麻省惊现亚裔细分，下面是几封来自麻省朋友给议员们的英文信件，供参考。

I would like to express my concern about the recent MA Bill H.3361, regarding the disaggregation of Asian Americans in Massachusetts, and I urge you to oppose this bill for many reasons.

    First, the intent of this bill is to identify and subdivide groups of people of Pacific Islander and Asian descent. This in itself does not necessarily pose a problem, rather it is the very likely consequence of this subdivision that is my concern. In the past, this information has led to many discriminatory actions. Under President Chester A. Arthur, the Chinese exclusion act singled out Chinese Americans and took away their rights. This lasted up until 1943, when it was finally repealed. Just 2 years before that, the Japanese internment camps, which forcibly removed Japanese American citizens from their homes and moved them into concentration camps. Both of these actions were tremendous injustices, and should never be repeated again. But we are almost at the point of enabling that to happen. This data collected by the bill, if passed, would allow these atrocities to happen again. There is genuine fear that such data will be used for immoral and evil purposes, which may yet again show the true colors of subdivision and labeling.

    Next, this bill will segregate Asians to an even further extent. Currently, the most recent 2010 US Census states that Asian Americans compose 5.6% of the population. Currently, the races recognized by the US Government are: White, African American, American Indian, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander. With 72% of the population being white and 12% being African American, it seems highly inefficient and questionable to divide the Asian American population to even smaller subsections but leave the other larger populations as their own groups. Why then, is there a need to disaggregate the population? Some people say that there is a large diversity in the Asian American population, but that holds just as much truth for the White population or the African American population. Or economic reasons, the diversity is present in other populations. So why divide the Asian American population and leave the other ones intact for no substantial reason?

Furthermore, this bill fails to differentiate between ethnicity and national origin. For example, China officially recognizes 56 ethnicities among its citizens, such as Han, Hmong, Uyghur, or Mongolian. So by identifying someone as merely "Chinese", or "Filipino", or "Korean" hardly defines a person's true ethnic and cultural background. In addition, a person's citizenship does not necessarily decide that person's socioeconomic situation or their education status. Thus, the tactics to subdivide only the 5 most common Asian ethnicites would fail to account for many people who do not fit exactly into any of them. These outline the evident problems with this bill, that the system cannot verify the accuracy nor the integrity of the data gathered. By allowing the bill to pass, it overlooks the compounding problems by lumping ethnicities together and generalizing people of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

As you are aware, the Asian American community is working to ensure the social and economic advancement of those with Asian ethnicites, and to eliminate discrimination. This bill will dissolve the bonds between the Asian American community and reverse the efforts made to ensure the safety and well-being of Asians. Even when the intention of attaining a goal is good, the methods used to achieve it can be harmful. This bill will bring about even more discrimination, and serves to intensify the impacts of racism. So I passionately encourage you to vote against this bill for the security of all Asian Americans, and to continue fighting against the chains of racism and discrimination.

Thank you for your consideration of this pressing issue！

Best regards,

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Dear Senator Lewis and Ms. Armstrong, 

Hope everything is going well.  I'm writing to you regard to Bill, H.3361, that is trying to identify and sub-categorize Asian American ethnic groups.

Every Chinese American resident I talk to in Winchester is against such subcategory.

We think Bill H. 3361 is divisive and unfair.  It does not stipulate the collection of similar racial data from any group other than the Asian Americans Pacific Islanders.  There is no bill, for example, require Cuban Americans, or Mexican Americans to report their ethnicities other than the generic “Hispanic.”  Similarly, there is no requirement for Jewish Americans, Arab Americans or Irish American to report ethnicities other than the generic “White.”  It is indisputable that those sub-groups within the Hispanics and Whites are ethnically and culturally diverse.  Singling out Asian Americans for stratification is not only unfair to Asian Americans, but also to all Americans.
Bill H. 3361 is unscientific.  It confuses ethnicity with national origins.  For instance, China as a country officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups among its citizens, including, for example, Korean, Hmong, Muslim and Mongolian.  So identifying oneself as “Chinese” or “Taiwanese” doesn’t disclose that person’s true ethnic and possible cultural background. Furthermore, the impact of the citizenship of one’s ancestry -- and in many cases multiple citizenship within the family tree -- is not necessarily a deciding factor of that person’s genetic makeup, or socioeconomic situation and educational status. Therefore, such stratification tactic encoded by H. 3361 wouldn’t have been a useful factor in allocating educational or health resources in the Commonwealth.

In addition to all the problems above, this bill cannot be realistically implemented. Besides putting substantial costs on Massachusetts taxpayers, the system is not intended to, nor is it able to, monitor and verify the accuracy and integrity of the self-identified data generated under this bill.

We hope Senator Lewis will not support this bill.  H. 3361 could divide our communities, and potentially heightened racial tensions.  
Thank you for your time and understanding.

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I am here today to express our deepest concerns about the bill No.3361 that attempts to subdivide the Asians and Pacific IsIanders, While the intent will invariably lead to discrimination and abuse。 Asian American had very bad experience with subdivision and labeling. We had Chinese exclusion act which aimed at Chinese Americans. We had Japanese American internment. There is real fear that such data can be used for evil purposes. Why continuously subdivide Asian American and Pacific IsIanders, the tiny 5%, not the rest of 95% of the nation?! Why not subdivide white, black, and Hispanics? Such racial stereotyping is discriminatory.

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The bill is trying to continue dividing our country by disaggregating Asian into more race categories. 

First of all, from 2010 US Census we have only 5.6% Asian in US, one of the least population groups. Dividing a 5.6% Asian into more groups is not only inefficient but also questionable. Health related reason is not a good excuse here because residents from other continents also have very diversified culture, religions, eating habits, as well as different genetic variations. Education related reason also does not sound reasonable. We don't see any solid reason that we should be disaggregated. 

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I'm writing to you regard to Bill H.3361 that is trying to identify and sub-categorize Asian American ethnic groups.

Every Chinese American resident I talk to is against such subcategorizing.

We think Bill H. 3361 is divisive and unfair. It does not stipulate the collection of similar racial data from any group other than the Asian Americans Pacific Islanders. There is no bill, for example, require Cuban Americans, or Mexican Americans to report their ethnicities other than the generic “Hispanic.” Similarly, there is no requirement for Jewish Americans, Arab Americans or Irish American to report ethnicities other than the generic “White.” 

It is indisputable that those sub-groups within the Hispanics and Whites are ethnically and culturally diverse. Singling out Asian Americans for stratification is not only unfair to Asian Americans, but also to all Americans.

Bill H. 3361 is unscientific. It confuses ethnicity with national origins. For instance, China as a country officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups among its citizens, including, for example, Korean, Hmong, Muslim and Mongolian. So identifying oneself as “Chinese” or “Taiwanese” doesn’t disclose that person’s true ethnic and possible cultural background. 

Furthermore, the impact of the citizenship of one’s ancestry -- and in many cases multiple citizenship within the family tree -- is not necessarily a deciding factor of that person’s genetic makeup, or socioeconomic situation and educational status. Therefore, such stratification tactic encoded by H. 3361 wouldn’t have been a useful factor in allocating educational or health resources in the Commonwealth.

In addition to all the problems above, this bill cannot be realistically implemented. Besides putting substantial costs on Massachusetts taxpayers, the system is not intended to, nor is it able to, monitor and verify the accuracy and integrity of the self-identified data generated under this bill.

We hope you will not support this bill. H. 3361 could divide our communities, and potentially heightened racial tensions.  

Thank you for your time and understanding.
-----------------------------

Dear Mr. Chan and All Other Petitioners,

As a US citizen and a member of the Asian American community in the greater Boston area, I'm writing to you all to voice the serious concerns over the Bill H.3361 that is trying to identify and sub-categorize Asian American ethnic groups. This bill petition has shocked the Asian American communities because the similar subcategorization also happened in the town of Lexington weeks ago and all the Asian communities have voiced their opposition to specifically subdividing the Asian American population. That Lexington motion has been withdrawn by the presenter. Every Chinese American resident I talk to is against such subcategorizing. Since the day we became a US citizen, we have been considering ourselves Asian Americans, just like African Americans.

We think the Bill H. 3361 is divisive and unfair. It does not stipulate the collection of similar racial data from any group other than the Asian Americans Pacific Islanders. There is no bill, for example, requires Cuban Americans, or Mexican Americans to report their ethnicity other than the generic “Hispanic.” Similarly, there is no requirement for Jewish Americans, Arab Americans or Irish American to report ethnicity other than the generic “White.” It is indisputable that those sub-groups within the Hispanics and Whites are ethnically and culturally diverse. Singling out Asian Americans for stratification is not only unfair to Asian Americans, but also unfair to all Americans.
The Bill H. 3361 is unscientific. It confuses ethnicity with national origins. For instance, China as a country officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups among its citizens, including, for example, Korean, Hmong, Muslim and Mongolian. So identifying oneself as “Chinese” or “Taiwanese” doesn’t disclose that person’s true ethnic and possible cultural background. 

Furthermore, the impact of the citizenship of one’s ancestry -- and in many cases multiple citizenship within the family tree -- is not necessarily a deciding factor of that person’s genetic makeup, or socioeconomic situation and educational status. Therefore, such stratification tactic encoded by H. 3361 would not be a useful factor in allocating educational or health resources in the Commonwealth.
In addition to all the problems mentioned above, this bill cannot be realistically implemented. Besides putting substantial costs on Massachusetts taxpayers, the system is not intended to, nor is it able to, monitor and verify the accuracy and integrity of the self-identified data generated under this bill.

We hope you will not support this bill. H. 3361 could divide our communities, and potentially heightened racial tensions.  

Thank you for your time and understanding. Personally I believe you all would do the meaningful thing and right thing for your voters and all the taxpayers.

Best regards,

Jian Liu, PhD, MBA
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Dear Ken Gordon,

I would like to express my concern about the recent MA Bill H.3361, regarding the disaggregation of Asian Americans in Massachusetts, and I urge you to oppose this bill for many reasons.

    First, the intent of this bill is to identify and subdivide groups of people of Pacific Islander and Asian descent. This in itself does not necessarily pose a problem, rather it is the very likely consequence of this subdivision that is my concern. In the past, this information has led to many discriminatory actions. Under President Chester A. Arthur, the Chinese exclusion act singled out Chinese Americans and took away their rights. This lasted up until 1943, when it was finally repealed. Just 2 years before that, the Japanese internment camps, which forcibly removed Japanese American citizens from their homes and moved them into concentration camps. Both of these actions were tremendous injustices, and should never be repeated again. But we are almost at the point of enabling that to happen. This data collected by the bill, if passed, would allow these atrocities to happen again. There is genuine fear that such data will be used for immoral and evil purposes, which may yet again show the true colors of subdivision and labeling.

    Next, this bill will segregate Asians to an even further extent. Currently, the most recent 2010 US Census states that Asian Americans compose 5.6% of the population. Currently, the races recognized by the US Government are: White, African American, American Indian, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander. With 72% of the population being white and 12% being African American, it seems highly inefficient and questionable to divide the Asian American population to even smaller subsections but leave the other larger populations as their own groups. Why then, is there a need to disaggregate the population? Some people say that there is a large diversity in the Asian American population, but that holds just as much truth for the White population or the African American population. Or economic reasons, the diversity is present in other populations. So why divide the Asian American population and leave the other ones intact for no substantial reason?

Furthermore, this bill fails to differentiate between ethnicity and national origin. For example, China officially recognizes 56 ethnicities among its citizens, such as Han, Hmong, Uyghur, or Mongolian. So by identifying someone as merely "Chinese", or "Filipino", or "Korean" hardly defines a person's true ethnic and cultural background. In addition, a person's citizenship does not necessarily decide that person's socioeconomic situation or their education status. Thus, the tactics to subdivide only the 5 most common Asian ethnicites would fail to account for many people who do not fit exactly into any of them. These outline the evident problems with this bill, that the system cannot verify the accuracy nor the integrity of the data gathered. By allowing the bill to pass, it overlooks the compounding problems by lumping ethnicities together and generalizing people of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

As you are aware, the Asian American community is working to ensure the social and economic advancement of those with Asian ethnicites, and to eliminate discrimination. This bill will dissolve the bonds between the Asian American community and reverse the efforts made to ensure the safety and well-being of Asians. Even when the intention of attaining a goal is good, the methods used to achieve it can be harmful. This bill will bring about even more discrimination, and serves to intensify the impacts of racism. So I passionately encourage you to vote against this bill for the security of all Asian Americans, and to continue fighting against the chains of racism and discrimination.

Thank you for your consideration of this pressing issue,

Best regards,