Opinion : Why must Chinese residents in San Francisco vote to recall the School Board?

There are less than ten days until San Francisco’s February 15th special election to recall the School Board. I want to tell all the Chinese residents in San Francisco the importance of this election.

Chinese Americans and non-citizen Chinese residents in the United States have historically not paid much attention to politics, because our Chinese culture does not encourage civic engagement. We are either too busy making money to support our families, or we think the games that politicians play do not affect us.

To be honest, I was like that too. But the pandemic has made me realize that the decisions made by local elected officials do affect our actual lives!

During 18 months of online classes, my son was completely unengaged in school and waste his time all day, every day, playing video games. But School Board Members Lopez, Collins and Moliga did not recognize or try to fix the problem, instead they focused on renaming schools.

Then they ignored protest from the Asian American community and cancelled the merit-based admission system at Lowell High School.

Adding fuel to the fire, school board member Alison Collins blatantly discriminated against Asians with her racist tweets. All of this made me extremely angry! These board members put politics above education, harming our children! We must recall them now.

There is a 30-second video about recalling the School Board : https://youtu.be/PeW_j5pjmm

But no matter what you personally think about these school board members, all Chinese American citizens and non-US citizen Chinese parents living in San Francisco should vote, because we have the right to vote!

Chinese residents in America, no matter how long you have lived here, should have seen and felt discrimination to some extent. Tolerance is a virtue in the Chinese culture. But continued tolerance of discrimination leads to our community’s needs being ignored.

We have to speak up in the democratic society and tell others, especially politicians, that our community has needs and demands. You don’t have to personally speak up; to vote is to speak up through your action.

San Francisco is one of the cities in the U.S. with the highest concentration of Chinese, about 26% of the population. If we all vote, then we can certainly influence the outcome of any election and its resulting policies.

The topic of this special election is education. This topic is extremely important to our Chinese community. Apart from gaining some personal freedom, most adults immigrate to America for our children.

The School Board decides everything related to our children’s education, which affects our children’s future competitiveness in school and in the workplace. How can we as parents not care?

The fact that non-citizen parents in San Francisco can also vote in the upcoming election which is a great opportunity for all Chinese residents in the city to use our voice to influence the election outcome.

We all have the right to vote. I hope everyone will cherish and exercise the right to vote for the future of our children! Please also mobilize your relatives and friends to vote.

How to vote?

1) Although voter registration deadline has passed, citizens and non-citizen parents who are eligible to vote can still register and vote at the same time at City Hall any day before February 15. Alternatively, you can register and vote at the same time at any polling place on the Election Day, February 15.

2) Voters who have received their mail-in ballots can mail or drop them into official ballot boxes around the city by February 15, or take them to any polling place on Election Day.

3) WeChat contact: california962. Wechat volunteers would answer your questions and check your voter status in Chinese.

4) Chinese hotline: 1-415-662-3325. Volunteers answer questions and check voter status.

5.

Please vote Yes corresponding to propositions A, B, and C to recall.

I sincerely hope that every Chinese in San Francisco will actively participate in this election and speak out for the Chinese/Asian community!

＊ Ann Hsu is the Founder of the Chinese/API Voter Outreach Taskforce, a new group formed on December 14, 2021, to register more voters for the February 15 election.