Elijah Cummings: “And so the President called you a rat. We're better than that. We really are.”

That year, Bayou La Batre did elect its first Asian-American city council member.

I really do think that we are in a moral situation. People are striving to live, trying to breathe the air of our country, trying to be better, trying to be healthy.

We are better than where we are. We are better than this.

Asian Americans are becoming more politically visible, and our numbers are showing that.