AACP September 2020 Newsletter

Hello Everyone,

It’s not too late to register to vote (check for the deadline in your state at vote.org). That’s right, friends and relatives that are not registered, I’m writing to you. Why aren’t you registered?

Here’s a reveal from one of our articles this month – only 56.26% of eligible Asian Americans were registered in the last (2016) presidential election. That’s pretty pitiful when you compare that to the national figure of 70.34%.

When I wrote a similar article back in 2008, we reported that 51.8% of Asian Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election. In 12 years, the number of registered Asian Americans went up by only 4.46%. It’s even worse if you compare it with the off year election of 2018 (53% registered).

The good news is that registered Asian American voters were much more in line with other Americans when it came to actually voting – 87.17% of registered Asian Americans voted in 2016 (87.27% of all registered Americans voted).

So why aren’t you registered?

The Census Bureau has some interesting statics on why people don’t vote (have a look at this 2018 Census Bureau Excel file). The leading claimed reason for Asian Americans not to vote in 2018 (and in 2004) was that they were too busy or had a scheduling conflict (in 2018, 29.1% claimed this reason).

Please make the time. Over 70% of your neighbors some how found the time. You can too. It’s the least that you can do to participate in our system of government.

According to some of the following website, it only takes 2 minutes to register to vote online. Here are their links.

APIAvote.org

RockTheVote.org

Vote.org

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We have some interesting featured books this month. For those of you that like a good scary story, we have a number of titles that we’re featuring for Halloween. Be sure to check them out (https://bookshop.org/lists/september-2020-newsletter-selection).

Thank you to all of you that helped with this month’s newsletter, especially Marlene Shigekawa for answering our interview questions. Be sure to register for the free Poston Virtual Pilgrimage.

Have a wonderful Mid-Autumn Moon Festival everyone (October 1st). Hope you got your mooncakes!

Friend of AACP, Laura Atkins, is co-teaching a picture book writing workshop. (Four Thursdays, starting on October 1st to 22nd, 5-7pm PDT). Click here to learn more.

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If you missed the other mentions of the Poston Virtual Pilgrimage in this newsletter, here it is again. It takes place on October 3-4, 10:30am– 12:30pm PDT. To find out more and to register, click here.

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If you have an event that you would like us to mention and or to participate in, please feel free to let us know.

By Leonard Chan

Curious to learn about what the Asian American electorate is thinking in this election year? You’re just in luck – the 2020 Asian American Voter Survey has just been released.

Back in October of 2008, we featured an article, (Asian Americans and Voting), that reported on the finds of a similar survey called the National Asian American Survey.

We’ll look into some of the changes (if any) in demographics, views, and voting patterns of Asian Americans, since our last article on this subject, using some of the finds from this new survey and some voting statics collected by the Census Bureau.

Interviewed by Leonard Chan

We arrived in Parker, Arizona one warm spring day. The buses were taking everyone to the Poston Internment Camp approximately 16 miles away. I wasn’t sure what to expect, just as those that had arrived at this very site almost exactly 76 years earlier.

The biggest difference was that I was only visiting and the Japanese American internees, all those years ago, were facing a very uncertain future of confinement that could last for years.

That was my first pilgrimage to the Poston Internment Camp site back in April of 2018.

This coming first weekend in October was to be the date for this year’s pilgrimage to Poston. Instead, the organizers of the event will be holding a virtual free event over the Internet on October 3rd and 4th. (More Information)

To help fill us in on this virtual event and to help answer a few of our question, we have Marlene Shigekawa, president of the Poston Community Alliance, the organizers for these pilgrimages.

View full descriptions of all these featured books at Bookshop.org where you'll also have the opportunity to purchase them.