By John Burton
Several months before the U.S. elections in November, I was talking with a Korean Embassy official in Washington, D.C. He was bemoaning the fact that there was only one Korean-American in the U.S. Congress and wished that more would be elected to reflect accurately their presence in American society.
His wish has been granted. Four Korean-Americans will take their congressional seats in January. They will make up 0.7 percent of the 538 legislators in Congress. That is almost precisely representative of the Korean-American share of the U.S. population at 0.6 percent or an estimated 1.8 million people.
The Korean-American congressional delegation is representative in another sense. Reflecting the polarized nature of U.S. politics, with a nearly 50-50 split between the two main parties, two of the lawmakers are Democrats and two Republican.
That ideological division reveals that most minority groups in the U.S. are less monolithic in terms of their political attitudes than is often thought. It is commonly assumed that minorities ― blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Native Americans ― all face deep systemic discrimination in the U.S. and need to be protected.
But while that may be the case for blacks and Native Americans in particular, the Asian-American and Latino experience has been different. Most came to the U.S. voluntarily in seeking the American Dream of prosperity and many have succeeded. This has resulted in policy differences among Korean-Americans. But this can also be seen as a sign that they have assimilated well into American society.
It is also noteworthy that all the upcoming Korean-American lawmakers appear to be members of a vanishing breed ― the middle-of-the-road U.S. politician ― at a time of hyper-partisanship. That may be because they largely represent congressional swing districts where the Democratic and Republican parties are competitive and which favors centrist moderation.
Take the case of Young Kim and Michelle Park Steel, the two nearly elected Korean-American Republican congresswomen, who both represent seats in Orange County, near Los Angeles. Orange County was once deeply Republican, but has become more moderate in recent years as its suburban population has grown. In 2018, Kim narrowly lost her first bid for Congress, but won in a close race this time in a rematch. Steel was also elected in a tight race.
Andy Kim, the first Korean-American Democratic congressman, was first elected in 2018 and represents a swing district in New Jersey. The fourth is Marilyn Strickland, who represents a relatively safe Democratic district.
The challenge now for all of them will be to maintain their centrist political views in face of pressure from the extremes of both parties.
This is particularly the case for Young Kim and Michelle Park, who are out of step with the Republican party mainstream on several issues. One is immigration reform. Both women were born in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as children and so appreciate the opportunity that America has given to its new citizens.
Kim supports the Dreamers Act, which allows children who illegally enter the U.S. to stay in the country rather than being deported, although many Republicans oppose the measure. Steel said her goal was to help immigrant communities to settle in the U.S. after she witnessed the troubles the Korean community faced during the 1992 Los Angeles race riots.
Kim and Steel support closer ties between the U.S. and Korea, with Kim wanting to revive a parliamentary exchange program between the two countries. They will be supported in those efforts by Andy Kim, a former U.S. diplomat, and Strickland, who focused on attracting Asian investment to her hometown of Tacoma, Washington, when she was mayor there.
The election of Strickland, however, revealed that racism must still be confronted within the Korean-American community. She is the daughter of a Korean mother and a black American soldier who married in Korea in the early 1960s and is the first black Korean-American to serve in the U.S. Congress.
But when Jay Kim, the California Republican who was the first Korean-American congressman in the 1990s, was asked by SBS TV about his reaction to the election, he replied, "The woman does not appear to be 100 percent Korean and her husband is black," adding "I wish they were 100 percent Korean, a purebred like I am." For good measure, he added that Andy Kim "has an Arab wife."
Jay Kim should instead take pride in the fact that the Korean-American lawmakers are a symbol of America's growing diversity and should be viewed as an example that Korea should follow as it grapples with its own issues of multiculturalism as it seeks to open its society to immigrants.
John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.
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His wish has been granted. Four Korean-Americans will take their congressional seats in January. They will make up 0.7 percent of the 538 legislators in Congress. That is almost precisely representative of the Korean-American share of the U.S. population at 0.6 percent or an estimated 1.8 million people.
The Korean-American congressional delegation is representative in another sense. Reflecting the polarized nature of U.S. politics, with a nearly 50-50 split between the two main parties, two of the lawmakers are Democrats and two Republican.
That ideological division reveals that most minority groups in the U.S. are less monolithic in terms of their political attitudes than is often thought. It is commonly assumed that minorities ― blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Native Americans ― all face deep systemic discrimination in the U.S. and need to be protected.
But while that may be the case for blacks and Native Americans in particular, the Asian-American and Latino experience has been different. Most came to the U.S. voluntarily in seeking the American Dream of prosperity and many have succeeded. This has resulted in policy differences among Korean-Americans. But this can also be seen as a sign that they have assimilated well into American society.
It is also noteworthy that all the upcoming Korean-American lawmakers appear to be members of a vanishing breed ― the middle-of-the-road U.S. politician ― at a time of hyper-partisanship. That may be because they largely represent congressional swing districts where the Democratic and Republican parties are competitive and which favors centrist moderation.
Take the case of Young Kim and Michelle Park Steel, the two nearly elected Korean-American Republican congresswomen, who both represent seats in Orange County, near Los Angeles. Orange County was once deeply Republican, but has become more moderate in recent years as its suburban population has grown. In 2018, Kim narrowly lost her first bid for Congress, but won in a close race this time in a rematch. Steel was also elected in a tight race.
Andy Kim, the first Korean-American Democratic congressman, was first elected in 2018 and represents a swing district in New Jersey. The fourth is Marilyn Strickland, who represents a relatively safe Democratic district.
The challenge now for all of them will be to maintain their centrist political views in face of pressure from the extremes of both parties.
This is particularly the case for Young Kim and Michelle Park, who are out of step with the Republican party mainstream on several issues. One is immigration reform. Both women were born in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as children and so appreciate the opportunity that America has given to its new citizens.
Kim supports the Dreamers Act, which allows children who illegally enter the U.S. to stay in the country rather than being deported, although many Republicans oppose the measure. Steel said her goal was to help immigrant communities to settle in the U.S. after she witnessed the troubles the Korean community faced during the 1992 Los Angeles race riots.
Kim and Steel support closer ties between the U.S. and Korea, with Kim wanting to revive a parliamentary exchange program between the two countries. They will be supported in those efforts by Andy Kim, a former U.S. diplomat, and Strickland, who focused on attracting Asian investment to her hometown of Tacoma, Washington, when she was mayor there.
The election of Strickland, however, revealed that racism must still be confronted within the Korean-American community. She is the daughter of a Korean mother and a black American soldier who married in Korea in the early 1960s and is the first black Korean-American to serve in the U.S. Congress.
But when Jay Kim, the California Republican who was the first Korean-American congressman in the 1990s, was asked by SBS TV about his reaction to the election, he replied, "The woman does not appear to be 100 percent Korean and her husband is black," adding "I wish they were 100 percent Korean, a purebred like I am." For good measure, he added that Andy Kim "has an Arab wife."
Jay Kim should instead take pride in the fact that the Korean-American lawmakers are a symbol of America's growing diversity and should be viewed as an example that Korea should follow as it grapples with its own issues of multiculturalism as it seeks to open its society to immigrants.
John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.
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