With the resignation of General Eric Shinseki as Veteran Affairs secretary, there are no Asian Americans in the cabinet for the first time since 2000, reports the Daily Beast.
The community has thus gone from a high of three Asian American cabinet secretaries during President Obama’s first term to none.
At its peak, Steven Chu was Energy Secretary, Gary Locke held the position of Commerce secretary and Shinseki was Secretary of VA.
A blog by Tim Mak for the Daily Beast criticized the Asian American community for not pushing for greater representation.
Mak quoted more conservative members of the community such as the US Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Republican National Committee on Asian American engagement to prove his point.
But had he talked to someone from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus he would have gotten a different take. As early as last summer, CAPAC met with the president at the White House to raise a red flag about the declining diversity in Mr. Obama’s administration.
The President, who has appointed more Asian American judges than any other president, pledged then to keep his administration diverse.
Among those mentioned as a possible replacement for Shinseki is Rep. Tami Duckworth (D-IL), a Vietnam veteran and former Assistant Secretary of Veteran Affairs (pictured).
