Minority Candidates, Alternative Media, and Multiethnic America: Deracialization or Toggling?

Abstract

Conceptualizing a political world “beyond black and white” is a familiar scholarly refrain, but theoretical relics of bipolarity remain. The deracialization concept, a much-discussed phenomenon in American elections, is one example. Asian American campaigns provide an interesting case for testing the utility of deracialization in multicultural urban milieus, given the overwhelming tendency for such candidates to be elected from predominantly non-Asian constituencies. Looking in depth at two successful campaigns by Vietnamese Americans in Northern and Southern California, I argue for a broadened approach that can better account for changes in the American political mosaic—namely, increases in immigration occurring in some of the country's fastest growing regions and the availability of alternative media. I call this approachtoggling.In this article, I outline the toggling strategy. I conclude by considering the impact of toggling on equality in the American democratic process and suggest some directions for future research.