National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) is a project of the left-of-center Tides Center and is a coalition of activist organizations that advocate for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Americans of Pacific Islander descent. ¹ It has also supported adopting race-based redistributionist policy that would benefit Black Americans, loosening restrictions on immigration, and for expanding socialized healthcare programs to immigrants. ^{2 3}

NCAPA has a campaign titled “#WHOWEARE” that uses identity politics to criticize government officials, activities, and current events based on how much they involve or how they portray Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. ⁴

Background

Founded in 1996, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans is a coalition of 38 left-of-center activist organizations that support Asian Americans Native Hawaiians, and other Americans of Pacific Islander descent. The NCAPA’s website lists the Ford Foundation, PepsiCo, Surdna Foundation, AT&T, Comcast, JPMorgan Chase, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, Verizon, and Google as sponsors. ⁵

NCAPA is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, which creates left-of-center advocacy groups on behalf of the Tides Foundation without having to directly associate with the foundation. ^{6 7} The formation of NCAPA is also said to have been “spearheaded” by the Association of Chinese Americans (ACA), which is a Detroit-based community organization for Chinese Americans that advocates “anti-hate” legislation and welfare programs for Chinese victims of hate crimes. ⁸

#WHOWEARE

National Council of Asian Pacific Americans has a campaign titled “#WHOWEARE” that labels social media content from media members, government officials, or other current events as approved or disapproved based on how well it represents the Asian and Pacific Island community. ⁹

In February 2021, the #WHOWEARE campaign gave the Biden administration’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force a stamp of disapproval for failing to include Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander “experts” on the task force. ¹⁰

In March 2021, the #WHOWEARE campaign gave a disapproval label to NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday” programs for hosting a panel on hate crimes against Asian Americans without any Asian panel members. ¹¹

Activities

In May 2013, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and other Asian American advocacy groups met with then-President Barack Obama to lobby in support of loosened immigration policies, that would allow immigrants to sponsor green cards to foreign family members instead of using a merit-based system. They also lobbied for expanded government health-care benefits for immigrants and an interagency hate crime task force. ¹²

In February 2022, NCAPA endorsed HR 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. The bill would appropriate funding for research on what reparations would be necessary to make up for alleged social and economic shortcomings for Black Americans due to a supposed lack of reparations following the abolition of slavery. ¹³

In October 2022, NCAPA cosigned a letter endorsing President Joe Biden’s nomination for the chair of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) Gigi Sohn, founder of Public Knowledge. Republican members of Congress have criticized Sohn for supporting Title II-based net neutrality rules and having ties to the streaming service Locast. ¹⁴

People

John C. Yang is a co-chair of National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and president and executive director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice. ¹⁵ He formerly served as a senior advisor for East Asia affairs in the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce from 2014 to 2017. ¹⁶

Alvina Yeh is a co-chair of NCAPA and the executive director for Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO. ¹⁷ Yeh also sits on the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center advisory board, sits on the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium Action Fund (NAKASEC AF) board, and works with the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center. ¹⁸

1. “About Us.” National Council of Asian Pacific Islanders, January 31, 2023. https://www.ncapaonline.org/about/.
2. “At Start of Black History Month, over 350 Groups Urge US House Leadership to Back H.R. 40.” Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2022. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/04/start-black-history-month-over-350-groups-urge-us-house-leadership-back-hr-40.
3. Kim, Seung Min. “Asian-American Leaders Meet with Obama.” POLITICO. Accessed February 5, 2023. https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/05/asian-american-leaders-meet-with-obama-163552?_amp=true.
4. “#WHOWEARE.” NCAPA, May 5, 2021. https://www.ncapaonline.org/whoweare/.
5.  “About Us.” National Council of Asian Pacific Islanders, January 31, 2023. https://www.ncapaonline.org/about/.
6. “Tides Foundation and Tides Center.” Discover The Networks. Accessed February 5, 2023. https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/organizations/tides-foundation-and-tides-center/.
7. “National Council of Asian Pacific Americans.” Tides, February 4, 2023. https://www.tides.org/project/fiscally-sponsored-project/national-council-of-asian-pacific-americans/.
8. Kozlowski, Andy. “Association of Chinese Americans Celebrates 50 Years.” C&G Newspapers. C & G Publishing, December 19, 2022. https://www.candgnews.com/news/association-of-chinese-americans-celebrates-50-years-1368.
9. “#WHOWEARE.” NCAPA, May 5, 2021. https://www.ncapaonline.org/whoweare/.
10. National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. Twitter, February 12, 2021. https://twitter.com/NCAPAtweets/status/1360270738574503938.
11. National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. Twitter, March 25, 2021. https://twitter.com/NCAPAtweets/status/1375133963778465798.
12. Kim, Seung Min. “Asian-American Leaders Meet with Obama.” POLITICO. Accessed February 5, 2023. https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/05/asian-american-leaders-meet-with-obama-163552?_amp=true.
13. “At Start of Black History Month, over 350 Groups Urge US House Leadership to Back H.R. 40.” Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2022. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/04/start-black-history-month-over-350-groups-urge-us-house-leadership-back-hr-40.
14. Eggerton, John. “Supporters of FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Gang up on Hill.” Broadcasting Cable. Broadcasting+Cable, October 14, 2022. https://www.nexttv.com/news/gigi-sohn-supporters-gang-up-on-hill
15. “About Us.” NCAPA, January 31, 2023. https://www.ncapaonline.org/about/.
16. “John Yang.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 6, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-yang-94a1606b.
17. “About Us.” NCAPA, January 31, 2023. https://www.ncapaonline.org/about/.
18. “National Staff.” APALA. Accessed February 5, 2023. https://www.apalanet.org/national-staff.html.