Progress Made, Hard Work Continues

President Lincoln’s iconic words from his Gettysburg Address recaptured the bedrock principle of equality underlying the Declaration of Independence – a principle glaringly omitted from the Constitution. By defining the Civil War as a “new birth of freedom,” Lincoln cast a vision for an America that would ensure genuine liberty and equality for all citizens.

This vision set the stage for the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments – amendments that would later become integral to the modern civil rights movement. In this regard, Lincoln refocused the Constitution on the nation’s animating principles of liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, while Lincoln championed equality in the context of his steadfast opposition to slavery, and the Reconstruction legislation enacted after his presidency was designed to empower former slaves, Lincoln’s legacy has benefitted all minority Americans, including Asian Americans.

Indeed, Asian immigrants were able to invoke the 14th Amendment to challenge and overcome discriminatory hurdles. In Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886), for example, the Supreme Court invalidated a local ordinance prohibiting individuals from operating a laundry in a wooden building without a permit, reasoning that the disproportionate enforcement of the law against Chinese laundrymen violated these individuals’ 14th Amendment right to equal protection.

Similarly, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the U.S. Supreme Court, relying on the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause, held that an American-born person of Chinese ancestry could not constitutionally be denied U.S. citizenship. Today, over a century later, Asian Americans constitute a thriving community with individuals who have attained prominence in society, including high-ranking posts in President Barack Obama’s administration. Together with the historic election of our first African American president, these achievements reflect Lincoln’s renewed vision for our nation.

That said, however, for Asian Americans, the pursuit of the true equality that Lincoln espoused is far from complete. Even though Asian Americans have made great strides, we are still grossly underrepresented in government, the judiciary, and the highest levels of the public and private sectors. We are still often misperceived as foreigners, rather than citizens who are as committed to this country as any other American. As a bar association dedicated to advocating the interests of the Asian American legal community and the Asian American community generally, AABANY is thus keenly aware that we must vigilantly protect and vigorously advance Lincoln’s legacy of liberty and equality.

Two recent incidents underscore these imperatives. In March, in response to Dartmouth College’s appointment of Dr. Jim Yong Kim as its next president, a Dartmouth student circulated a brazenly racist e-mail declaring that, “[u]nless ‘Jim Yong Kim’ means ‘I love Freedom’ in Chinese, I don’t want anything to do with him. Dartmouth is America, not Panda Garden Rice Village Restaurant.”¹ Just one month later, in hearings regarding obstacles that Asian Americans face at polling sites, Texas State Representative Betty Brown suggested that there should be “some means by which you could adopt a name just for your poll identification purposes that would be easier for the Americans to deal with[.]“²

Both infuriating statements rest on the premise that Asian Americans are simply not Americans – or at least not equal to white Americans. Such ignorant attitudes directly contravene the ideals that Lincoln championed. Thus, on this Law Day, while we celebrate the legacy that has opened doors of opportunity for the historically oppressed and disenfranchised, let us be mindful that much work lies ahead if we are to ensure that Lincoln’s legacy of liberty and equality endures.

Endnotes:

1. http://thedartmouth.com/2009/03/05/news/email/

2. See http://wcbstv.com/topstories/john.liu.asian.2.982179.html