Janelle Wong

The Contours and Sources of Ethnic Identity Choices Among Asian Americans

How do individuals of Asian descent in the United States identify themselves in ethnic terms and why? The purpose of this research is to map the contours of ethnic self-identities among Asian adults and explain their identity preferences in this immigrant community of color. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Group-Based Resources and Political Participation among Asian Americans

Scholars of minority political participation have shown significant interest in unraveling the complex but crucial role of group-basedresources. Although there is an emerging scholarship on Latinos, much of the work on group consciousness, group identity, and ethnic organizations is based on research on Black Americans. Increasing diversity in the United States brings necessary attention to expanding the model to the politics and participation of other non-White, multiethnic, and immigrant majority communities. Using a new and unique dataset designed to tap the political opinion and behavior of Asian Americans, the authors find that the usefulness of group-based resources for this rapidly expanding and heterogeneous population is contingent on the specific form of the resources and the mode of political participation.

Mobilizing Asian American Voters: A Field Experiment

This study examines the effects of mobilization on political participation among Asian Americans. It focuses on whether telephone calls and mail increase voter turnout among Asian Americans who live in high-density Asian American areas in Los Angeles County. Prior to the November 5, 2002, elections, a randomized voter mobilization field experiment was conducted. Lists of registered Asian Americans (Chinese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, and Japanese) were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. A few days before Election Day, the treatment group received a phone call or postcard encouraging them to vote. After the election, voter turnout records were reviewed to compare turnout rates for the treatment and control groups. Multivariate analysis shows that telephone calls and mail increase voter turnout for Asian Americans.

Asian Pacific-American Public Opinion and Political Participation

Studying Asian-American politics with public opinion data is a relatively new phenomenon. Only in the last decade have a number of surveys (collected mostly at the local or regional level) been taken, reflecting expanded interest in the growing Asian-American population and the development of ethnic sampling and interviewing techniques. In this article, the terms “Asian” and “Asian American” are used interchangeably. While most research on Asian-American political behavior focuses on voting, some work examines other forms of political participation. Recent scholarship concerns not only individual characteristics, but also contextual and institutional factors.

Measuring Gay Populations and Antigay Hate Crime

Objectives. The study of crime directed at gay and lesbian targets is hampered by two measurement problems: Police agencies provide unreliable data on hate crime, and tract-level census data contain no direct information about gay or lesbian population density. This article attempts to gauge two quantities that cannot be measured directly or unambiguously: the size of the gay and lesbian populations and the number of hate crimes directed at gay and lesbian targets. Methods. Population data for New York City were gathered from market research lists and from a special tabulation of the 1990 Census. Hate crime data were obtained from the Anti-Violence Project and the New York Police Department. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the reliability of each measure and the correlation between latent population density and hate crime. Results. Each of these measures offers a reliable means by which to assess cross-sectional differences in the population density and victimization of gay men. Census and police data prove to be inferior indicators of lesbian population density and antilesbian hate crime. For both men and women, population density is strongly correlated with the incidence of hate crime. Conclusions. Despite the fact that advocacy groups record many more antigay incidents than do the police, both sources of data are in agreement about where hate crimes occur. The strong correlation between population density and hate crime against gay men implies that Census data could be used to forecast the occurrence of hate crime in areas where no police records exist.

A possessive investment in white heteropatriarchy? The 2016 election and the politics of race, gender, and sexuality

ABSTRACT The 2016 election has triggered new interest in and speculation about longstanding questions about the roles of race, gender, and sexuality in American politics. We argue that rather than anomalous and exceptional, the 2016 election represents an extension – and perhaps the beginning of a consolidation – of enduring and intersecting configurations of racialized and gendered power, marginalization, and oppression. We examine some of the ways in which these intersecting configurations structure and are structured by American politics, exploring some of the political consequences of proximity to or distance from the benefits of white heteropatriarchy.

Best practices in collecting online data with Asian, Black, Latino, and White respondents: evidence from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-election Survey

ABSTRACT As the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, new challenges to capturing this diversity emerge for survey researchers studying political attitudes and behavior. Sampling methods are no longer straightforward as simple random-digit-dial. Given the confluence of changing demographics and changing survey technology, we argue that researchers should carefully consider a stratified listed/density quota-sampling approach to multilingual surveys with large racial/ethnic minority samples. We examine the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-election Survey, which implemented this approach with great success. Our approach resulted in collecting 10,145 completed surveys, in five languages, with large samples of Asian Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, and Whites. We conclude with a set of best practices or principles for online research of racial/ethnic minority populations that we hope will guide future social science research in this domain.

Reflections on the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths Data and Report

This article examines the background behind the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Lifes 2012 report, Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths. The authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the study, particularly the way certain questions and categories of analysis in the survey were framed. In particular, the article notes how Asian American Muslims and Sikhs were marginalized in the survey and the report of its results.

Review of Racial and Ethnic Politics in California

Wong: Review of Racial and Ethnic Politics in California THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Book Review Racial and Ethnic Politics in California: Continuity and Change, Sandra Bass and Bruce E. Cain, eds., 2008 Review of Racial and Ethnic Politics in California Janelle Wong University of Southern California I read the first volume of Racial and Ethnic Politics in California as an undergraduate at UCLA 15 years ago. That volume still sits on my shelf. It is a reminder of the kind of research on ethnic and racial politics that compelled me to pursue a path in the field. Volume 1, Issue 1, 2009 The third volume of Racial and Ethnic Politics in Cali- fornia, edited by Sandra Bass and Bruce Cain, was just released from Berkeley Public Policy Press. The subtitle of the book, Continuity and Change, aptly describes both California politics and the latest volume in the Racial and Ethnic Politics in California series. Like the first volume, the third offers a clear story about the ways in which ra- cial and ethnic diversity drive contemporary politics in the Golden State. Two essays stand out in this regard. First, geographer Ali Modarres presents a succinct overview of demographic trends in California. He suggests that immi- gration, especially from Asia, is a driving force behind in- creased racial integration in the state. Nonetheless, racial segregation remains a stubborn fact of life for almost half of all residents in California. Modarres is right to point out that if California stakeholders passively allow segregation to prevail, rather than actively working toward a residen- tially integrated California, entrenched political conflict and inequality will be the state’s destiny. www.bepress.com/cjpp