SB-60
The purpose of this bill is to rename racial classifications in the U.S. Specifically, this bill will make the terms Asian-American and Latino-American officially recognized by the U.S. Government.
IN THE SENATE OF THE AMERICAN LEGION BOYS NATION
Mr. Li of Maryland introduced the following bill;
A BILL
The purpose of this bill is to rename racial classifications in the U.S. Specifically, this bill will make the terms Asian-American and Latino-American officially recognized by the U.S. Government.
Be it enacted by The American Legion Boys Nation Senate assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Racial Reclassification to Combat the Perpetual Foreigner Myth Bill.".
SECTION 2. Addressing the causes of the Perpetual Foreigner Myth
Congress has found that the following to be true
1. Asian-Americans and Latino-Americans have been perpetual foreigners in the United States. This means that they are always assumed to be foreigners or immigrants, and not truly "American".
2. There has been a recent increase in hate crimes within the U.S. against the Asian-American community regarding COVID-19. It is important to address these hate crimes and combat the root
Filename: 2021_md_bill_li_anbo_1049.pdf Page 1/2 causes of racism which partly stems from the idea that Asian-Americans and Latino-Americans are perpetual foreigners.
3. A huge contributor to the perpetual foreigner myth is the lack of specific terminology that can differentiate between nationality and ethnicity. For example, the term Asian can refer to someone born in Asia, someone that also lives in Asia, or someone that shares Asian ancestry. There isn't a clear distinction between an American of Asian descent or an Asian born and raised living in Asia with nothing to do with the U.S. There is only one vague term to describe both. With the inability to distinguish these two very different groups, they eventually are assumed to be the same and thus explains why Latino-Americans and Asian-Americans aren't seen as "American". On the other hand, one reason why Whites and Blacks aren't seen as perpetual foreigners is that on the Census they aren't labeled as European or African. Instead, there is a separate term specific to Americans of European or African descent, which are White and African-American specifically. There needs to be a term specifically for Americans of Asian and Latino descent which are Asian-American and Latino-American, and these terms cannot be used interchangeably with Asian and Latino anymore.
SECTION 3. Contents of the Bill
Be it enacted, this Bill will mandate
1. Make the term Asian-American replace Asian, Latino-American replace Latino, and European-American replace the term White on the U.S. Census and all governmental surveys and classifications regarding race.
2. This bill will be effective 08/01/2021 and all future surveys/governmental racial classifications will take on this change in terminology after this date immediately.
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