President & First Lady Obama brought out all the asians he could find for the official State dinner with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Vera Wang, B.D. Wong, Jackie Chan, Michelle Kwan and other celebrities are showcased in this Huffington Post article wearing only the finest—I love how Vera Wang is wearing…well Vera Wang. Looking closer the fact that only two politicians, mayor of San Francisco, Edwin Lee & of Oakland, Jean Quan are showcased shows something larger in the American political arena today. The general lack of people of color in high political positions of power.

Looking at the senate exclusively, out of 50 seats there are:

2 Latino/Hispanic American Senators: Bob Menendez (D) of New Jersey and Marco Rubio (R) of Florida

2 Asian American Senators: Daniel Inouye (D) and Daniel Akaka (D) both of Hawaii

0 African American Senators: The last being Roland Burris (D) of Illinois was appointed under Rod Blegojevich after Barack Obama decided to run for President.

While there is more representation of our country’s ethnic and racial minorities in the House, and in Governors seats (Governors Nikki Haley & Bobby Jindal), the numbers are still low. The 112th congress contains 39 African-American members—a number, representing about 9 percent of the Congress, no where near the population of African Americans in the country. There are some nationally renowned politicians of color such as Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress.

 I’m not sure how the numbers are in other countries but in our country at least where there are issues that directly affect these groups, we are really in need of more leaders who hold higher positions of power. “Political power is critical to the advancement of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans in society.  It provides the avenue to establish and enforce laws that affect all Americans.  Just look at our laws surrounding civil rights, immigration.”

In researching information on this topic, I came across a great blog: Ethnic Majority, seeks to empower African, Hispanic and Asian Americans to improve their quality of life through recognizing, discussing and becoming active in areas such as business, politics, media and education. Check it out here: http://www.ethnicmajority.com/index.html