I was drinking my morning cup of Joe and checking in to my bloglines (man, I remember the days when I'd read an actual newspaper) this morning and came across this from Disgrasian, one of my favorite blogs. Disgrasian says Sarah Palin Not Hot Like Kimchi.
They were referring to this headline, The Palin Effect Stops at Koreatown from New America Media, which reports that Korean American women are NOT impressed with Republican VP choice Sarah Palin. It appears that conservative, evangelical Korean American voters are not aligning with the rest of American (read: White?) conservative, evangelical hoopla over Palin. Which makes me ask, why is that?
The article continues to talk about the draw of a female VP candidate to Korean American women.
The McCain-Palin team may be fighting hard for undecided female voters, but their efforts may be in vain among Korean American women. Those who haven’t made up their minds say Palin isn’t someone they can trust to advance women’s rights. In fact, they see her as taking opposing positions on the issues that matter most to them. She is pro-life, doesn’t care about the environment and supports prolonging the Iraq war.
I also thought this quote near the end of the article was interesting:
Even as it is, Korean Americans are among the least civically engaged Asian immigrants, according to a study published by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California (APALC). Only 39 percent of Korean American registered voters in Los Angeles County voted in the 2006 general election, compared to 52 percent of all registered voters and 43 percent of all Asian American registered voters. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Korean-American voters live in Southern California.
I'm curious about your thoughts on this article. Most of the Korean Americans I personally know are not conservatives, evangelicals, nor do they live in Southern California (I just have a couple of friends in that area). So, we certainly do not fit the "profile" of the "typical" Korean American women they talked to in this article.
I think that Korean American women are a more diverse group than this article might assume. But regardless, what are your thoughts about this article?
(and I don't want to get into any political debate so the Palin question isn't so much what I'm after - though feel free to pontificate if you desire, but please be respectful)
--Jae Ran
