白宫新闻秘书办公室

2012年5月8日

总统在美国亚太裔国会研究会（Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies）第十八届年度庆典上的讲话

丽思卡尔顿酒店（Ritz Carlton）

华盛顿哥伦比亚特区

东部夏令时下午5:46

……总统：非常感谢。谢谢你，诺姆（Norm），谢谢你的美言介绍。更要感谢的是你对我们国家所作的毕生杰出贡献。我要感谢所有在场的国会议员，包括每天都在为这一群体而辛勤奋斗的两位议员——赵美心（Judy Chu）和迈克•本田（Mike Honda）。请为他们热烈鼓掌。

今晚，我来到这里非常激动，因为你们所有人都在我心中占有特殊位置。当我想起美国亚裔和太平洋岛屿族裔时，我就会想到我的家人——我的妹妹玛雅（Maya）、我的妹夫康拉德（Konrad）以及我的外甥女苏哈伊拉（Suhaila）和萨维塔（Savita）。我会想到所有在夏威夷和我一起长大的人，我的夏威夷大家庭（ohana）。我会想到我在印度尼西亚度过的岁月。所以，对我来说，来到这里有一种回家的感觉。是这个群体帮助我成为今天这样一个人。是这个群体帮助美国成为今天这样一个国家。

因此，你们的传统遍及全世界。但将每个人连接在一起的是，你们每个家庭都有着具有美国特色的不懈奋斗的历史。你们中间有些人——来自夏威夷或太平洋岛屿的人——居住在自家祖祖辈辈居住的地方，你们的故事在一定程度上体现着继承和发扬宝贵的本土传统。而对其他人来说，你们的故事起始于祖辈，他们在某个时候放弃了自己所熟悉的一切，追求新世界展现的希望。也许有的故事可以追溯到一个半世纪以前那些冒着生命危险修筑连接东西海岸铁路的劳工。也许有的故事起始于数十年前几十万个历尽千辛万苦踏上天使岛（Angel Island）的移民中的某个人。

也许这个故事始于你们的父辈，或者就从你自己开始。但有一点，不管从何时开始，从何处开始，你们的故事都是前人到这里寻求新机会的历史，他们不仅是为了自己，而且也是为了儿女，为了儿女的儿女，为了子孙后代。

他们几乎都是囊中羞涩地来到这里。很多人一无所有。但他们拥有一个不可动摇的信念，即在所有国家中，这里是一个任何人只要努力就能成功的地方。

他们当中的许多人处境艰难；他们当中的许多人受到嘲笑；他们当中的许多人面临种族主义。许多人受到二等公民待遇——被当作另类。但是他们没有放弃。他们不找借口，而是继续努力向前。他们不断地建设美国。他们继续为美国作战——就像在座的丹尼·井尚（Danny Inouye）。在我有生以来的大部分时间里，丹尼都是我的参议员。

他们是达利·辛格·桑德（Dalip Singh Saund）那样的开路人。1920年，年轻的达利从印度来到美国学习农业，留在这里成为一位农民，并从事为所有南亚后裔争取公民权的事业。达利自己取得公民身份后，起身为他热爱的国家服务——成为当选国会议员的第一位亚裔。

还有一批像我的前国会议员帕齐·明克（Patsy Mink）那样的先驱。她不仅是当选国会议员的第一位亚裔女性，也是《教育法修正案第九条》（Title IX）的起草者——这部法律为我国所有女生改变了竞技环境。

还有一位美国日裔男孩的故事。当他的家人被迫离开家园、被赶到数百英里外的拘留营时，他才10岁。他们在那里生活了三年，但那个男孩返回家园后，非但没有背弃美国，而是献身美国。用他自己的话说，他发誓“要为得不到充分代表的人发出声音，要投入未受他人关注的问题。” 诺曼·峰田（Norm Mineta），作为第一位在总统内阁任职的亚裔，兑现了自己的誓言。

所以想想看，所有先辈看到这个房间、看到这个群体取得了多么长足的进展，会有多么骄傲。现在，亚太裔是保持我国领先实力的投资者和创业者；是在我们最成功的一些行业掌舵的工商业者和女性；是在科学与医学、教育、体育、艺术、我们的武装部队、政府和法院等美国生活各方面的领袖。事实上，过去三年中，担任联邦法官的亚裔人数增加了一倍以上。

就在昨天，杰奎琳·阮杰（Jacqueline Nguyen）成为获得确认的第一位美国亚裔女性联邦上诉法院法官。我们为有她和我任命的另一位上诉法院法官陈卓光感到非常骄傲。我们感谢他们的服务。

不论你是继承南亚或东亚传统，不论来自我出生的夏威夷或太平洋诸岛，也不论你是第一代还是第五代移民，你都在帮助建设更美好的美国。

我明白，今晚在此展示的成功，很容易使人们只看到“模范少数族裔”的神话，而忽略这个群体依旧面临的挑战。我们必须记住，还有教育上的差距，比如某些群体的高辍学率，另一些群体的低大学升学率。还有经济上的差距，比如高贫困率和就业障碍。也有健康方面的差距，比如较高的糖尿病、癌症和乙型肝炎患病率。美国的新移民中，有许多面临语言障碍。其他人——像我们三十年前失去的陈果仁——则成为可怕的仇恨罪受害者，这种犯罪来自与美国所代表的价值观背道而驰的无知与偏见。

因此，这些都是切实存在的问题，我们不能熟视无睹。如果我们要更好的解决这些问题，首先必须停止把所有人归为一个笼统的群体。亚太裔包含了数十个不同的群体，我们必须尊重移民群体各自不同的体验。你们有着各种各样的关注。

华盛顿需要对此有更好的理解。为此，我重新建立了白宫亚太裔计划（Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders），以便更好地识别具体群体中的具体问题。该计划的许多专员就在现场。我感谢他们正在从事的卓越工作。

因此，我们正在给这方面及其他许多方面带来改变。当我们加强对美国小型企业的支持时，我们加强了对这个群体的支持——为亚太裔拥有的小型企业提供了70多亿美元贷款。当我们通过医疗改革方案时，我们建立了能够更好地提供数据，反映医疗健康差异的新机制。由于这项法律，近300万美国亚太裔人将能通过私人保险获得范围扩大了的预防性医保，近100万人通过联邦老年医保计划（Medicare）获得免费的预防性服务。

因此，一些关系到这个群体的问题与每一个群体相关，例如确保妇女获得同工同酬。例如结束 “不问不说”的做法，从而使任何为自己热爱的国家效劳的人都不必隐瞒个人生活中所爱的人。例如实施教育改革措施，使得每个孩子都有机会进入好学校读书和获得高等教育。例如关怀我们的退伍军人，因为我们有责任像他们为我们服务那样，为他们提供良好的服务。

这就是这个国家的本质。这就是我们一向的本质。由于最近非常十分严重的经济衰退，我们经历了一些艰难岁月，我们也还有一段很长的路要走。但我们会抵达。我们会抵达那个目的地——使出生在美国的每个孩子无论其种族、宗教信仰、肤色都会有机会。我们将齐心协力去做——因为在这个国家，我们彼此关心。我们为彼此而奋斗。如果有人遭受不公正或不平等待遇，我们会视他们的事业为己任挺身而出。这是美国的历史。这无疑是这个群体的历史。

在第二次世界大战期间，当一个日本移民家庭子弟——戈登‧平林（Gordon Hirabayashi）——无视宵禁并拒绝迁往拘留营时；当他因藐视罪遭到监禁时；当他后来为他的判罪进行上诉并把他的案件一直上诉到最高法院时，他知道他的斗争超越了自己个人的范畴。他曾经说过：“我从来不把我的案子视为只是日裔美国人的案子。它是一个美国人的案子，其原则影响到所有美国人的基本人权。”尽管戈登已经离开了我们，但今年晚些时候我还是要追授他总统自由勋章(Presidential Medal of Freedom)——这是美国颁发给平民的最高奖。因为戈登提醒我们，我们每个人能有今天，完全是因为某个地方某个人的责任感，这种责任感不仅仅是为他们自己，而是也为他们的家庭和他们的社区，也是为了这个我们大家都热爱的国家。

因此，今晚我们纪念古今往来的开路先锋。但同时我们也祝贺未来的领导人——今晚在这座的所有年轻人。现在轮到我们一起来承担未来的责任。轮到我们来确保下一代享有比我们更多的机会。轮到我们来确保无论你是谁、不管你来自何方、不管你外貌如何，美国永远是一个只要努力就会成功的地方。

谢谢大家。愿上帝保佑你们。愿上帝保佑美国。

东部夏令时下午6:00

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
May 8, 2012

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE 18TH ANNUAL GALA OF THE
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR CONGRESSIONAL STUDIES

Ritz Carlton
Washington, D.C.
5:46 P.M. EDT

… THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Thank you, Norm, for that kind introduction. More importantly, thank you for your lifetime of distinguished service to our country. I want to thank all the members of Congress who are with us -- including two people who are fighting hard every day on behalf of every member of this community -- Judy Chu and Mike Honda. Give them a big round of applause.

Now, I am thrilled to be here tonight because all of you hold a special place in my heart. When I think about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, I think about my family -- my sister, Maya; my brother-in-law, Konrad, my nieces Suhaila and Savita. I think about all the folks I grew up with in Honolulu, as part of the Hawaiian ohana. I think about the years I spent in Indonesia. So for me, coming here feels a little bit like home. This is a community that helped to make me who I am today. It’s a community that helped make America the country that it is today.

So your heritage spans the world. But what unites everyone is that in all of your families you have stories of perseverance that are uniquely American. Some of you -- those from Hawaii or the Pacific Islands -- live where your family has lived for generations and your story is, in part, about keeping alive treasured native traditions. But for others, your story starts with ancestors who, at some point, left behind everything they knew to seek the promise of a new land. Maybe the story traces back a century and a half, to the laborers who risked their lives to connect our coasts by rail. Maybe it begins with one of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who, decades ago, made the tough journey to Angel Island.

Maybe the story starts with your parents. Or maybe it starts with you. But here’s the thing. No matter when it began, no matter where it began, your stories are about someone who came here looking for new opportunities not merely for themselves, but for their children, and for their children’s children, and for all generations to come.

Few of them had money. A lot of them didn’t have belongings. But what they did have was an unshakeable belief that this country -- of all countries -- is a place where anybody can make it if they try.

Now, many of them faced hardship; many of them faced ridicule; many of them faced racism. Many were treated as second-class citizens -- as people who didn’t belong. But they didn’t give up. They didn’t make excuses. They kept forging ahead. They kept building up America. They kept fighting for America -- Like Danny Inouye, who's here. Danny, who was my senator most of my life.

But they were trailblazers like Dalip Singh Saund -- a young man from India who, in 1920, came to study agriculture, stayed to become a farmer, and took on the cause of citizenship for all people of South Asian descent. And once Dalip earned his own citizenship, he stepped up to serve the country he loved -- and became the first Asian American elected to the Congress.

They were pioneers like my former congresswoman, Patsy Mink, who was not only the first Asian American woman elected to Congress but the author of Title IX -- which has changed the playing field for all of our girls.

And then there’s the story of a young Japanese American boy, just 10 when his family was forced from their home and taken hundreds of miles away to an internment camp. For three years, they lived in that camp, but when that boy got home, he didn’t turn his back on America — he devoted his life to America. In his words, he pledged "to speak out for the underrepresented and to pick up on those issues that weren’t being carried by others." And as the first Asian American to ever serve in a President’s Cabinet, Norm Mineta made good on that pledge.

So think about how proud all those previous generations would be to see this room, to see how far this community has come. Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders are now the inventors and entrepreneurs keeping our country on the cutting edge; the businessmen and women at the helm of some of our most successful industries; leaders in every aspect of American life -- in science and medicine, in education, in sports, in the arts, in our Armed Forces; in our government and in our courts. In fact, over the past three years, we have more than doubled the number of Asian Americans on the federal bench.

Just yesterday, Jacqueline Nguyen became the first Asian American woman to get confirmed as a federal appellate judge. And we’re so proud to have her along with another appellate judge I appointed, Denny Chin. We thank them for their service.

Whether your heritage stems from South Asia or East Asia, from my native Hawaii or the Pacific Islands, whether you’re first generation or the fifth, you’re helping to build a better America.

And I know it can be tempting -- given the success that's on display here tonight -- for people to buy into the myth of the "model minority" and glance over the challenges that this community still faces. But we have to remember there's still educational disparities like higher dropout rates in certain groups, lower college enrollment rates in others. There's still economic disparities like higher rates of poverty and obstacles to employment. There are health disparities like higher rates of diabetes and cancer and Hepatitis B. Those who are new to America -- many still face language barriers. Others -- like Vincent Chin who we lost three decades ago -- have been victims of horrible hate crimes, driven by the kinds of ignorance and prejudice that are an affront to everything America stands for.

So those are real problems, and we can't ignore them. And if we’re going to do a better job addressing them, then we first have to stop grouping everybody just in one big category. Dozens of different communities fall under the umbrella of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and we have to respect that the experiences of immigrant groups are distinct and different. And your concerns run the gamut.

That’s something that Washington needs to understand better. And that’s why I reestablished the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders-- so that we could better identify specific issues within specific communities. Many of those commissioners are here. I want to thank them for the great job that they're doing.

And so we’re making a difference -- on that front and on many other fronts. When we stepped up support for America’s small businesses, we stepped up support for this community -- providing over $7 billion in loans for small businesses owned by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. When we passed health care reform, we put in place new mechanisms to get better data about health disparities. Because of that law, nearly 3 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are going to receive expanded and preventive coverage through private insurance and nearly 1 million are receiving free preventive services through Medicare.

So some of the things that matter to this community are things that matter to every community, like making sure that a woman earns an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. Or ending "don't ask, don't tell" so that nobody has to hide who they love to serve the country they love. Or enacting education reform so that every child has access to good schools and higher education. Or caring for our veterans because it's our duty to serve them as well as they have served us.

That's what this country is about. That's what we’ve always been about. We've gone through some tough years because of this extraordinary recession and we've still got a long way to go. But we will get there. We will arrive at that destination where every child born in America regardless of race, creed, color, is going to have a chance. We're going to do that together -- because in this country, we look out for each other. We fight for each other. If somebody is suffering through injustice or inequality, we take up their cause as if it was our own. That's the story of America. And that's certainly the story of this community.

In the midst of World War II, when the son of Japanese immigrants, Gordon Hirabayashi, ignored the curfews and refused transfer to an internment camp; when he was jailed for his defiance; when he later appealed his conviction and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court -- he understood that he was fighting for something larger than himself. And he once said, "I never look at my case just as a Japanese American case. It's an American case, with principles that affect the fundamental human rights of all Americans." And while Gordon is no longer with us, later this year I'll award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the highest civilian award America has to offer. Because he reminds us that each of us is only who we are today because somebody, somewhere, felt a sense of responsibility -- not just to themselves, but to their family, and their communities, and to this country that we all love.

So tonight, we honor the trailblazers who came before. But we also celebrate the leaders yet to come -- all the young people who are here tonight. Together, it’s our turn to be responsible for the future. It’s our turn to make sure the next generation has more opportunities than we did. It’s our turn to make sure that no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, no matter what you look like, America forever remains the place where you can make it if you try.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of America.

END 6:00 P.M. EDT