Asian Americans in California are today overwhelmingly first-generation immigrants. This explains why few look to government -- "the system" -- to remedy past injustices. So when the Supreme Court let stand Prop 209, most Asian Americans barely batted an eye. PNS editor Andrew Lam, born in Vietnam and raised in California, reflects on how Asian American immigrant communities view getting ahead in post-affirmative action America. Tomorrow, Helen Zia reports that some veteran Asian American activists believe white Californians may become the biggest proponents of affirmative action -- for themselves. (This is part of an ongoing PNS series on remedies for inequity in post-affirmative action America. If you would like us to resend any of the previous articles, call George Gundrey at 415-243-4364).

SAN FRANCISCO -- When news that the Supreme Court let stand Prop 209 ending affirmative action in California's public institutions, most of my Asian American friends didn't bat an eye.

Three out of four Asian Americans are now immigrants. Most come from countries -- Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan -- where governments provide very little in the way of social security or welfare programs, let alone affirmative action policies. Values like meritocracy and self reliance have always been strong among our lot.

Indeed, no one I know came to America because they thought they were going to benefit from affirmative action. Most probably never even heard of it. They came to America for the opportunities, for the American dream, sappy as it may sound.

Look at the statistics. There are almost 9 million Asians living in this country. Our collective income surpasses that of Hong Kong's 6 million, Taiwan's 24 million, and Thailand's 57 million. According to the latest available U.S. Census, the median Asian American household income is about $42,000 a year, 16 percent higher than that of whites. The national median is $34,000.

In California, Asian Americans make up 11 percent of the state's population but 34 percent of enrollment at the state's top ten universities, outnumbering whites at UCLA, Berkeley and Irvine. Transpacific Magazine reports that by the year 2000, Asians will make up 31 percent of California's professional, managerial and entrepreneurial population.

Do we see affirmative action as critical to our future? I don't think so.

It is a strong work ethic, sweat and tears, and determination -- the Confucian ethos and values or what have you -- that brought about our successes, not affirmative action.

Certainly racism against Asian Americans persists. Certainly the glass ceiling exists in both the public and private sector that stops us from getting ahead. And I suspect racism, both overt and subtle, will be around for a long time to come. But most Asian Americans still believe they can be rewarded for hard work in America.

Those Asian CEOs who now own one-third of all of Silicon Valley's high tech firms know this full well. Many know they could never move all the way up in white-owned companies. That's why they started their own firms. In a perverse way, it's the glass ceilings that propel Asians to create their economic base -- Little Siagons, Little Seouls, Chinatowns, etc. -- that are now thriving.

So where do I see the new remedies for inequity coming from now that Prop 209 has been laid to rest?

In economics, in consumer power, in self-reliance, in cultural values.

Hollywood, for instance, didn't invite Hong Kong director to make movies because of affirmative action. The breakthrough has to do with Tinsel Town's sudden awareness that the largest middle class in the world is on the other side of the Pacific.

One sees more Asian images on the billboards and commercials these days and it is not due to some government policy. Advertisers know if Asian Americans formed their own nation, their collective GNP would rank 15th in the world.

This is a typical Asian American attitude: One cannot really rely on government to get one's kids to college. One has to make them study and study hard. I know many Asian professionals who are very proud that they got where they are not because the government helped them but because they did it on their own, often against all odds. For Chinese, going to Lowell High School, San Francisco's magnet school, means you have to have a GPA higher than whites.

There is a danger in thinking that the government owes you something, even if it does: You spend your life searching for and demanding justice, and when you don't get it you get mired in rage. If you have a strong community, if you have a strong work ethic, if you emphasize the importance of education, of communal values, then you don't have to rely on "the system" because the real system already belongs to you.