Conflicted – Me and my ballot

One of the things that I seem to be perpetually conflicted about around any election time is the support of Asian American candidates. It’s not that I don’t want to support Asians establishing themselves in public positions – it’s the feeling that I feel pressured to support to vote for someone primarily on the fact that they happen to be of Asian descent.

I would much rather support someone who happens to be Asian whose views and positions I am aligned with. Supporting someone primarily because their Asian, and then trying to find something in their profile or in their positions to latch on to just seems disingenuous to me. Perhaps I may be simplifying it or maybe I just don’t get it.

As I was looking over the candidates for the local races I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I hadn’t taken notice of which folks may have been Asian or not. The fact that some were became a footnote in my mind as my vote was more of a personal judgment of how I felt that person would ultimately benefit the community as a whole, and not just the folks that kinda might maybe look like me.