August 6, 2017, — Three protests by Asian Americans were held over the passed ten days against MA House Bill H3361. The latest one happened this afternoon outside Boston Convention Center where National Conference of State Legislatures(NCSL) summit was being held. Over 100 protesters holding signs such as “Stop Racial Profiling”, “We R Not Preternatural Foreigners”, “United is better than divided”, and “Why single out Asians. Divided we fail.”

On August 5, many Asian Americans and their families gathered outside the NCSL summit in Boston, picketed AAPI Data Disaggregation in bill H3361 introduced by State Rep Tackey Chan of Quincy that would require state agencies to collect aggregate data on Asian-American groups in the Commonwealth. On July 28, a protest was held in front of MA State House against bill H3361.

The protests have drown attention from legislators and reporters. Some have expressed support for the protesters.

The following is the text of the bill.

“SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any General Law or Special Law to the contrary, all state agencies, quasi-state agencies, entities created by state statute and sub-divisions of state agencies shall identify Asian American and Pacific Islanders as defined by the United States Census Bureau in all data collected as part any and all types of data collection, reporting or verification; provided further that, the five largest Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnic groups residing in the Commonwealth shall have individually reported data as part of the total Asian American Pacific Islander reporting.”

Media Reports：

Boston Globe: Protesters picket legislators summit in Boston

NPR: Protests Against The Push To Disaggregate Asian-American Data