【Second Opinion】California's Not So Secret Weapon Against Covid-19 (Mark Simon)
Erica Pan, the Chinese American health commissioner of Alemeda County, California, who Tesla boss Elon Musk was blasting for her refusal to allow his manufacturing facilities in her Northern California community to reopen was wrong in her decisions on the Tesla plant. Any who have seen a Tesla plant can easily determine that social distancing and good hygiene are pretty easy to come by in such a modern and clean facility.
Yet Ms. Pan is representative of a virtuous assimilation cycle by which Asian Americans on the US West Coast have become part of government structure and exercise influence in society in a manner beneficial to the response of the West Coast in dealing with the Coronavirus that by any measure has put the Northeastern United States, another area of significant Asian immigration, to shame.
In other words, Asian Americans on the West Coast are players, while Asian Americans in the Northeast remain largely an immigrant community that still has not found a full voice in politics and society.
By every measurement California, Oregon, and Washington have done a far superior job in containing the coronavirus when compared to New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and other Northeastern states. While there are many varying theories on why the West Coast is doing so much better than the Northeast, I think it's worth considering that one of the advantages of the West Coast is an Asian American population still connected with Asia, but more importantly part of the power structure in both politics and civil society that openly outstrips the influence of Asian Americans in the Northeast.
For Apple Daily our two largest markets are the West Coast and the New York/New Jersey metro areas. But there are significant differences in the types of communities we deal with. The Northeastern Asian American story is of an immigrant community, or more precisely multiple immigrant communities. New York City is the focus of coverage, in particular the Chinese American community there, and its interactions with the surrounding region.
Of course there is coverage of Asian Americans on the West Coast as part of their own community, yet the level of assimilation and integration of Asian Americans into West Coast society has that community as part of every conceivable type of story as Asian's on the West Coast occupy power positions across a wide network and broad scale of institutions and on multiple issues.
The vast majority of Asian American members of the US Congress come from the West Coast and Hawaii. But even moving away from the federal level we see the real impact of Asian Americans in politics at the state and local levels on the West Coast in levels far outweighing the impact of Asian Americans in the Northeast United States.
Why the difference between the West Coast and the Northeast is a much longer topic. Great deal of it has to do with ethnic communities in the Northeast such as the Irish and Italians being dominant, and being a hurdle for Asian-Americans. On the West Coast after Democratic President FDR set up Japanese internment camps during World War II, it became an incentive to become involved in politics as Asian-Americans saw the downside of not being a voice at the table.
In fighting the virus, awareness and information are the two most important tools a society has at its disposal. No doubt information was equal on the East Coast and West Coast, but on the West Coast there were people with that information who could influence policy.
We are not through this crisis yet and the West Coast could easily end up like the East Coast if they misjudge any aspect of the spread of the disease. Yet thus far the West Coast is doing the better job, and it's pretty clear to me that a large part of this has to do with the thorough assimilation of Asian Americans into political structures and positions of power in society on the West Coast. The secret weapon of the West Coast in fighting the virus may well have been Asian Americans.