The Dangers of Lumping Diverse Ethnicities Under the Asian Label
Introduction
Historically, Asian Americans have been united by the collective experience of xenophobia and exclusion. The term “Asian American” was first used in 1968 by UC Berkeley students to advocate for the creation of an ethnic studies department. They were inspired by the Black Power movement to unite individual ethnic communities into one protest group.
Although they come from over 50 different countries and speak over 100 different languages, nowadays, Asians are always grouped into a single racial category, erasing their diversity. We need to start disaggregating data on Asian Americans, because condensing an abundance of ethnicities into a singular racial label collapses each ethnicity’s unique social identity and obscures disparities for all subgroups that fall under it.
The Social Fall-Out of the Term “Asian American”
The terms “AAPI” (Asian American Pacific Islander) and “Asian American” can unite different communities toward a common goal. Although the labels have formed successful political campaigns in the past, their social shortcomings must not be ignored. According to a Pew Research Center study, just 28% of Asians would describe themselves as “Asian” or “Asian American.” Only 9% would say that Asian Americans share a common culture, whereas 90% say that Asians have many different cultures. Also, less than half of Asians would consider Central Asians (ex. Kazakhs and Afghans) as Asian.
This disagreement suggests we should eventually move away from the social construct of race as a whole. Although Asians have a collective history of exclusion in the United States, holding more differences than similarities is a strong indicator that a broad racial label cannot be used to adequately define a person’s social identity. For a relevant example, when condensed into a single category, the struggles of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders against colonization and militarization are rendered invisible to the general public because they are not issues the whole Asian American community faces.
The Self-Oppressive “Model Minority” Myth
Historically, U.S. policies favored Asians by only allowing those who were highly skilled to immigrate. Unlike for other minority groups, these policies left the legacy of the “model minority” myth, a perception of socioeconomic and educational success for Asian Americans. This stereotype not only falsely implies that other minority groups are culturally or biologically inferior, but also conceals some of the largest health care, education, income, and opportunity gaps within any race.
1. Uncovering Health Disparities
In health, the 2018 infant mortality rate for Pacific Islanders was not only higher than the Asian infant death rate, but it was twice as high as the white infant death rate. In education, only 28% of Pacific Islander adults 24 or older have an associate degree or higher, compared to the 62% AAPI average. The aggregation of ethnicities under the Asian label systemically targets Pacific Islanders by hiding critical health and education disparities from policy-makers.
But the unseeable disparities don’t just hinder the lives of Pacific Islanders. When the data is aggregated, Asians seem to be healthier than non-Hispanic Whites in most categories. However, a study uncovered health disparities in all 5 of the biggest Asian subgroups: Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This means that the suffering of all Asian Americans is concealed in some way as a result of data aggregation. Filipinos experience the most hidden disparities, such as “higher prevalence of fair or poor health, being obese or overweight, and having high blood pressure, diabetes, or asthma.” Filipina women are almost 3x as likely to have diabetes as their Black female counterparts. If these potentially life-threatening issues are non-existent in the statistics, they are rendered invisible to those with the power to improve health care for Asian Americans.
2. Uncovering Education Disparaties
According to the Center for American Progress, the percentage of Hmong, Cambodian, and Laotian students with a high school degree or higher is in the 60's, whereas the percentage of Japanese and Korean students is all the way in the 90’s. The educational attainment gap widens even further later in life, with almost 75% of Taiwanese Americans having a Bachelor’s degree, while less than 20% of Hmong, Cambodian, and Laotian Americans have one.
Education is the key to unlocking new opportunities in life that would be otherwise unattainable for the class a person was born into. By not addressing these educational disparities, we are essentially creating a caste system in which the socioeconomic status one is born with follows them throughout their entire life.
3. Uncovering Income Disparities
In income, Indian Americans “far outpace the nation’s median income of about $70,000, earning on average nearly $120,000.” They earn more than double the average of a dozen other Asian subgroups such as the Thai, Nepalese, and Mongolian populations. For a country that prides itself on social mobility, equal opportunity, and the glorified “American Dream,” we are throwing our most vulnerable communities under the bus through our ignorant data practices.
Conclusion
Asians are the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we are failing to invest our wealth back into the Asian American community. We often take for granted how Pacific Islanders are at the forefront of environmental activism. Since we are only as strong as our most vulnerable link, changing the way we present our data would mean reevaluating our priorities as a country to embrace how much subgroups of Asian Americans would have to offer if their voices were not systematically drowned out by their larger label. If we don’t uncover truths through data disaggregation, we will end up letting the “model minority” monolith pervade our future generations. In a world structured by racial and ethnic division, unequal access to healthcare and education decreases the opportunities, and in turn the socioeconomic status of all Asian Americans, but especially that of marginalized subgroups.
by GRACE QU