"Our founding fathers themselves are immigrants"
A nonprofit group called Asia Society has released a video featuring Asian Americans offering advice to US President Donald Trump.
Participants were advised to speak to the camera as if they were talking to President Trump directly. The ethnicities of the participants included Japanese, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese; all are American.
On Asia Society’s website, the nonprofit group said, “Exit polls suggested that despite Hillary Clinton’s defeat to Donald Trump, Americans of Asian descent supported the former secretary of state by a 65 to 29 percent margin. In the aftermath of the election result, we decided to give Asian Americans a chance to give advice to the 45th president — on camera.”
“During two days of filming, the participants — who traced their ancestry to several different Asian countries — discussed a wide variety of specific topics, from LGBT rights, tension in the South China Sea, and climate change.”
All of the participants in the video come across calm, collected and sincere. Some highlight the magnitude of the job in hand for the new president. “Welcome to the toughest job in the world,” one Asian American said, whilst another added, “the presidency should be what defines every fiber of your being and not a part time job”.
“You work for us now, you work for me, you work for my friends, you work for my family, you work for everyone in the United States,” one participant reinforced.
Others emphasized the importance of immigrants in the country. “One of the things that makes us great is the way we treat all our immigrants wherever they come from and whatever their faith,” said an Asian-American lady, whilst another participant reminded the president, “our founding fathers themselves are immigrants”.
Some discussed the hostility shown towards immigrants. “Some of your supporters have suggested that a Muslim registry has precedence in Japanese internments,” claimed one participant, whilst another said, “I was born in an internment camp. it’s a dark history and one that should not be repeated.”
A couple of participants took the opportunity to express positivity. “I was encouraged by your first message as president-elect of the United States that you would be president for all Americans,” one man said, whilst a different participant took a more cynical approach, “it’s really important to undo so much of the hate that enabled you to get into office.”
Others simply hoped for the best, “I wish you the best and I hope you’ll think of people like me,” one woman said, whilst another Asian American simply said, “I am willing to put our differences aside so that we can work on the same team and move towards progress.”
“The true measure of a country’s greatness is how we treat the most vulnerable.”