Chinese for Affirmative Action

Major campaigns

CAA represented the plaintiffs in Lau v. Nichols, a 1974 United States Supreme Court case expanding access to bilingual education.

In 1978, CAA successfully advocated that the United States Census break down the single "Asian" category on the questionnaire into multiple distinct groups, to help better understand the Asian American population. In 1999, CAA helped advocate increased outreach in undercounted communities for the 2000 Census.

From 1982 onwards, CAA was involved in the national campaign on behalf of Chinese-American hate crime victim Vincent Chin.

In 2000, CAA helped organize a national coalition in support of Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee.

In 2003, Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, and the Asian Law Caucus jointly launched Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE), a Sacramento, California–based organization doing progressive Asian American state-level political advocacy.

In 2014, Chinese for Affirmative Action supported the Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, an initiative would ask voters to consider eliminating California Proposition 209's ban on the use of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in recruitment, admissions, and retention programs at California's public universities and colleges. The debate over race-conscious admissions at public universities sharply divided Chinese American communities.

In 2019, via their Chinese Digital Engagement program, the CAA started a fact-checking website called PiYaoBa to help combat media misinformation that targets Chinese American communities.

Funding

In 2016, about half CAA's funding came from contracts, and the remainder from gifts and grants.

Controversies

Asian admission quotas

In the 1990s, CAA sided with the San Francisco Unified School District in defending a consent decree that capped attendance at Lowell High School from any given racial group. Per the policy, Chinese-American students had to score higher to attend than other groups. CAA's stance was at odds with Asian parents who opposed the policy.

References

References

1. "CAA - Four Decades of Civil Rights Leadership". Chinese for Affirmative Action.
2. "AACRE Partners". Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality.
3. Fine, Doris R.. (1986). "When Leadership Fails: Desegregation and Demoralization in the San Francisco Schools". Transaction Publishers.
4. Yip, Alethea. "Remembering Vincent Chin". AsianWeek.
5. (2014-03-21). "SCA 5: A political coming-of-age story for Chinese-Americans". Southern California Public Radio.
6. "CAA Statement on Senate Constitutional Amendment 5".
7. Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA). (2024-08-26). "Conspiracy Theories, Lies, & A.I.: How right-wing disinformation in the Chinese American community reflect the politics of hate in the 2024 election.".
8. "IRS Form 990, 2016". Chinese for Affirmative Action.
9. Schultz, Jeffrey D.. (2000). "Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics". Greenwood Press.