Contesting the Last Frontier: Race, Gender, Ethnicity, and Political Representation of Asian Americans

Abstract

This book examines the scope and significance of the rise of Asian (and Pacific Islander) Americans in US elective office over the past half-century. By scrutinizing the political trajectory of pioneering figures and their significant followers in each of the major Asian ethnic communities, this book provides unprecedentedly broad and detailed coverage of the development of the electoral landscape of the relatively unknown community in American politics. This book aims not only to fill a missing piece of American electoral history but to challenge the “model minority” and “perpetual foreigner” tropes of Asians in American society and politics. To help interpret the complex experiences of these political women and men situated at the intersection of race, gender, and other dimensions of marginalization, this book adopts an intersectionality framework that puts women of color at the center of storytelling and analysis. Our account includes their trajectories to office, their divergent patterns of political socialization, the barriers and opportunities they faced on the campaign trail, and how these elected officials enacted their roles as representatives at local, state, and federal levels of government. This book documents how Asian immigrants of various origins and those born on US soil strived to serve the interests of the rapidly expanding and majority-immigrant population, especially those disadvantaged by the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and nativity. Our research demonstrates the intrinsic values of the feminist/womanist leadership praxis in illuminating the meanings and significance of political representation and leadership for Asians and other nonwhite American women and men in elective office.