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 This lasted up until 1943, when it was finally repealed.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,