David Hwang was enraged, recalling the phone call he got shortly before Christmas about his $1,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee.
"What an insult!" fumed Hwang, president of the Taiwanese American Citizens League. "It's an insult not only to me personally but to all Asian Americans."
The caller, from an accounting firm hired by the DNC, wanted his citizenship, Social Security number, source of the contribution and authorization to run a credit check, he said.
The South Bay engineer, a U.S. citizen who for years has given time and money to help elect Democrats, was so upset that he cut the phone call short and penned a blistering letter. "I protest your discriminatory action against me and Asian Americans," he wrote. If the committee did not feel comfortable with the donation, he demanded its return.
Hwang, a delegate to the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago and a member of the Democratic Party State Central Committee, is still upset about the incident.
So are numerous other Los Angeles-area Asian Americans who were questioned about their qualifications to contribute to the Democratic Party--part of a DNC fund-raising audit due to be released Friday.
"If they had done this to any other ethnic group, there would be a firestorm of controversy," said John J. Chung, president of the Los Angeles-based Korean American Bar Assn. "These tactics are sending the message: 'If you're an Asian, you have to prove that you are entitled to participate.' This is a barrier erected in front of Asians solely based on their name."
Former DNC Chairman Donald Fowler said the committee's probe involved several hundred donors from the past two years whose backgrounds had not been "vetted thoroughly" when the contributions were accepted. "They were not exclusively Asians or persons with non-European names," Fowler said.
Although Fowler says he wrote to many of those who were questioned to clear up any misunderstanding, the unfolding Democratic fund-raising scandal--largely involving foreign-linked donors to the Clinton campaign--remains painful for many Asian Americans. It reminds some that, despite high educational and professional achievements, they still in some ways are at the margins of society. The message they perceive is: If you have an Asian face and name, you cannot be accepted as a full-fledged American.
Widening Controversy
The widening controversy involving former DNC fund-raiser John Huang has adversely affected Asian American political aspirations more than any other single issue, observers say. They say it has tarnished their collective image, may have cost a Cabinet appointment and could spark legislative efforts to limit their ability to contribute to candidates.
The episode is widely seen as the same kind of guilt by association that resulted in the World War II internment of Japanese Americans even as many fought for America. Asian American leaders worry about the issue's ramifications for the community, which only this year, a century and a half after Asians settled on the West Coast, celebrated the election of Gary Locke of Washington, the first Asian American governor to occupy a mainland statehouse.
Galvanized by issues of immigration, welfare and affirmative action, more than 75,000 Asian Americans registered to vote nationwide last year, and they went to the polls in record numbers.
Yet, there is little to show for their efforts.
"We're not even at the table to pick up the crumbs," said Chinese American attorney Anthony Ching, whose $5,000 contribution prompted DNC questioning.
"The controversy has a taint of racism," said Harry Low, a Chinese American civic leader and one of the first Asian American judges. "It confirms that things haven't changed as much as you hoped for."
Civil rights attorney Donald Tamaki, a third-generation Japanese American, says simply, "It hurts."
"It makes all Americans of Asian ancestry suspect," he added.
Non-Asian observers, too, are watching the situation with keen interest.
"All of us from various ethnic communities need to defend the Asian American community," said American-born James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who tires of being asked where he comes from.
"They won't ask the Joneses and the Smiths whether they're citizens," he said. "You get a room full of Zogbys, Chungs and Gonzalezes, and they ask, 'Wait a minute, who is a citizen here and who is not?' "
Echoes from American history reverberate in the controversy.
"It harks back to earlier days of 'yellow peril'--insidious Asians pulling strings and manipulating," said Joe Hicks, an African American who is executive director of the Multicultural Collaborative, a consortium of community organizations in Los Angeles.
Hicks said the lesson from this controversy is that if Asian Americans can be singled out, so can other groups.
