The Meaning of Headlines: 'sleeping giant' - politics

The Washington Post, in its Politics Section, published a video on 2 June 2016 with the headline: Are Asian Americans ‘the sleeping giants’ in this year’s presidential election? What are ‘sleeping giants’?

The Collins Dictionary defines ‘sleeping giant’ as ‘an organization that has unrealized potential.’ Reverso defines the term as someone or something that is powerful but has not yet shown the full extent of their power. What does this mean in the context of politics?

The  text beneath the Washington Post video states that ‘For nearly two decades, Asian Americans have been the fastest growing minority in the United States. Their political participation has historically been low, but some like the Vietnamese American community in Orange County, Calif., are actively working to change that.’ The video (two minutes and thirty seconds long) includes two people from Orange County in California. 

The video commences with Tam Nguyen, the President of the Advance Beauty College in Orange County. He says ‘we’ve been described as the sleeping giant’ and adds that the Asian American community are ‘difference makers in the American election.’ The video also mentions the college’s active campaign of calling 15,000 community members to encourage them to vote.

The video explains that the number of registered Asian American voters across the nation has increased by an average of 600,000 voters per presidential cycle in the last 24 years. The community of Asian Americans in Orange County is the largest in the United States. It includes first generation refugees who came to America in the 1970s and 1980s. The Executive Director of the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance, Mary Anne Foo, says that the second generation of Asian Americans in the County are becoming more involved in politics, and are changing the shape of the community - in leadership positions and running businesses.

The Scorecard for The Washington Post headline is 100%. The headline term ‘sleeping giants’ is mentioned in the first three seconds of the video. The video backs up the definition of an organization (or in this case, a community or county) that can make a powerful difference in the American election – if they vote. Unlike the Australian election system, voting is not compulsory in America, and therefore the power of the Asian American community in Orange County and across the United States is ‘unrealized' and has 'not yet shown the full extent' of their voting power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/are-asian-americans-the-sleeping-giants-in-this-years-presidential-election/2016/06/02/2337a24e-28d1-11e6-8329-6104954928d2_video.html

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).