the role of race and ethnicity in American politics more generally.