Dear County leaders:

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) County of Los Angeles (County) employees have become a very sizable minority group in the County workforce; however, they rank low in the ratio of executive managers to AAPI County employees. According to data from the County of Los Angeles Workforce Demographics, AAPIs constitute almost 20% of the County workforce, but only 8% of the executive managers.

There is a perception that AAPIs are highly educated and do not lack the opportunities to become managers or executives, especially in areas such as health, nursing, accounting, law, and information technology. But the numbers demonstrate otherwise. Although AAPIs are highly regarded, they are often thought to be docile or lack leadership qualities and assertiveness. For example, Asian Americans are often portrayed as a model minority — well educated, hard-working, dedicated, and successful. For this reason, they are regularly left out of discussions about discrimination in the workplace and overlooked for opportunities that would give them experience to qualify for an executive or manager position. In fact, Asians are often excluded in diversity and inclusion plans entirely.

The model minority myth has even made Asian Americans invisible during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are rarely mentioned by the media in economic impact reports, even though they have faced the sharpest increase in long-term unemployment. This is not surprising, since there is little understanding that 10% of Asian Americans live in poverty and that there is a huge disparity of education and income levels among AAPIs.