Andrew Yang could be part of mass exodus of Asian Americans ditching Democratic Party, author says

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Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang officially dumped the Democratic Party this week, and a prominent Asian American author feels it could be part of a mass exodus, as members of the Asian American community recognize the party that relies on identity politics isn’t for them. 

"He may have chosen the Democratic Party in the first place because he felt like that was the party that basically represented Asians. And, maybe at a time, that was true but now it's increasingly not being the case," "Inconvenient Minority" author Kenny Xu told Fox News Digital. 

"Yang is just the latest in a line of Asian Americans who are leaving the Democratic Party," Xu continued. "I know Yang, and I know that he is an ideas guy, and simply put, the Democratic Party is the home for identity politics, not the home for ideas." 

Author Kenny Xu is the president of the nonprofit organization Color Us United, which was "created to speak out against those who want to divide America."

Xu feels that Yang wasn’t always treated properly by Democrats, pointing to the 2019 incident when MSNBC misidentified him as "John Yang" as an example. Yang also routinely received little speaking time at 2020 primary debates.

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"They sort of subordinated him, and I think this is how Asians are starting to be viewed within the Democratic Party," Xu said. "They sort of inconvenience their narrative." 

Xu feels that Yang was presumably forced to "adhere to the party line" on key issues, such as critical race theory, where the ideology of the Democratic Party doesn’t coincide with how many Asian Americans truly feel.

"If America was a White supremacist country, how could they allow a group of Asian Americans to overtake them on the so-called socioeconomic food chain?" Xu asked.

Yang announced Tuesday the launch of the Forward Party PAC, just one day after he ditched the Democratic Party. In a letter shared to the PAC's website, Yang insisted he started the Forward Party for "a few big reasons."

"The current two-party duopoly is not working," Yang wrote. "While the two major parties have different issues, we can all see that polarization is getting worse and worse, with 42% of both parties regarding the other as not just mistaken but evil. Neither side is able to meaningfully solve problems, so we all get angrier and angrier."

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In the letter, Yang also pointed to data that suggested Americans favor a third political party but concluded that "the two parties right now control the primary system, which makes it very difficult for any meaningful third party to emerge."

Yang urged change, calling for open primaries and ranked-choice voting in congressional races around the country to help diminish polarization. Yang said he has a "hope for a positive political movement that is not born of rage and demonization, but on optimism and solutions," adding the Forward Party "is an inclusive movement."

Xu isn’t sure the Forward Party will succeed, but he is confident Asian Americans will start to leave the Democratic Party in droves. 

"There's going to be a bifurcation. Immigrant Asians are probably going to switch to the Republican Party, or at least switch out of the Democratic Party, because the Democratic Party is showing signs that it's hostile to meritocracy," Xu said. "[Yang] picked the wrong party and it totally spurned him, he realized that, and I don’t know why he didn’t switch to Republican. I think that would have been honestly better for his political future."

Kenny Xu’s book, "An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy," examines how Ivy League universities such as Harvard discriminate against qualified Asian Americans to maintain a particular racial makeup in their student body.  (Kirkus Reviews)

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Xu’s book, "An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy," examines how Ivy League universities such as Harvard discriminate against qualified Asian Americans to maintain a particular racial makeup in their student body. He concluded race-based admissions processes designed to increase diversity at elite institutions crush the narrative being pushed by Democrats and much of the mainstream media. 

One key reason why Xu predicts a mass exodus from the Democratic Party is education, which the author feels is an important issue for Asian Americans who wish to thrive in the United States without social privilege.

"The Democratic Party has shown to be incapable of fostering a good education system," he said, noting that programs designed to help Black and Hispanic students often hurt Asian Americans. 

"This is a trend against meritocracy," Xu said. "We don’t care about your background, we care about your merit." 

Xu feels that Democrats, specifically liberal Ivy League administrators, prefer minorities whom they perceive as less successful or struggling.

"Their capital is on identity and racial victimhood, that's where they get their political capital. They can say, ‘You’re marginalized, we want to help you, trust us,’ and they rely on the victimhood capital," Xu said. "I think this is an issue that's really motivating Asian Americans." 

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Xu said Democrats are simply "opposed to what a lot of Asian Americans believe are the fundamental values of hard work, education and meritocracy." Another issue that irked Xu is when Democrats blamed a 2020 uptick on violence against Asians on White supremacy.

"The Atlanta shooting was really bad, and it may have been a crime of White supremacy … I'm going to take a look at the statistics. You know, all the anti-Asian attacks are not solely by White supremacists," Xu said. "By stirring up this kind of frenzy around White supremacy, specifically in anti-Asian attacks, the Democrats are sort of able to bring in a victim their narrative to try to attract Asian Americans." 

Xu is also the president of the nonprofit Color Us United, an organization "created to speak out against those who want to divide America."

Fox News’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.