If You Think Donald Trump Isn’t Going After Asians, Think Again

On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump appointed two top advisers for his administration. Republican Chairman Reince Priebus was named his new chief of staff while Steve Bannon, the CEO of the Trump Campaign and executive chairman of Breitbart News, was named his chief strategist.

Breitbart News is a destination that Bannon proclaims to be “the platform for the alt-right,” a conservative movement that opposes immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness. They’re also generally known to be Trump supporters.

While Donald Trump has yet to openly target Asians, an excerpt from a past conversation between Bannon and Trump posted by The Washington Post indicates we should be cautious. Washington Post columnist Jeff Yang pointed the conversation out in a Facebook post.

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“Last November, for instance, Trump said he was concerned that foreign students attending Ivy League schools have to return home because of U.S. immigration laws.

“We have to be careful of that, Steve. You know, we have to keep our talented people in this country,” Trump said. He paused. Bannon said, “Um.”

“I think you agree with that,” Trump said. “Do you agree with that?”

Bannon was hesitant.

“When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think . . . ” Bannon said, not finishing the sentence. “A country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.”

And by “civic society”, we are willing to bet Bannon means one with a lot less successful Asians which, in recent years, have dominated and flooded the ranks of Ivy Leagues.

Affirmative action may have helped Asians and other minorities in the past, but in a time when perfect students with stellar grades, test scores and extracurriculars get denied from schools meant especially for students of their caliber because they are Asian and there are just too many of them, you can be sure that Trump and Bannon’s plan for action won’t be doing them any favors.

This is going to be a long four — possibly eight — years.