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.
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).
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