On Tuesday, the California Senate unanimously passed a bill that would require state agencies to collect more data on Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups, after it was revised to drop provisions that were opposed by some AAPI organizations.
The bill will be sent back to the State Assembly.
AB 1726, or the Accounting for Health and Education in API Demographics (AHEAD) Act, would expand on the terms “Asian American” and “Pacific Islanders” to include Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Malaysian, Taiwanese, Thai, Tongan and others.
Many in the AAPI community have welcomed this data collection, and have taken to social media to show their support under the #AllCACounts.
Still, some in the AAPI community are not convinced. Because of concerns that the bill would facilitate discrimination against certain Asian groups in education, the bill was amended to not require state universities to collect the same data. Instead, the bill was changed to focus on the health needs of AAPIs.
According to data research, Chinese and Vietnamese communities report the highest rate of liver cancer among Asian American communities, and Filipinos have the highest rate of tuberculosis among Asian American subgroups.
“This bill will address the health disparities of ethnic subgroups in the API community,” said Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento in his address to the Senate. “Let’s take this very important first step – it is important to identify these health disparities.”
