Sociologist Yen Le Espiritu popularized the idea of a pan-ethnic identity. “Asian American” is a pan-ethnic identity. It is an invented label applied to dozens of different groups with wildly different cultural traditions and languages. Most Americans (Asian and not), over time, came to accept the term as meaningful. American Indian is also a pan-ethnic term, as is African American and most other such labels.
On the one hand, pan-ethnic labels can be empowering. There is power in numbers. A large community identified across ethnic and national identities by race (however fake that racial designation is) can, for example, become a powerful voting bloc to which politicians must attend, or be mobilized to work together to fight for a common cause.
On the other hand, pan-ethnic labels can be disempowering. They tend to ignore the distinctions that make ethnic and national identities meaningful, and the rough categories erase differences among groups, thus making it more difficult to see and, thus, problematize disadvantage.
This latter problem motivated the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) of the University of California campuses to run its “Count Me In” campaign. They notice that, though “Asian Americans” were well represented on University of California campuses (they make up 43% of incoming frosh in 2006), certain groups deemed “Asian” remain underrepresented. These include students of Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotian descent, among others.
The campaign asked the University of California system to disaggregate their “Asian” category.
In response the University of California added 23 new categories to their application.
For a much more extensive discussion of this issue, see Fatemeh Fakhraie’s post at Racialicious(where I stole this video clip).
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 8
jfruh — June 28, 2009
One thing I've always found interesting is that in North America, "Asian" unqualified is generally understood to mean someone from China, Japan, Korea, or maybe SE Asia, whereas in the UK it's generally understood to mean someone from the Indian subcontinent. (Whereas in North America we'd generally say "South Asian" and in the UK "East Asian" for the less expected category.)
Molly — June 28, 2009
I've been "white" my whole life.
elle cee — June 28, 2009
+1 Molly. 'American' itself can be construed as a "pan ethnic" term, as it negates the vast myriad of cultural backgrounds and histories each person comes from - those of us who are "white" and those of us who are not.
Andrew — June 28, 2009
"American" is a nationality, and not unlike "Pakistani" or "Australian," it neither negates nor confirms the diversity of cultures represented within the nation.
But before getting into a big multiculturalism/affirmative-action blowout, let's consider why admissions boards should collect any ethnic data at all. From a sociological viewpoint, it's an important tool in measuring how opportunity is shaped by race and ethnicity, one that can help us locate our shortfalls in the pursuit of an equitable and peaceful society. At the same time, that tool is blunted by every meaningful distinction that is omitted, from cultural identify to socioeconomic class and so forth.
It would take a pretty unpleasant invasion of privacy to gather enough data to profile the way that being a fourth-generation Scots-Irish/German - American creates a statistically replicable difference in opportunity from a sixth-generation Dutch-English-French American. But if it's meaningful to you - if that difference has shaped your life experience as a white person - I'd be interested in learning more about how. It could be one of the many interesting cultural phenomena concealed behind the construct of race.
Stranger, it seems, is the possibility that the same system which recognizes the Hmong and Chamorro would allow for an impoverished Ukrainian who migrated to the US in sixth grade to get statistically lumped in with Martha Stewart and Dick Cheney.
But as one of the millions of multiracial Americans, I, too, had to spend most of my life checking "Other," so I'd gladly settle for a blank line that we can all fill in as we see fit.
opminded — June 29, 2009
Why are they collecting this data. Is this Hitler's Germany? Why is everyone obsessed with race and nationality?
Jessica Mand — July 10, 2014
This is a doctrine that is meant to over throw the government, and challenge its existing structure. This is has spread to all of our campuses and institutions under the guise of sociology. It is largely made up and founded on lies, and basis its existence on a pseudoscience. It is a religion, that says God is real, and humans are just a manifestation to Gods reality. It is a wide spread doctrine that teaches hatred for the Government. I fear for the future, and what affect this teaching may have within our society. The youth are impressionable, and I do not want to see them steered wrong with messages of hatred. It is not founded on truth, and steers ethnic groups into members of solidarity, while excluding other subgroups. This is in fact a danger to our State structure, and is not based off of actual science, but is made up of many non factual opinionated examples. It is an injustice to mankind, and an isnsult to the God.