Doan on Anti-Asian redistricting efforts: "They want to dilute the Asian vote so they can aggrandize the power of their special interests."

"We won't be silenced," chanted a mostly Asian-American crowd outside last Tuesday's SJ Council meeting during which the Labor-backed "Unity" map was roundly dismissed as a discriminatory and bad faith redistricting effort. Candidate for D7 Council seat Bien Doan led the demonstration, and talked to Opp Now about his view of the follies of the Labor scheme.

Opp Now: At Tuesday's city council meeting, alot of progressives were saying that Latinx voices are suppressed in San Jose. Last I looked Latinx have half the city council--a much greater proportion than their population in the city. How can they make those claims?

Bien Doan: I just don't know how they can say that the Latinx community is being silenced when they have five city council members. And the Asian community--which is a larger group--has zero. Zero.

Progressive special interests are lying to their supporters and this city about what their redistricting plan is really about.

ON: There used to be Vietnamese councilmembers.

BD: The irony, of course, is that the special interests that support their map are the same ones that campaigned hard and expensively to defeat the two Vietnamese councilmembers we used to have. Their charges of discrimination and suppression don't stand up to reason.

The Asian community in this city comprises 400,000 people and there are no Asians on council. So who has the legitimate concern? I would think the Asian community does. But these Unity Map people are unmoved by these facts, they want to further dilute our vote so they can aggrandize the power of their special interests and their supporters.

ON: Why do you think they are trying to divide Asian and Latinx communities?

BD: It's a flawed and unethical strategy. While the Latinx community is better organized than the Vietnamese community, we have more commonalities than differences. As a firefighter and volunteer I go to Latinx and Vietnamese families all the time, and I see first-hand the tough conditions these families endure. Three families in 1100 square feet homes. It's hard for them and they need their voices heard as they are a huge part of this community and they contribute greatly to it. We should be working to bring these groups together, not to divide them. We should be able to respect and rejoice and embrace our cultural differences without trying to silence each other.

ON: What are some of the more obvious examples of how the Unity Map dilutes Asian votes?

BD: From a topline perspective, it's obvious that the plan tries to corral white and Asian votes into a limited number of districts, while increasing Latinx pluralities in even more districts. On a micro level, here's an example: In D7 they are taking 3000 Vietnamese people from the Dove Hill neighborhood and relocating them to D8, with the effect of diluting Vietnamese votes.

ON: What about the Community Map works for you?

BD: A good map, to my way of thinking, would keep the majorities of the Vietnamese communities as they are, while taking a balanced approach citywide. I want to see respect for existing communities, balanced representation, and a rejection of efforts to create partisan pluralities. The Community Map does that and the so-called Unity Map doesn't get close. The Community Map pretty much keeps our current set up, which is quite fair and sensitive to existing communities, in tact.

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