Some Asian Am. were surprised to realize, after reading 80-20's Washington Post ad, that
"Asian Americans have the least opportunity to enter management and the slowest rate of progress towards equal employment opportunity, despite having the highest educational attainment."
After realizing those facts, they think: "Glad that 80-20 dug up the data and publicized them. When my CEO finds out about it, he/she will, out of a sense of fairness or outrage, be acting to correct it. My career future is now looking brighter."
Unfortunately, wrong!
The American CEOs knew such statistics LONG BEFORE 80-20 dug them up. They were well aware that "Asian Americans have only 1/2 the average chance in private industries to rise to the management, 40% the chance in the universities and 1/3 the chance in Federal government." Their "Human Resources Managers" kept them well informed of such national averages. The companies/universities simply follow the national averages in order to be "out of the trouble with EEOC."
How did I know about this situation? When I was a trustee at the Univ. of Delaware I called for such statistics and were so surprised to find that the U. of D's averages, broken down to races, tracked exactly the national averages. The same was true in almost all American institutions as 80-20 supporters began looking into the situation in their own places of employment, after reading 80-20's Washington Post ad.
Hence, if you ask for such data in YOUR company, if shown, the data will be right at the national averages shown in 80-20's Washington Post's ad below.
The very low glass ceiling over Asian Ams was NOT an accident. It was carefully managed by American institutions to be that way. YOU will continue to face the lowest glass ceiling, unless the national political system demands a change to equity as it did for women, Hispanics and blacks.
When your superior heap praises on you, there could be a knowing smirk in his head that says, "This guy may be competent in his job but he is politically ignorant and too timid to ever make waves."
Object lesson? Don't ever rely on others' sense of fairness or outrage to help you out. Rely on your own sense of fairness and outrage to demand equal treatment through the political process that this presidential election is all about.
All earlier generations of American immigrants, be they Irish, Polish, Italians, Jewish, and Hispanics, used the political process to gain equal treatment. Asian Ams are no different. None of us, as an individual, is powerful enough to cause that change. But united as a group, acting during the presidential election, we do have that power.
Don't bury your head in the sand. Face the irrefutable statistics shown below. Think about your children's future and act!
View the full-page Washington Post ad at
http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/projects/equalopp_washingtonpost_wpad.asp
Respectfully yours.
S. B. Woo
President, 80-20 Educational Foundation
