Things were looking up for the rapidly growing Asian American electorate after the 2020 election.
Voter turnout in the community had been bigger than ever before, and Joe Biden, the candidate most had supported, had won the presidency. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice president, was of South Asian heritage.
So when Biden – whose Cabinet is shaping up to be the most diverse in U.S. history – failed to name a single Cabinet secretary of AAPI descent, the backlash was bitter – and compounded by a longstanding sense of feeling left out of federal decision-making. Every presidential Cabinet since 2000 has included an Asian American until now.
“It’s insulting and frustrating,” said Madalene Mielke, president and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies . “Part of the reason Asian Americans vote is that they’re looking for people who can represent them. And it stings, because it looks like we’re regressing.”
The omission is particularly galling, Mielke and others said, after an election in which the Asian community played a pivotal role – and at a time when Asian Americans are keenly affected by issues such as immigration and the disproportionate effects of an ongoing pandemic, including racism .
On Tuesday, Biden signed an executive order condemning “racism, xenophobia and intolerance” against the country’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community as part of a broader plan to combat racial injustice nationwide.
“There’s no question that President Biden has put together an incredibly diverse Cabinet, and he deserves credit for that,” said Gregg Orton, national director for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans.
But those appointed to Cabinet-level positions, Orton said, “have an enormous amount of influence and power. It’s important to make sure that those deciding the trajectory of the future have a real understanding of our communities – not that that’s impossible if they’re not in our community, but we have seen time and time again that we are left out.”
Both the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and the Asian Pacific American Institute of Congressional Studies issued statements noting their displeasure early this month once the omission became a certainty; in her statement, Mielke wrote that “the brazen exclusion of AAPIs… abandons and erases the AAPI community.”
A ‘history of exclusion’ Concerns that Biden would fail to name an AAPI Cabinet secretary had been growing since December, when more than a hundred lawmakers signed a letter crafted by California Rep. Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, urging otherwise.
“The need for diversity at the highest levels is not for the sake of optics,” the letter said. “It’s about ensuring all experiences are reflected in our decision making…. When we have…