The Committee of 100 recently published its survey, titled Still the Other?, to understand views of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans among America's general population. I'll get to the punchline first, which is that significant racial attitudes and suspicions still exist. Some highlights are that most Americans still don't distinguish between Asians or Asian Americans, and see us all as one big homogeneous group, or as not American. I suspect Congresswoman Brown (R-Tex) shares this viewpoint, considering that she refers to Asian Americans as "you and your citizens." 

What is alarming to me, is that half of the general population thinks Asian Americans are more loyal to their countries of heritage than to America (somewhere, the 442nd are rolling around in their graves). The percentage of Americans who share that view actually went up since 2001 (making me fearful of future Wen Ho Lee witch hunts). Related to this, is that your average American thinks there are way more Asians in America than are actually here, underestimate how many Asian Americans are American-born, and harbor distrustful views toward Chinese Americans that are on par with current suspicions of Arab Americans.

It's not all bad. The committee also did a similar study back in 2001, and there have been some interesting, positive trends since then:
- In 2001, about one-fourth of the general population would neither vote for an Asian American presidential candidate nor accept an Asian American into their families by marriage. Only half thought Asian immigrants were positive for America, and half thought Chinese Americans contributed to American culture.
- In 2009, about one-tenth of Americans would neither vote for an Asian American presidential candidate nor accept an Asian American into their families by marriage. About seven in ten thought Asian immigrants were positive for America, and seven in ten thought Chinese Americans contributed to American culture.

The views of Chinese Americans themselves are also interesting, but mostly negative. Four in five Chinese Americans think they have little political power in Washington, less than one third believe they are promoted as much as their white counterparts, and less than one fourth believe they are adequately represented on corporate boards. An alarmingly high proportion reported experiencing racism or discrimination.

I believe some of these attitudes among the general population are influenced by mainstream news articles and media images. This may be the case especially for those who have no personal interactions or experiences with Asians or Asian Americans. This year's survey actually identified that individuals who harbor the most negative or racist viewpoints toward Chinese Americans are those who:
(1) are more likely to perceive China as a high future threat to the U.S.,
(2) had a less favorable impression of China after Beijing hosted the Olympics,
(3) hold an unfavorable view toward people in China, and
(4) have never traveled to China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan.

Because the average American's current views of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans are so closely tied to American news and media perspectives about China, and since there is much more China-related mainstream news than there is Asian American-related news, I think it's worth looking at the negative Chinese press in America. The Pentagon and media paint China as a military, economic, and health threat. I believe a lot of the negative press and sentiment comes down to PR (public relations). I was at a business conference a few months ago, where a prominent (white American) marketing guru remarked during a panel that China was the only nation in Washington that did not employ a professional PR firm there. He went on to speculate that much of the negative mainstream China news was related to not having any PR or lobbyist firm in Washington on China's behalf. He explained that China's leaders did not understand how PR and news shaped sentiment, and did not understand why it was important for them to manage American sentiment about China. I think that in a round-about way, Chinese Americans would enjoy improved attitudes toward them if China were to use a PR firm in Washington, the same way every other country does there (like Russia or Israel).