Every Chinese American resident I talk to in Winchester is against such subcategory.

We think Bill H. 3361 is divisive and unfair.  It does not stipulate the collection of similar racial data from any group other than the Asian Americans Pacific Islanders.  There is no bill, for example, require Cuban Americans, or Mexican Americans to report their ethnicities other than the generic “Hispanic.”  Similarly, there is no requirement for Jewish Americans, Arab Americans or Irish American to report ethnicities other than the generic “White.”  It is indisputable that those sub-groups within the Hispanics and Whites are ethnically and culturally diverse.  Singling out Asian Americans for stratification is not only unfair to Asian Americans, but also to all Americans.

Bill H. 3361 is unscientific.  It confuses ethnicity with national origins.  For instance, China as a country officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups among its citizens, including, for example, Korean, Hmong, Muslim and Mongolian.  So identifying oneself as “Chinese” or “Taiwanese” doesn’t disclose that person’s true ethnic and possible cultural background. Furthermore, the impact of the citizenship of one’s ancestry -- and in many cases multiple citizenship within the family tree -- is not necessarily a deciding factor of that person’s genetic makeup, or socioeconomic situation and educational status. Therefore, such stratification tactic encoded by H. 3361 wouldn’t have been a useful factor in allocating educational or health resources in the Commonwealth.

In addition to all the problems above, this bill cannot be realistically implemented. Besides putting substantial costs on Massachusetts taxpayers, the system is not intended to, nor is it able to, monitor and verify the accuracy and integrity of the self-identified data generated under this bill.

This bill. H. 3361 could divide our communities, and potentially heightened racial tensions.