Why San Francisco Is Running Out Of Young Asian Politicians

San Francisco is struggling to find new Asian-American leadership in local politics what is going on and who's going to step up you know at one point out of 11 seats the Asians they make up five of them now it's looking like it's headed towards zero whoa um yeah this is an article that just dropped on NBC America Andrew long story short San Francisco uh for a very long time had a ton of very prominent Asian-American politicians now the numbers are dwindling and a lot of people are speculating what are the reasons because the amount of Asians in America or in that area is only going up right right so everybody we're going to go into some theories we don't really I don't really know exact reasons I don't think anybody has done the research but we just got some ideas here so please hit that like button check out other episodes of The Hop op boys hopefully this discussion it's not to like just dump on SF I don't really have anything personally against San Francisco but I obviously this is that is an Asian-American stronghold for for a century centuries I I mean like over 100 years ever since Asians have been coming to America in large numbers SF San Francisco but let's be honest Andrew specifically Cantonese Chinese Southern Chinese specifically people from toan yeah like more so like disproportionately specifically Chinese populations uh have been heavy in San Francisco not to mention the rest of the B area the Bay Area in general is very Asian different Pockets more Taiwanese and Silicon Valley where Jeremy Lynn's from Ando a lot of South Asians and Southeast Asians in the rest of the Bay Area we're talking about stuff and from the Gold Rush days paper Suns we're talking about San franisco also we're talking about SMA from Citron assis guys what a segue guys check out SMA sauce uh sold out right now but check out small sauce.com San Francisco is the most Chinese city in America it's 22% Chinese it is the largest group of single origin in SF because you can't count like white as having a single origin yeah yeah no that's a lot I mean that's a significant of just Chinese people not other Asians we're talking about just Chinese San Francisco proper is 22% but they wield way less than 22% of the power okay so basically what is the situation right now that there's not a lot of young Asian-American leaders that are stepping up now whether they're getting blocked like like the people on power right now like we don't like these young Asians but basically there's not that many young Asians that are stepping up just a handful I mean there's there's this guy right right he is a HOA named rigel Robinson who recently actually dropped out because he was trying to become the mayor of Berkeley he was getting so much heat from you know he was very Progressive but some Progressive people don't think he's Progressive enough of course the moderate liberals they don't think he's moderate enough let alone on the Republican side they got a ton of things to say about him and he got so much scrutiny from him and his family Andrew he just dropped out I actually believe he's Hoppa but he does look Asian so I think there was a quote that said uh that just the climate of politics in SF has become so toxic and the Civil dialogue has become a lot more pointed and personal and that's what Phil Ting who's also an elected leader a you know like there are some Asian leaders still around by the way but there's just there's two remaining out of 11 where there used to be five there's not a lot of young guys stepping young men and women that are Asian you know for me I was just looking at the environment I was thinking about becoming a leader and guman San Francisco and I just look it looks so unappealing why would I want to enter that war zone how about some theories here guys cuz I I think there's no explicit reasons why but there's kind of reasons that are alluded to in the article well there's a lot of reasons there's a lot of reasons there's internal reasons Andre within the Chinese American Community there are external reasons what what do you think is an internal Chinese American Community reason what do you think by the way the Articles focus more on the external reasons they didn't get into like feudalism Confucianism okay like tribalism interprovincial ISM etc etc inability to build self-governance Etc so you think it's part that I think that that's the most unspoken part because obviously NBC Asian America is not going to address that part that part you got to really know some stuff explain it explain it so basically uh Chinese in America really really really really struggle more than any other Asian more than korean-americans more than Vietnamese Americans probably even more than Filipino Americans to self-organize because there's no history of self-organizing even in China okay outside of rebellions and things like that okay so basically there's no context for self-governance and then there's this already this system in place so even though Chinese make up a disproportionate amount of San Francisco they've never been able to wield an equivalent power to their numbers or economic power okay equivalent to their population yes yes yes yes because it takes a concerted effort it's almost like uh just because you have the economics and you have the voting population it doesn't mean that you'll actually have churate representation or actual power it doesn't mean that you can wield the political power yes because that takes a concerted plan and execution of that plan over a long amount of time I'm not saying in the past they haven't 20 years ago 30 years ago but the environment has changed and it has changed away from like Asians will continue to live in San Francisco continue to open up Boba shops businesses sushi restaurants of course Cantonese restaurants etc etc all across the bay but they will just never really wield commure at Power we have talked about this in a past video about how Asians proportionately don't even have the political power that they should have based on their economics right right but so so I think there is some truth to that I I will agree you guys let us know in the comments down below what you think about David's uh David's Theory um my some other reasons that I think is that just these are just general reasons for asian-americans I think a lot of asian-americans are moving out of SF even though there's a lot that are moving in I think a lot of the ones that grow up in the city that can move out to the South Bay or other suburbs outside of San Francisco still in the Bay Area but outside of the city are going no no they're no longer an SF proper they may move to Sacramento at the furthest up north they may move to Fremont Fremont copertino mil petas Santa Clara Mountain View what all these Sunny Veil these are all growing every year they're getting more and more Asian so here's my depending on how much bread you got too right yeah depending on the job lot of tech jobs so I think that even though maybe the leadership in San Francisco of Asians may get smaller which we can still prevent or you people can step up and prevent that but let's say it just continues to get smaller the amount of Asian leadership in surrounding cities will increase in years to come because more and more you're saying traditionally white suburbs or something like that which which is where Tom Brady's from yeah right right uh Emma Chamberlain is also from the bay she don't strike me as a bay person right right also I think a lot of asian-americans politically if I had to guess Asians living in San Francisco fall more on a middle left kind of like I guess midd middle even yeah like politically speaking like they're all you know they are not the most leftist people and not not the right people on the right side so they don't feel as comfortable they don't feel like they represent the two extremes that you may need to run like you might need R especially obviously SF has become so farle the debate now is simply between moderate left and farle right right got zero chance right right and if you're moderate left or if you're moderate you almost feel like you're almost pegged in the narrate The Narrative is that you're almost right yes but it's I think Asians more represent what possibly Democrats were 20 to 30 years ago more than a 2024 itation yes so considering that you could probably have a less stressful career and make better money in a different industry why would you go into politics right so that's what I think I think a lot of asian-americans are opting out right and I do think a lot of the newer Chinese they're not like super concerned with the health of Chinatown it's not that they don't care about being Chinese in a macro sense but they just don't care about SF chin right you're you're talking about um like they don't play nin man and stuff like that to be honest newly arrived Chinese immigrants uh or Chinese immigrants just not necessarily newly ared they're not going to connect with Chinatown and SF proper as much as something that they need to represent chicha sanen which is considered the number one Boba chain in the world Andrew it's the highest quality traditional Boba from Taiwan good they're not going to open up in SF proper they're going to be opening up in the South Bay and the East Bay right right right the newer Chinese immigrants are chasing the chicha Sens and the dinai funs I mean I hope that some young people find incentive to step up but I also do think that they're going to be faced with a lot of the older systems and people who uh may not like what they stand for and stuff like that so I think it's going to be tough well they said Andrew that a lot of the Chinese Community is possibly just going to vote for the white moderate Democrats now basically the Chinese vote will go to whoever is the most moderate Democrat that's what the NBC article says interesting okay yeah um ultimately let's get into the comments section Andrew some people are saying you know you can do a lot of ish towards the Asian community community and have them pretty much stay complacent but once you start messing with the ability to send their kids to good schools based on Merit such as low high school that's when Asians get activated dude Asians are lowkey kind of simple man when it comes to voting in politics man they want the four things what are they academic for not in any order safety okay economic freedom to make as much money as they can uh academic Fair admissions that if their kid tests high that they get into the best scho don't punish my kid for being a nerd okay you're saying my kid is not cool so he cannot go to the school but school is not to be cool school is for studying and actually I would just say those are the by far the top three there might be two other ones but Homeland politics I would say but that doesn't even come into play on a domestic level sure but the top three security school money uh some people were saying hey man should we just uh vote Republican and this person really got downvoted on Reddit but this person was an Asian being like I'm ready to swing it the other way ah yeah probably you know just due to the rep you know the thing and then somebody said yeah maybe 20 years ago I would have voted for like a Mitt Romney type guy but nowadays they've gotten way too crazy and then other people are said the left got way too crazy too because obviously Andrew these parties are not represented by who they used to be res uh you know represented by 20 years ago yeah everybody's a little too crazy I think ultimately I will say this I think that Asians live their lives actually very conservatively in terms of the way the families play out the family's day-to-day lives they're very conservative you will not see Asian parents doing drugs with their kids I went to high school with some people who did drugs with their parents uh not just weed too for the more extreme cases uh that's not going to happen within the Asian Community right right right literally that is like the most UN Asian thing I could possibly think of so Asians live conservatively however they do not like racism because they have become the victim of racism too and that is the big thing about really voting for the right right that sense of like man they're going to perpetuate racism yeah so a lot of people are really torn because they're like you know my values I work hard for this career is getting taxes Maybe would like the lower taxes that the right is offering but then they're are racist against me yeah so then what happens Andrew is they end up apolitical and that is why asian-americans in general not just Chinese Americans yes it does vary a little bit Community to community but essentially all asian-americans are politically neutral in America so they don't even vote so what is your do you have a suggestion or do you think Asians need to get more political I don't even know because they wouldn't agree on what to Value because yes most Asians are apolitical but there's ones being like no no no the racism it matters more and then there's other ones going no no no the racism is bad but the money and the taxes and the distribution of the dollars matters more so how can you I don't know yeah I guess if everybody voted but it's not really going to matter because it won't be a unified block on the demographic chart yeah it'll just be super split based on you know individual ideologies because everybody has different priorities for themselves and some people even Brothers in a family might disagree right um I will say this as far as Chinese go though Andrew let's Circle back because SF is Chinese it's not just Asian yes it's it's predominantly Chinese it's particularly canese particularly toysan do you have any hope for them K get in the fervor of the old days or it's just it's a rap mlap they move into mil Pedas to eat Kanto food I think I Envision s Francisco kind of like one big I don't want to say it's one big Chinatown but like that's how it's kind of viewed and I always said that like chinat towns will shrink and expand and diffuse and some of them will shrink and go away some of them will get a little stronger but no matter what happens like the representation the Chinese people are even moving out to more places all around the Bay Area and that happens around all New York too so it's like in a way the Chinese migration doesn't stop you know there's like Chinese who have been in SF for gener multiple generations and generations and then there's Chinese who have been here only for two generations and there's Chinese who are coming on their first generation I just got here what happened I missed the I missed the golden times and but they they might all leave San Francisco for another city 30 minutes away but it it'll be more of the suburbs yeah and they might set up shot and gain political power in those neighborhood like still cheer for the Warriors still cheer for the 49ers Santa CLA Fremont how many more cities you want me to name copertino Z the uh uh daily daily City's very Asian you know a lot have a lot of Filipinos and it's like the leadership in all those cities is going to become more Asian okay so you're just saying this dispersion theory is just going to go I think it overall still Asian representation across the bay increases although in San Francisco itself might decrease so I don't know right you're saying that it's all good because this is the way history goes I don't know flows I'm not saying it's all good but you're just saying it is what it is right I'm just saying that it's uh like San Francisco was this mountain and it was this dense and then now it's just getting spread and spread guys anybody who's really worried about this you have to understand at a point in time people felt like they were living in these like ghettos or these enclaves that were hyper confined and no could they have maintained the power a little bit better you know should have could have would have is it a little bit too much too little too late it's all good because I do think Asians in America especially we play our cards right can have a better life overall but yeah as far as wanting to have political power in San Francisco I think it's a wrap all right let us know what you think guys uh please hit that like button check out other episodes of the hop hop boys and until next time we out peace