The Asian-American and Pacific Islander community is, by definition, loosely-defined, including a large number of different communities and cultures. This has made it difficult for the community to speak with a single voice on the wide array of issues confronting the United States.
This was a challenge we had to face in establishing the AAPI Caucus: how do we capture the diversity of experiences among the AAPI community, while also ensuring that we can move forward on the important questions of the day?
The Issues page is our first step in creating that voice that is both singular and diverse, and will act, at least in part, as the starting point for the work we do in the Caucus.
What’s the purpose of the Issues page?
The Issues page is a record of how we, as the AAPI Caucus, understand many of the pressing questions of American politics and policy.
The Issues page talks about broad directions rather than specific solutions: we’re a broad group, and a solution that might work for one particular group or demographic might not work for another. Think of the page as the step before a policy platform: a discussion of problems, concerns and directions, rather than specific proposals.
While the page is a record, it’s not static. Over time, we’ll be adding to this list of issues according to the views of our caucus members, and we’ll be updating the content of each item when we find new data. And just because something’s not on the page doesn’t mean that we won’t talk about it: this is a work-in-progress.
But as we develop events, search for speakers, create content, write resolutions, and conduct research, we’ll be referring to these issues to stay focused on the matters important to the AAPI community and the members of our caucus.
In the short-term, we’ll be using this Issues page to develop a programme of written content, detailing the overseas AAPI perspective on a number of important policy issues, from voter access to how American leadership is perceived.
We’re still in the process of developing some structured mechanisms to keep these Issues page up-to-date, but in the meantime, feel free to write to us at [email protected] with your suggestions. And if you’re interested in helping us out with this or any of our other initiatives, please get in touch!