Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Native American and African American were not the only ones that had been discriminated against and deprived of their civil rights. Asian Americans were also denied their civil rights and discriminated against. As a matter of fact, Asians are the most hated of all immigrants group and subjected to the same discrimination as were African Americans and American Indians.

Countless Asian Americans were moved by the growth of African American, Chicano, and Native American civil rights movement in the 60’s that many of the Asian American demanded their own rights.

In 1968, Asian American Political Alliance were formed and demanded that colleges offer ethnic studies courses. Asian American fought their school district to give them the assistance in learning English and have the same equal educational opportunities as everyone else.

In related to civil rights movement of Asian Americans, I have attended an event related to discuss issues that Asian American and Pacific Islander’s facing currently. This townhall meeting was held in the War Memorial Building in San Francisco. The town hall was spearheaded by the mayor of San Francisco and other elected officials and members of San Francisco Asian community.

The meeting started at exactly 10:00 am with the opening speech from the mayor of San Francisco, followed by panel discussion on the issues of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander. Issues such as poverty, health, education, labor and employment. They’ve mentioned that 12.6 percent of Asian Americans are living below poverty. In addition to poverty, another obstacle that Asian American and Pacific Islander facing currently is the high rates of limited English proficiency. Many of Asian American and Pacific Islander cannot communicate effectively with healthcare providers therefore it hinders them in achieving good health. In regard to labor and employment, according to the Gallup poll, 30-31% of Asian American and Pacific Islander reported incidents of employment discrimination, the largest of any group, with African Americans constituting the second largest at 26% (“Critical Issues Facing”, n.d.).

This event was directly related to the study of civil liberties or civil rights because, one of the problem that were discussed had something to do with unequal treatment or discrimination against Asian American and Pacific Islander. As it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, 30-31% reported incident of employment discrimination. Employment discrimination is against civil rights. Civil rights are defined as the basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristic (What are Civil Rights, n.d.).

It is important to attend similar event because it allows us to discuss the matters that important to an individual like us. In addition, it exercises our American rights as a citizens and it provide us the opportunity to meet other members of the community who have the same concern.

Overall, the townhall meeting was very informative but due to lack of time, not all the problems that was mentioned weren’t addressed. Attending similar meeting like this might address some of your unanswered questions. Attending these meeting and these political events means that you are exercising your rights as a citizen of the United States.

References:

Flynn, C. (2017, May 7). The Importance of Town Halls in Our Democracy. Retrieved December 17, 2018, from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/town-hall-importance

Karthikeyan, H., & Chin, G. J. (2002, January). Preserving Racial Identity: Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian American, 1910-1950 [PDF]. Asian American Law Journal.

O’Connor, K. Sabato, L.J. Yanus, A. B. (2015-05-01). American Government, 2014 Elections and Updates Edition, 12th Edition. [Purdue University Global Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/undefined/

What Are Civil Rights? (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2018, from https://civilrights.findlaw.com/civil-rights-overview/what-are-civil-rights.html

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