As Chinese immigrants discover their political voice in San Francisco and beyond, veteran Asian American activists are debating how to use the community's growing political leverage. Some predict that the new situation could galvanize whites to view themselves as the new minority in need of stronger civil rights protections. PNS commentator Helen Zia is a former editor of Ms. Magazine, a freelance journalist and activist.

SAN FRANCISCO -- City politics can make strange connections. Consider the chicken-freeway parlay, which may mark the most significant change in San Francisco politics in decades.

When some 2,000 of San Francisco's Chinese American citizens rallied to defend the sale of live animals in Chinatown, the story was treated as quaint or barbaric.

But six months later, Chinese Americans -- most of them immigrants, not known for taking strong stands on city issues -- rallied again. And this time the issue was close to the heart of everyone in the city -- rebuilding an abandoned freeway.

This project, vigorously opposed by environmentalists and the mayor, was approved by voters on Nov. 6, in no small measure thanks to this new voting bloc which claims 18 percent of the city's registered voters. Finally, the old guard is starting to take notice.

"Anglo politicians think that there's a population of English speaking, assimilated, American born Chinese who will assume the leadership mantle," says David Lee, executive director of the San Francisco-based Chinese American Voter Education Committee. "But that's not true -- the newcomers are rewriting the book on politics in San Francisco, where we will see more and more foreign-born political leaders stepping forward. And they're not hesitant about political confrontation. Many whites are not used to this."

Deeper issues -- new immigration restrictions, the impact of welfare reforms, frustration with a political system that has, up till now, ignored them -- are fueling passions, not just chickens and freeways, Lee says. "People are very concerned about their place in this society and are disturbed that they're being treated disrespectfully."

It's not just the Old Guard that's reeling. Veteran Asian American activists, long accustomed to being relegated to the margins of California's political debates, are strategizing about how best to view the community's new leverage.

Some activists are wary that Asian American are being set up by whites to become pawns in California's emerging multi-racial, multi-ethnic political landscape. It's a pattern they say they've seen before, beginning with the importation of Chinese indentured labor following the abolition of slavery. Now the white elites, seeing their numbers in decline, may seek out Asians to be their new allies in a new divide-and-rule strategy.

This would make Asian Americans the new lightening rod for attack by other racial groups, worries J.D. Hokoyama, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Leadership Education for Asia Pacific Public Policy Institute. "Whites will keep what they've got, we'll be fighting among ourselves."

"There's no question Asians will be used," agrees Angela Oh, a Korean American from Los Angeles and sole Asian appointee on the Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race. Polls already show that blacks and whites feel threatened by Asian accomplishments, which is all the more reason Oh wants to see a national discussion on race and equity, "to force us to consciously look at the changing face of America."

The most surprising prediction making the rounds is that the more Asian American ascendance puts white California politicians on the defensive, the more whites may begin to rethink the need for affirmative action, this time to protect the interests of themselves and their children.

"Whites never intended to end affirmative action by having college campuses become 85 percent Asian. They will have to invoke 'diversity' against Asian Americans," Hokoyama predicts.

Henry Der, long-time director of the San Francisco based Chinese for Affirmative Action and now an official in the state's education department, sees a similar irony. Asians and whites have very different approaches to problems, he points out, As Asian influence grows -- not just politically but culturally -- whites will begin to feel themselves descending into a sub-culture status and look for ways to preserve civil rights laws many now feel are irrelevant.

The result could be an even more balkanized society than we have now. Or, in the view of San Francisco attorney Dale Minami, it could be a new and stronger push for inclusion and equity in the society.

"Whether Anglos will be able to understand that this is what people of color have endured is another matter," Minami, former California commissioner for Fair Employment and Equal Opportunity, observes. "But if they can reach an emotional bond with people of color, it will make for a helluva better country."