oy来稿:亚裔为什么应该投票给哈里斯和沃尔兹

Andy Toy是费城亚裔社区领袖之一,现任费城社区发展协会政策主任,同时担任多个机构的董事会成员,包括费城学区董事会提名小组、费城工会慈善会等。

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Harris

Andy Toy来稿:亚裔为什么应该投票给哈里斯和沃尔兹

Andy Toy:Why Asian Americans should be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in November

作者:Andy Toy

By Andy Toy

作者简介:Andy Toy是费城亚裔社区领袖之一,现任费城社区发展协会政策主任,同时担任多个机构的董事会成员,包括费城学区董事会提名小组、费城工会慈善会等。

As one of the Philadelphia AAPI leaders, Andy Toy now serves as Policy Director of Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC). He also serves on the boards of several organizations, including the School District of Philadelphia’s Nominating Panel and the Philadelphia Union Benevolent Association, etc.

Harris

8月6日,哈里斯和沃尔兹在费城天普大学的Liacouras中心
图片来源:Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the Liacouras Center at Temple University on August 6 in Philadelphia
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

当朋友问我在今年11月的美国总统大选中会给谁投票时,我会毫不犹豫地回答:卡玛拉·哈里斯。作为美国移民的第三代,我的祖父母从中国广东省台山市移民到这里,哈里斯像我们许多人一样有近代移民的背景,而且她还有一半亚裔血统。虽然她的个人奋斗史和有色人种的身份加深了与我们亚裔社群的关联,但真正让我选择给她投票的原因是:她和特朗普两人在政策和对待亚裔社区的方式上形成的鲜明对比。

When a friend asks me who they should vote for President this November I say without a doubt, Kamala Harris. This is not because she is half Asian American and has recent immigrant roots as many of us do. I am a third generation American whose grandparents were fortunate to immigrate here from Taishan in Guangdong Province, China. While her personal struggles and understanding of what it’s like to be an Asian American person of color in America give her an important perspective that connects us, it is the sharp contrast in policies and approach to communities like ours that makes her really the only choice in this binary election.

我们可能要先从亚裔美国人被视为“外来者”的历史开始说起,尤其是华人,受到了更为不公正的待遇。美国曾经有一部法律叫《排华法案》,这个法案规定中国人只能来美建造横贯大陆的铁路,而不许他们在这里组建家庭和社区,因为中国人永远只能被视为外国人,而不像其他族裔那样成为美国人。旧金山的天使岛上曾滞留了大量想要谋求更好生活的中国人,而与此同时东海岸的埃利斯岛则在热情地接纳欧洲人,两者形成了鲜明的对比。这样一部饱含歧视的法案竟然实施了61年之久,直到二战时美国需要中国成为抗日盟友时,《排华法案》才被废除。

Let’s start with how Chinese and Asian Americans have been seen as “others” in America since we arrived. For those unfamiliar with our history in America, there was the Chinese Exclusion Act that was intended to just allow Chinese to work building the transcontinental railroad, but not raise families and communities here because Chinese were seen as perpetual foreigners and not like other Americans. Angel Island in San Francisco stands as a testament to the detainment of Chinese trying to come here for a better life, while Ellis Island was the East Coast example of an “open border” that welcomed Europeans with open arms. The Exclusion Act lasted for 61 years, only to be repealed when the US needed China as an ally in WWII against Japan.

令人悲哀的是针对亚裔的双标操作仍未停止,美国随后设立了拘留营,监禁了大量日本人和日本裔美国人,而对德国裔纳粹党却几乎无所作为。我的父亲曾和许多华裔和亚裔美国人一道,勇敢地为我们的国家服役,他还在诺曼底登陆战役中,参加了D-Day后的初次进攻。2021年11月,父亲在光荣退役75年后终于获得了一枚奖章,我们都为他感到自豪。

Sadly, the US then set up Internment or Concentration Camps imprisoning the Japanese and Japanese American population of the United States, but did little about the German American Nazi Party. My father, along with many other brave Chinese and Asian Americans, served our country bravely, landing at Normandy just after the initial invasion on D-Day. We were proud that he finally received a medal for his service in November of 2021, 75 years after his honorable discharge from the Army.

我是在美国长大的第三代华裔,经常有人问我来自哪里,因为我的长相看起来并不像土生土长的美国人。正因为如此,当听到特朗普谈论“移民”恶性犯罪话题时,我感到十分不安。他将目前涌入美国的拉丁裔、华裔和其他人都视为“外来者”,拉丁裔大多信奉基督教,特朗普也仍然不喜欢他们。同样是难民,他却没有抱怨乌克兰难民,反而贬低海地难民。可以看出在特朗普的引导下,美国社会充斥着白人至上主义。

Even growing up as a third generation American I still have people ask me where I’m from because people that look like me aren’t supposed to be from here. It is with this in mind that I cringe when I hear Donald Trump talking about “migrant” murderers and rapists as he “others” the current influx of Latinos, Chinese and others coming across the Southern border.  Even though the Latinos are largely Christian he still dislikes them. We cannot help but see that race and the idea of White supremacy is a big part of the reason (he hasn’t complained about Ukrainian refugees while he denigrates Haitian refugees).  

不仅如此,特朗普还编造出移民大多数是罪犯的谎言。事实上,大多数移民来这里只是为了给家人争取更好的生活,他们知道被驱逐出境是一种威胁。这些虚假言论不仅令人痛心,而且十分危险。2019年埃尔帕索发生了一起骇人听闻的大规模枪击事件,造成23名拉丁裔被枪杀。这起事件就被认为与白人至上主义和长期散播的移民恐慌有关。可以说,正是特朗普煽动民众对移民的恐惧和愤怒导致了这些行为,同样的原因也引发了2021年1月6日国会山骚乱。

And creating the false narrative that they are largely criminals is the exact opposite of what most immigrants know. The fact is that immigrants know that deportation is a threat and most are here to just try to make a better life for their families. These false statements are not just hurtful, they are dangerous. The 2019 mass shooting of 23 Latinos in El Paso is directly linked to White Supremacy and fear of others coming here to replace the white majority. The fear and anger that Trump stokes ties directly to these kinds of acts, just as they did to the Insurrection on January 6th.  

Trump

2024年7月16日,特朗普在密尔沃基举行的共和党全国代表大会上与竞选搭档JD万斯一起亮相
图片来源:AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File
Former President Trump is introduced alongside Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) during the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. 
AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File
对于特朗普来说,歧视移民并不是什么新鲜事。在他竞选总统之前,他曾质疑奥巴马的公民身份,声称有证据证明奥巴马出生在海外。当然这是编造的,他从未承认过自己撒谎,就像他从未承认自己输了2020年大选一样,事实上在2016年大选中他在普选票(Popular Vote)上也输了,总票数比希拉里少了将近290万票。

This is nothing new for Trump. Before he ran for President he questioned Obama’s citizenship claiming that he, Trump, had proof that Obama was born overseas. Of course that was false and he never acknowledged his big lie, just as he’s never acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election, and in fact lost the popular vote in the 2016 election as well by almost 2.9 Million votes.

现在特朗普又在质疑哈里斯的种族身份,他似乎无法理解一个人可以有多重身份,因为他的家族里没有有色人种。不仅如此他还曾在公开场合故意把哈里斯名字的发音读错,因为对他来说这是个“外国”名字。和我们一样,奥巴马和哈里斯同样被歧视。我们知道一个人的言论很重要,尤其当这个话语来自一个国家的领导人时。但在新冠疫情爆发时,特朗普却口出狂言,把新冠病毒称为“中国病毒”或“功夫流感”,将责任推到中国人身上。这些歧视言论波及到了我们所有人,那段时间华裔和亚裔在全美范围内屡屡遭到攻击,在我们费城也不例外。

Now he is now questioning Kamala Harris’ racial identity – he cannot seem to grasp that you can be more than one thing, since he doesn’t have any people of color in his family. And he purposely mispronounces her name because it’s “foreign” to him. Obama or Kamala could be one of us.  And when Covid hit he thought it was funny to call it the China Virus or Kung Flu, blaming it on the Chinese. We were all impacted by these statements as Chinese and Asians were attacked all around the country, including here in Philadelphia. We know words matter especially when they come from the highest sources.

另一巨大的顾虑是,特朗普曾谈到要取缔联邦政府的关键部门(2025计划),其中就包括改善美国环境的环保署和让美国更加强大、促进教育公平的教育部。另外我喜欢沃尔兹州长和他的妻子,因为他们像我妈妈一样都是受人喜爱的教师,而且沃尔兹州长曾在中国任教一年。那些不熟悉希特勒上台过程的人可能不知道,德国在他掌权时也是一个像美国这样的民主国家。如今我们又看到了一个像他一样觊觎更多权力的人,以同样的方式排斥他人、四处树敌,通过制造恐慌和暴力来赢得支持。我们不能被这一套所蒙蔽,尤其是我们这些可能再次被“边缘化”的人。

The other great concern we should all have about Trump is his talk about dismantling key parts of the Federal government (Project 2025). This includes the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education that help promote a cleaner environment and support strong and equitable education access in the US. I love that Governor Walz and his wife are beloved school teachers like my Mom. In fact, Governor Walz taught a year in China. For those who aren’t familiar with Hitler’s rise to power, Germany, was a democracy like ours. We are seeing someone who wants ever more power in the same way and is “othering” people as the enemy and creating fear and violence as a way to build support. We cannot fall for this, especially those of us who are likely to be “othered” again.

与此同时,历史数据显示,当民主党执政时经济表现的更好。我们的股市最近创下了历史新高,有趣的是,特朗普却想将此归功于自己,但每次股市下跌时他都归咎于拜登。目前全美的失业率也非常低,企业难招工的现状也印证了我们需要更多的合法移民。我们应当去完善移民系统,而不是责怪那些迫切想来到这里,为了更好生活而努力工作的人。

Meanwhile, interestingly, when Democrats are in office, history shows the economy does better. Our stock market has hit all-time highs recently (somehow Trump wants to take credit for that, but every time it goes down it’s Biden’s fault) and the unemployment rate is extremely low right now. The fact that it’s hard to find workers right now should tell us that we could use more documented immigrants and we need to fix the system and not blame those who desperately want to come here to work hard for a better life.  

美国人口老龄化在加剧,我们确实也需要新移民。他们往往更年轻,能为社会提供强大的劳动力支持。对了,不要忘记在拜登和哈里斯上任之前,特朗普离任时有多少人没有工作。如果高失业率将成为美国的头号问题,现在我们的情况恰恰是需要吸纳更多劳动者,况且移民往往从事美国本地工人不愿意干的工作。

As America ages, we really do need new immigrants, who tend to be younger, to have a strong workforce. Finally, let’s not forget how many people were not working when Trump left office before Biden and Harris took office. If unemployment was very high right now it would be the #1 issue in America, but we are in a good position and can use even more workers (immigrants often take jobs American born workers won’t take).

在民主党的治理下,美国的通货膨胀也有所缓解,目前达到了三年来的最低水平。我们还记得,新冠疫情导致了全球供应链出现严重问题。现在这些问题一直在缓解,影响通货膨胀的一个主要因素–石油价格也相对稳定,而且事实上可能还有下降趋势。如果你有一个固定利率的抵押贷款,随着通货膨胀和工资的增长,你的还款额保持不变,从而让你有更多可支配收入用于其他事情。

不久前,地球经历了有史以来最热的一天,一年比一年严重的飓风和风暴灾害也认为是人类活动影响气候的例证。而拜登-哈里斯团队积极推动可再生能源,创造新的就业岗位,通过减少对石油的需求来缓解通货膨胀,同时应对全球变暖,这都被特朗普屡次反对并称之为“骗局”,但这些正获得了所有关心我们子孙后代和地球未来的人的首肯。

Inflation has also calmed down recently (currently the lowest rate in 3 years), but we should keep in mind that due to the Pandemic there were serious supply chain issues worldwide that have been easing, and gas prices (a major factor behind inflation) are stable and may be falling in real dollars. In fact, our move to more renewable energy (something Trump often opposes) will continue to help ease inflation by decreasing the demand for oil, while addressing global warming (the world just recorded its hottest day in history and the larger hurricanes and storms are a sure sign of man-made climate change), which Trump calls a hoax! The Biden Harris team’s push for renewable energy (and the jobs created) also makes total sense to those concerned about the future of our planet for our grandchildren. Interestingly, if you have a fixed rate mortgage, with inflation, as we see wages increase, your mortgage payments stay the same, leaving you with more expendable income for other things.

在外交政策方面,特朗普表现的软弱无力,只要能得到自己想要的东西,他可以不关心美国与世界各国的关系,因此他被视为交易型领导人,只关心如何达成下一笔交易,而不做长远打算。比如,不积极帮助乌克兰抵抗普京,反而让国会延迟援助,不仅白白付出了更多生命的代价,也损害了美国在世界上的领导地位。

On foreign policy, Trump was weak and really didn’t care about relationships across the world as long as he got what he needed (he is seen as transactional – as in how to make the next deal, but not strategic for the long term). Not helping Ukraine fight off Putin (even pushing Congress to delay aid) not only cost real lives, it cost us some of our leadership positions in the broader world.

外交政策不应只注重经济利益,但经济利益似乎是特朗普唯一的关注点。拜登和哈里斯一直在努力巩固我们的联盟,而不是像他那样让美国退出各种国际组织。此外,数据显示,特朗普实施的增加关税政策主要是由美国国内的消费者来买单,最终美国人反而花了更多的钱,这就是所谓的通货膨胀。哈里斯不会假装自己比经济顾问或专家更聪明,而是会在做出抉择的时候听取他们的建议。

It should not always be about the bottom line dollar, but that seems to be his only focus. Biden and Harris have worked hard to shore up our alliances and not drop us out of treaties as Trump has. And data shows that tariffs he put into place to hurt other countries have been largely passed on to consumers here, so we end up paying more (that’s called inflation).  Harris won’t pretend she’s smarter than her economic advisors or her generals and will heed their advice when making hard decisions. 

最后,对我个人造成困扰的还有激进的枪支游说团体,因为他们,我们的国家缺乏常识性的枪支法律。几年前,我11岁的侄子被枪击致残,导致颈部以下瘫痪,原因就是他的朋友轻而易举地拿到了一把未上锁的枪,才发生了意外。如今,企业主和我们的社区依旧生活在恐惧中,因为年轻人仍可以轻易获得枪支,包括曾被明令禁止的突击步枪,其禁令在共和党执政后竟然被废除了。

Finally, a personal issue for me has been the lack of any common sense gun laws in our country because of the radical gun lobby. Some years ago my 11 year old nephew was shot and paralyzed from the neck down because his friend had easy access to an unlocked gun. Today, store owners and our communities live in fear of young people who should not have such easy access to guns, including assault rifles that were once banned until a Republican congress allowed the ban to expire. 

特朗普自称是全国步枪协会的代言人,这也就意味着不会有新的常识性枪支法律出台,比如背景调查、从家庭暴力施暴者和其他威胁者手中收回枪支、禁止大容量弹匣、强制配备枪支锁,以及让枪支制造商重新承担伤害责任,就像其他任何行业一样,为受害者负责。民主党副总统候选人沃尔兹是一个资深的枪支持有者,同时也是一个热衷打猎的神射手,他赞同这些措施,因此也许在他的帮助下这些新的法律有望出台,但如果我们回到特朗普时代,这一切都不会实现。

Trump says he’s the NRA’s man and we know that means no new common sense laws like background checks, red flag laws (gun removal from domestic abusers and others who threaten), banning high capacity magazines, mandatory gun locks, and re-allowing manufacturers to be liable for damages, just like any other industry, for the harm that is inflicted. Vice Presidential candidate Walz, an avid hunter, marksman and veteran gun owner agrees with these measures, so maybe there is a way to make progress, but not if we go back to Trump.

再次强调,哈里斯是令人骄傲的亚裔和非裔美国女性,但我支持她的真正理由是她那些常识性政策。这些政策致力于建立更强大的中产阶级,从而使我们的国家更强大。在重要问题上鲜明的道德感也是我支持哈里斯的原因——女性堕胎权、常识性的枪支法律、支持公立教育、支持小企业、不再给没有支付足够税款的富人减税、改善环境、帮助工薪阶层寻找更多致富的途径,以及制止仇恨和恐惧言论,而不是推崇它们。

Again, it’s great that Kamala Harris is an Asian American and African American woman, but the real reason to support her is her common sense policies. Policies that are focused on building a stronger middle class, which will make our country stronger. And the moral clarity on issues that matter to us – abortion rights for women, common sense gun laws, support for public education, support for small businesses, no tax breaks for the richest who already don’t pay their fair share, improving the environment, finding more ways to help working people thrive, and stopping hate and fear speech, not promoting it.

 

声明:《海华都市报》欢迎所有Harris/Walz以及Trump/Vance支持者的投稿,编辑团队将从中选择逻辑清晰、无攻击性、易于阅读的文章公开发表。

Statement: Metro Chinese Weekly welcomes submissions from both Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance supporters. Our editorial team will review and select articles that are logically sound, respectful, and reader-friendly for publication.

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