The Position of Asian Americans in the Bay Area Political Economy
Historically, the Asian American community of the Bay Area which numbers well over one million people, has had trouble organizing itself into activist collectives and learning to speak with one voice (Lee, 1994). During the last several months, events have forced the disparate community to put aside certain cultural and ethnic differences and join forces to fight a formidable foe the modern, American metroplex. This paper studies the Asian American population of the Bay Area in three main parts. The first section provides a statistical overview of the Asian American population. The second section discusses two recent events which have had a major impact on the Asian American community. The third section shows how those same events have forced the Asian American community to completely reevaluate and, in some cases, discard its cultural heritage. In the final section, there is an analysis of how the Asian American groups are letting their presence be known. The following statistical overview demonstrates that that presence is impressive.
Political Economy of The Asian Community in the Bay Area
The Bay Area is a metropolitan region with a population of more than six million people and includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Concord, San Rafael, Napa, and Sonoma. The Bay Area is the nation's fifth largest metropolitan market and is among the richest in a state that consistently leads the nation in income. Between 1980 and 1990, there was a 107 percent increase in the Asian American population in the Bay Area (Lee, 1994). The major groups and their estimated numbers are: Chinese, 350,000; Philippino, 400,000; Vietnamese, 100,000; Japanese, 80,000; and Korean, 80,000 (Walker, 1991).
These groups are incredibly diverse in their histories, cultures, and languages, as well as in their attitudes toward wor...