Building Asian American Political Power through Online Organizing: How Digital Activism Mobilized a Community and Changed the Policy Conversation in Washington, DC

In response to anti-immigrant remarks made by District of Columbia City Councilman Marion Barry, a group of young progressive activists launched the "Say Sorry Barry" campaign to engage the city in a dialogue about respectful rhetoric. Barry's comments contributed to a dangerously xenophobic narrative present throughout the 2012 election cycle. To combat this, the Say Sorry Barry campaign used online organizing to build public grassroots pressure and to successfully hold Councilman Barry accountable for his actions. From this we learned a larger lesson: that the future of Asian American advocacy hinges on how and when-not whether-our community is engaged online. Using this campaign as a case study, Asian American activists can draw lessons for their own organizing as one approach for ending the anti-immigrant dialogue in politics and for influencing public policy.