This week I read an LA Times article about Tri Ta, Westminster's first Vietnamese American mayor. Westminster, a city in Orange County, is often referred to as being part of "Little Saigon". There are Vietnamese-owned and operated nail salons, Vietnamese food restaurants, and signs written in Vietnamese all over the city. The population there is about half Vietnamese, with the other half split almost evenly between Latino and white. It seems as though a Vietnamese mayor might have been elected much sooner than 2012.
The article tells us that he is one of many Vietnamese Americans running for local office and being elected; a fairly new development. He has been called the "King of Little Saigon" and has been sought out as a resource for people living in Westminster (or even other parts of Orange County) who have relatives in Vietnam. Ta describes how he must wear different hats, as there is a kind of thirst for a Vietnamese representative.
This is similar to what Obama describes in the Coates article,"Fear of a Black President". As an African American, President Obama must be a representative for other African Americans while still representing the rest of America just as equally. These elected officers must embrace their backgrounds while still connecting to the majority population when it comes to policy.
The fact that he, Obama, and other non-white Americans are being elected into political offices in the U.S. is illustrative of America's diversity and, apparently, growing acceptance of having non-white representatives. Although there still may be many people in the nation who are prejudiced against those who are different, at least there are far fewer policies in place today limiting them in the same ways blacks were limited in the South with the Jim Crow Laws.
No comments:
Post a Comment