Nebraskans Offer Personal Insights On Bill To Create State-Funded Asian American Commission

From Nebraska Examiner:

By Cindy Gonzalez

January 27, 2023

LINCOLN — Chueqa Yang told a legislative panel Friday that she wasn’t always such an activist for her Asian American community.

Born in Omaha to refugees who arrived in the U.S. 44 years ago, Yang said she grew up in a largely white area, with little exposure to her Hmong heritage outside the family home.

She later found “community” in a multicultural sorority at her Lincoln university, which led her in 2016 to help reactivate the Asian American student group on campus, and on a path toward more community involvement.

It was “empowering” to connect with people facing similar struggles, Yang said during the hearing on whether to create a Nebraska Commission on Asian American Affairs.

Fast-growing

Yang was among a handful of testifiers, most of whom offered personal examples of how sponsors or support groups helped build bridges to the larger community, boosting chances for success.

Maria Arriaga, the new executive director of the Latino-American Commission, said Nebraskans seeking help from her staff often face discrimination and lack of representation in workplaces or elsewhere in towns they live.

She said the state commissions, whose members hold at least quarterly meetings across the state, offer a point of contact and a familiar face.

“It helps bring the population closer to the government,” she said.

Legislative Bill 2, introduced by State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, would create a 14-member commission to enhance rights and programs, champion accomplishments and be government liaison to what Sanders said was the fastest-growing racial population in Nebraska.

The commission’s members, appointed by the governor, would be composed of people of Asian descent. Sanders said Asian Americans comprise 3.5% of Nebraska residents.

State finance officials estimate the cost to run the agency with three staff workers, including an executive director, at $255,000 a year.

Earlier effort fizzled

Such a commission would join three other similarly structured entities established by statute to focus on their particular demographic: Native Americans (created in 1971); Latinos (1972) and African Americans (2020).

The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee did not vote Friday on whether to move the bill to the next stage of legislative debate.

Sanders, whose background is Filipino, and who is believed to be the only state senator of Asian descent, said a version of the same bill had passed last year through the committee stage. But it was not prioritized for debate by the full Legislature and fizzled out.

The resurrected effort drew no opposition. Sixteen others wrote in support of LB 2.

One person who spoke in a neutral capacity said she would like to see Pacific Islanders represented in the commission.

Hate crimes

Sanders said that the discussion hadn’t come up before this week but that her staff had no immediate objection.

Sharon Ishii-Jordan, former associate dean and professor emerita of education of Creighton University, said Nebraskans of Asian descent run the gamut from newcomer refugees to those who came in the late 1800s.

Her paternal grandfather arrived in South Omaha in 1907, and his brother settled in Scottsbluff.

Discrimination challenged early immigration waves, she said, noting that her own Japanese grandfather and Bohemian-American grandmother had to go to Iowa to marry. It was illegal for them to wed in Nebraska because of miscegenation laws, she said.

Hate crimes against Asian Americans have become more prominent in recent years, Ishii-Jordan and others said, reinforcing a benefit of forming the government advocacy commission.

Nebraskans want accountability from their elected officials and government. They want to know whether their tax dollars are being well-spent, whether state agencies and local governments are responsive to the people and whether officials, programs and policies are working for the common good. The Nebraska Examiner is a nonprofit, independent news source committed to providing news, scoops and reports important to our state.