Asian Americans Charge Fund-Raising Scandal Bias

In an unprecedented action for their community, a coalition of prominent Asian Americans and 14 organizations filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, accusing Congress, political parties and the news media of widespread stereotyping and scapegoating of Asian Americans during the campaign fund-raising scandal.

The complaint, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and a San Francisco law firm, calls on the commission to probe the “discriminatory impact” on Asian Americans of actions by elected officials, the Democratic and Republican national committees and the news media. The filing was announced at news conferences in Los Angeles and Washington.

“Asian Americans are facing the most profound crisis we have seen since the internment of Japanese Americans over 50 years ago,” said former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo.

Despite their successes in professions, academia and businesses, Asian Americans have lagged behind in politics, partly because discriminatory laws barred them from naturalizing until the 1950s.

During last year’s presidential campaign, a number of people of Asian descent assumed important roles as fund-raisers and contributors for the Democratic Party. But a widening scandal has engulfed their efforts as federal investigations have probed illegal foreign contributions.

Among those who have figured most prominently in Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearings now underway are John Huang, formerly a top fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, and Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie, a friend of President Clinton who allegedly collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable overseas donations.

The petition filed Thursday asked that the Civil Rights Commission schedule hearings to explore the controversy’s impact on the country’s 10 million people of Asian ancestry.

“No other ethnic group has had to go through this kind of experience,” said Charlie Woo, a prosperous Los Angeles toy manufacturer who is one of four named petitioners.

Woo, who donated $7,500 to the DNC last year, said he was subjected to “humiliating questioning” by a DNC auditor about his citizenship and income, solely because of his Asian surname.

Some of the nation’s most important institutions, the petition said, have acted “irresponsibly and carelessly” in responding to allegations of wrongdoing by relatively few Asian Americans and immigrants.

“Numerous elected officials, including members of the House and Senate and candidates for public office, have made racially biased or offensive remarks to the public and in the media, contributing to an environment of antagonism toward Asian Pacific Americans and immigrants,” the petitioners charged in the 28-page complaint.

Among the examples cited were comments by:

* Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah): “In my opinion, Mr. Trie’s activities are classic activities on the part of an Asian who comes from out of that culture and who embarks on an activity relating to intelligence gathering.”

* Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.): “No raise money, no make bonus,” referring to Huang’s salary arrangement with the DNC.

* Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.): “I don’t believe there’s any Asia bashing. . . . We ought to get on with immunizing these little nuns and monks, so we aren’t worried about discriminating against them.”

The remarks, the petition said, “speak to the depth of disrespect toward Asian Pacific Americans by many in our society and governing institutions.”

“It is highly doubtful whether any U.S. senator would so readily offer similar derogatory reference or stereotypes about African Americans, women or Jews in the course of congressional proceedings or to the national press.”

Richard Hurtling, spokesman for the Republican-majority Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said: “We’ve never focused on anyone’s ethnic background. We’re looking at individuals, political parties and candidates and how they have allowed illegal acts to occur.”

DNC officials said they, too, deplore “the rampant demonization of the Asian Pacific American community,” claiming that they are continuing to take steps to assist “the integration of citizens-in-waiting and new citizens into our party and our country’s democratic institutions.”

The goal of the complaint, said Dale Minami, one of the lawyers handling the case, is to educate the American public.

“If you can reach some people to finally understand that Asian Americans are part of this multicolored tapestry we call America, then we will have accomplished something,” he said.

“We’ve been here for hundreds of years. We are citizens and we belong here, yet we are treated as foreigners.”

Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, said that Asian American donors were singled out, while campaign finance violations by other contributors received scant coverage in the news media.

“What we demand is fair treatment,” he said. “What we’re saying is: ‘Cover us equally.’ ”

Charles Rivera, a spokesman for the commission, said the petition probably would be considered at the panel’s meeting on Oct. 10.

Kang reported from Los Angeles and Jackson reported from Washington.