Representing an Asian American community in local politics

Alderwoman Nicole Lee was appointed as alderwoman of the 11th ward in March of 2022 by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. With her appointment, Lee became the first Asian American woman and first Chinese American to serve on the Chicago City Council. Headlines and articles about Lee’s appointment, and later election, all highlight her Asian American identity and the historic nature of her position. Lee herself proudly claims her identity as well. In her speech after the appointment, she repeated two times: “I will be the first ever woman and Chinese American to serve as the 11th ward alderwoman” (Hsu, 2022). At the same time, Lee makes it clear that she serves all members of the 11th ward, with moderate policies to appeal to as many constituents as possible. Lee’s moderate views can be seen in particular through her stance on “public safety.” Lee has both supported increased funding for the Chicago police and addressing root causes of crime. Lee’s mainstream views got her appointed and elected, with the support of many powerful Chicago political actors. As an Asian American, she is proud to be a Chinese American alderwoman, but this type of shallow representation is the main way her identity affects her politics. Lee focuses on being a local politician with a clear goal of serving the needs of her community.

Chicago’s 11th ward

Alderwoman Lee represents the first ever Asian American majority ward in the city. This majority was only accomplished in 2022, after Lee’s appointment, as the result of activism during the redistricting process. The redrawn 11th ward’s voting age population is over 50% Asian, 27% white, 18% Latine, and 3% Black (Yoon & Qin, 2023). Lee was born and raised in Chinatown, still living today in the same building that her grandparents bought many years ago (Hsu, 2022). Growing up in a majority Chinese community, Lee did not experience strong anti-Asian sentiments until later in her life. It’s possible that this lack of experience with racism leaves Lee with a weaker sense of linked fate with regards to other marginalized racial groups. In interviews and speeches, Lee emphasizes the specific place and locality of the 11th ward. For Lee, the specificity of this ward, of Chinatown and Bridgeport, is a significant part of what it means for her to be a representative politician (Class discussion, 10/11/23). She uses her upbringing in the neighborhood as a way of proving her ability to represent the community. At the same time, as one of only two Asian American alderpeople, Lee not only has to represent her ward, but the larger Asian American population. Just like congressman Dalip Singh Saund was used as an image of American democracy being the first Asian American in congress, Alderwoman Lee has the potential burden of representing Asian Americans outside of her ward as well (Sohi, 2022). Lee herself noted in a speech that she understands her position as the “face for Asian American residents in the City of Chicago” (Hsu, 2022). For Lee, local means both the 11th ward and the larger city of Chicago, a duality that white politicians may not hold. Although she sees herself as the Asian American “face” of city council, her politics aim to serve the immediate needs of her ward, and she is not very involved with any citywide Asian American political organizations.

Lee and group consciousness

Video: Lee discusses her upbringing and school experiences during appointment speech

Alderwoman Lee describes her K-12 school experiences as being critical to the development of her group consciousness. Group consciousness can be defined as one’s understanding of their ethnic or racial identity and how this identity impacts their position in society (Lin, 1406, 2020). When Lee moved from her all Catholic, all Chinese school in 3rd grade, she first had her eyes opened to the whole city of Chicago outside of her own ward. She met people from different neighborhoods and had her first leadership experiences. She credits her time at Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy for critically expanding her world view (Hsu, 2022). Then, at Whitney Young High School, she had the experience of often being the only Asian American student in the room (Hsu, 2022). For many Asian Americans growing up in areas with a lot of other Asian Americans, their group consciousness grows stronger when they join communities with a lesser population of other Asian Americans (Class discussion, 9/27/23). As a college student, Lee was involved with the Midwest Asian American Students Union and Kappa Gamma Delta Asian Interest Sorority (Lee, 2022). Asian American youth organizing groups have been found to be beneficial in the development of group consciousness for Asian Americans (Lin, 2020). Although Lee seems to have participated in these groups later in college, we can speculate that they might have furthered her group and political consciousness, especially after being one of few Asian Americans in high school. Prior to becoming alderwoman, Lee worked in corporate giving at United. In corporate spaces, diversity and equity (DEI) efforts are often defined by demographics and what employee make-up looks like. As an Asian American, it’s possible that Lee was in a majority-white environment and her being in a high-up position was “DEI” in itself.

Appointed, then elected

When former Mayor Lightfoot was tasked with appointing the 11th ward alderwoman, there was a lot of pressure to choose an Asian American candidate and Lightfoot even promised she would do so before she picked Lee (Nitkin and Hegarty, 2022). It’s key to note that Lee was initially appointed, not elected. Lightfoot chose Lee because her views aligned with hers, but also because of her identity as an Asian American woman. When looking at Lee’s policies later, Lightfoot is one of the people that she “owes” for giving her this position. The rhetoric around the importance of an Asian American 11th ward alderperson follows the concept of descriptive politics, the idea that a representative has similar characteristics or identities to the community they are serving (Class discussion, 10/11/23). Representation in this way is important; Lee herself said that she never imagined that “someone that looked like [her]” would be holding the position of alderwoman (Hsu, 2022). Lee being in this position and getting the publicity that comes with it gives her the unique opportunity to serve as a role model and inspiration for future generations. However, Lee seems to be navigating the balance between prioritizing “Asian American issues” and “represent[ing] the interests of every single person of the 11th ward” (Lee, 2022) (Laurence, 2022). On one hand, Lee understands that her identity as an Asian American is monumental and seems to buy into the idea of descriptive politics in this way, even perpetuating the idea of “Asian American issues” being a distinct category.

Video: Lee reflects on the historic nature of her victory after winning her election

At the same time, the key priorities she ran on to get elected in 2023 were not outrightly “Asian American;” they were issues that affect a ward with a majority Asian American population. Are those 11th ward issues or Asian American issues? Lee’s quote about representing everyone in the ward was prompted by an interviewer questioning if she would only represent Asian Americans– it’s hard to imagine a white politician getting asked this same question. Lee even played into a stereotype, noting that she would represent everyone “regardless of whether or not they eat rice at night for dinner.” (Laurence, 2022). This balance for Lee of representing her identity as a Chinese American (her chosen identifier more often than Asian American) and not alienating non-Asian American constituents is a problem unique to non-white politicians. As seen with other Asian American politicians in Illinois, the burden of representation falls on few shoulders, yet many of these politicians steer away from pigeon-holing their politics to simply “Asian American issues” (Yin, 2022).

A connected family

Alderwoman Lee’s father adds another interesting dimension to her political story. The 11th ward used to be run by the Daley family and her father was a high level aide to former Mayor Richard Daley and was convicted in 2014 of embezzlement. When Lee ran for election in 2023, Mayor Daley and his brother Cook County Commissioner John Daley endorsed her (Byrne, Quig, and Macaraeg, 2023). It’s interesting to note that in order for the first Asian American alderwoman to be appointed and elected, she had to have the support of the Chicago political machine. The Daley family, although no longer entirely in power, still holds huge influence over Chicago democratic politics. These are more people that Lee is loyal to in terms of keeping her policies in line with their political views. When examining Lee’s policies and priorities from her 2023 campaign, her stances are fairly moderate, especially in regards to police. This raises the question of how moderate or mainstream Asian Americans have to try to be, or just be, in order to be elected to office.

Issue at a glance: public safety

Safety and policing is a top issue in Chicago; looking at public safety helps to illuminate Lee’s perspectives and positionality. Crime in Chicago has increased by 20% over the last five years (Chicago Police Department, 2023). Many Chicagoans don’t feel safe in their city, and many don’t hold positive associations with the police either. When Chicagoans were preparing to vote in the 2023 municipal elections, 44% said crime and public safety was the most important issue to them (Woelfel & Sfondeles, 2023). During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people, such as Donald Trump, tied Covid-19 to Chinese people and anti-Asian hate and violence increased nationwide. In the spring of 2021, 6 Asian American women were shot and skilled in the Atlanta spa shootings. The rise of anti-Asian hate left 11th ward community members living in Asian-majority neighborhoods feeling significantly more unsafe than previous years (Chow & Da Cruz, 2022). In 2022, the 11th ward contained the police beat with the most violent robberies of the whole city in 2022 (Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, 2023). The Chicago American Service League reported that more anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2022 than in the previous ten years (Cesinger, 2023). In the fall of 2022, Chinatown residents expressed their fear towards the increased crime and advocated for increased police presence in the area (Sutter, 2022). Meanwhile, in 2020 and the years since, police violence against Black people was gaining more media attention and people across the country, Chicago included, were calling for the defunding of the police. While Black people are more likely to have negative experiences with the police, Asian Americans often don’t share this, leading them to support increased policing. These sentiments perhaps show a lack of solidarity with their Black counterparts, who may not feel safer with more police.

Lee’s stances

When Alderwoman Lee ran for election in 2023, she knew this was an issue at the top of mind for her constituents. Her top listed priority area on her website was “Keeping our community safe” (Lee, 2023). Lee’s general theory for public safety is ensuring that police have enough resources to do their job while also investing in solutions for root issues of crime. She doesn’t believe that police are the singular solution, but also doesn’t advocate for defunding the police, something progressives in Chicago have called for in recent years.

During her 2023 campaign, Lee emphasized that she had attended every Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) meeting in the 9th police district during her first term (Lee, 2023). CAPS is a strategy that aims to build stronger relationships between police and community to solve neighborhood crime problems (Office of Community Policing – What Is CAPS?, n.d.). CAPS was notably a reform created by former mayor Richard M. Daley who endorsed Nicole Lee during her campaign (Green & Holli, 2023). When discussing safety, Lee emphasizes the importance of community involvement. In an interview with Latino News Network, Lee talked about the importance of community engagement to help public safety and policing efforts (Balta, 2023). Lee said that due to the scarcity of police resources, all community members need to call the police when an issue arises in order for the police to respond appropriately and efficiently. Lee noted that this can be a particularly difficult problem for Asian American communities who may fear the repercussions of calling the police and the interviewer noted that immigrant communities sometimes fear that the police are working with other government agencies that could threaten their status in the country (Balta, 2023). Lee also said that there can sometimes be a language barrier for Chinese citizens, but that if they just ask for the language they speak, the police are able to accommodate. It is worth nothing that this is really the only time Lee brings her Chinese American identity into the conversation, and it only came after a question from the interviewer. Interestingly absent from this discussion were reasons why the fears of community members to call the police may be legitimate and how Lee hopes to address these fears. Lee didn’t discuss at all the negative experiences that Black and Brown community members are more likely to have with police officers as reasons why community cooperation may be hard.

In conversation with others

Video: 2023 11th ward public candidate forum by the Coalition For a Better Chinese American Community

While running for election in 2023, Lee was part of an 11th ward public forum with other aldermanic candidates put on by the Coalition For a Better Chinese American Community. This forum presents a useful context to analyze Lee’s views on public safety and policing, especially in comparison to the other five candidates who ranged from a former police trainer and firefighter to teachers and a CTU member. One of the questions posed to the candidates was “What is your perception of crime and safety in the ward and what is your plan to address these issues?” (Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, 2023). Alderwoman Lee responded that the issue of crime in the police district was a “forest fire” that cannot be put out by police alone. Lee called for a “comprehensive approach” that engages citizens to be active, addresses root causes of crime, resources the police, and expands the mental health response system (Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, 2023). Lee emphasizes the point that no one department or group could fix this issue alone. Her answer included many of the points brought up by other candidates. Many other candidates emphasized the importance of strengthening community-police relations and working together to lighten the burden on police officers. One of the more progressive candidates focused on investing in mental health programs, while some of the more pro-police candidates focused on aggressive policing and removing restrictions on police so they can be empowered to do their job. Lee’s answer seemed to encompass both of these ideologies, appealing to many constituents. During her first term, Lee, in her own words, “fought for more police funding and voted to increase the CPD budget” (Lee, 2023). As a point of comparison, progressive alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth in the 48th ward ran on a platform of increased community control over police accountability, the Peace Book ordinance, and Treatment Not Trauma (Manaa-Hoppenworth, n.d.). While Lee does not mention Peace Book or Treatment Not Trauma, she still supports addressing root causes of crime along with increasing police funding. In doing so, she stays safely in the center of the public safety debate, a tactic that led to her eventual election. As another example, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, a prominent Asian American political organization, has publicly denounced increasing policing in the city and stood in solidarity with Black community multiple times (Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, 2021). Lee has never tied herself to AAAJC or other Asian American political organizations in the city.

Making sense of “mainstream”

In representing a majority Asian American ward, Lee’s constituents respond positively to the idea of more police and she doesn’t have to discuss the racism police often have towards Black people. If Lee’s job is to be a local politician for the 11th ward, supporting the police is representative of the wants of the ward. However, should Lee’s politics be only based on her ward or be more cognisant of the larger Chicago, where racist police encounters exist? In local politics, alderpeople have a small group of constituents to represent, but that is only in the context of a larger city and larger issues (“Class Discussion,” 2023). Lee discussed the model minority myth in an interview, criticizing its use as a wedge between minority groups and falsifying the idea of Asian Americans as a monolith (Balta, 2023). However, in Lee’s discussions of public safety online, she fails to discuss the particularity of which ethnic groups lack appropriate safety resources and doesn’t extend solidarity to racial groups who may be negatively impacted by police. As one of few politicians representing Asian Americans in Chicago, the burden of representative politics may lead Lee to focus on the needs of the Asian American community rather than other ethnic/racial groups. Yet, Lee doesn’t center the specificity of public safety for Asian Americans on her campaign website, only responding to the question when asked; perhaps this is a way to prevent pigeon-holing by outsiders (Yin, 2022). If Alderwoman Lee were to discuss anti-Blackness, would her constituents read this as an undermining of the severity of anti-Asian hate (“Class Discussion,” 2023)? Lee chooses to frame safety as something that affects everyone equally, an issue that everyone has some stake in. There is even intentional framing in referring to the issue as “safety” instead of something like “policing.” As discussed previously, Lee has endorsements from the likes of Paul Vallas and Richard M. Daley who are generally supportive of the police in Chicago. The power dynamics of Chicago politics leaves Lee beholden to these people. In keeping her views definitely to the left, but moderate, she maintains the support of these individuals and perhaps gains popularity among her Asian American constituents who want more policing. Her “mainstream” views got her to this position and with Lee already being “different” via her Chinese American identity, staying “mainstream” works for her.

So, how does Lee see her role as a representative, local politician?

Alderwoman Nicole Lee’s upbringing in a majority Chinese community and experiences in schools throughout Chicago seem most critical to her group and political consciousness. However, she rarely discusses feeling as though her race or ethnicity put her at a disadvantage or made her the target of oppression. In this way, it’s possible that Lee is less inclined to show outward solidarity to other racial groups without having a sense of the “linked fate” of oppression to tie her to these other groups. We cannot assume that oppression between different marginalized groups manifests in similar ways (Rogers and Kim, 2023). Lee doesn’t outwardly connect her group consciousness with her political consciousness; she recognizes the importance of Asian American representation but doesn’t talk about this community specifically when discussing safety. Lee doesn’t focus or discuss much oppression due to her Chinese American identity and her largely race-blind politics reflects this, not giving much attention to the negative effects of police presence. To Lee, her being an alderwoman as a Chinese American woman and lifelong Chinatown resident is representation enough. In some ways, Lee is falling to “elite capture,” the idea that political elites co-opt identity politics for their benefit instead of as a way to form solidarity (Desai, 2022). Lee benefits from her Chinese American identity, but does not advocate much specifically for marginalized racial and ethnic groups in Chicago.

As a local politician, Alderwoman Lee is focused on the direct needs and pragmatic solutions for her community. She aims to be a public servant to members of the 11th ward and doesn’t view her role in politics as being about advocating for bigger changes. Lee doesn’t seem to want to rock the boat regarding safety and policing, but it’s hard to say how much of this is because of her Asian American identity already setting her apart. This isn’t all Lee’s doing; she is part of a political world in which mainstream views are called “mainstream” for a reason. The views that Lee holds are the ones that make it and allow her to gain this position. Thus, Lee keeps her identity separate from her moderate views. With regards to her identity, Lee sees herself as providing descriptive representation for the 11th ward and this is enough to her. 11th ward Asian Americans celebrated Lee’s appointment and election because it is “one of their own” being in the position (Lemi et al., 2022). Alderwoman Nicole Lee is deeply proud to be Chicago’s first Chinese American alderwoman, but to her, “identity politics” means descriptive representation, not inter-ethnic solidarity. At the end of the day, Lee goes to work as a local politician primarily focused on serving her 11th ward.

 

 

References

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