Asian Pacific Americans' Social Movements and Interest Groups

Alef Esteban
Section 2
Week 1

Asian Pacific Americans' Social Movements and Interest Groups

     Towards the beginning of this reading, the authors probe the question "is there a pan-ethnic identity?" This interested me by looking at how people apply the term "Asian" to others generically, without specifically stating their nationality. An example I experienced was when someone was describing a person to me. They described them as Asian, and that was enough for me to identify them. Looking back, I applied the pan-ethnic term to them even if they themselves did not necessarily identify themselves with the term "Asian". Interestingly, the pan-ethnic identity has some role with describing a group of people. For example, Asian-Americans share certain historical events together and unified to accomplish a certain goal or give light of issues to the public. Even if these events contain different nationalities, together they are bounded by a pan-ethnic identity that has been imposed to them. This is not necessarily bad, as long as people acknowledge their own nationalism. In class, people discussed the possibility of people saying they're Chinese or Vietnamese to people, but they consider themselves Asian when describing themselves to someone different. Another instance would be the forms that ask to "select your nationality", some only have "White, African-American, Hispanic, or Asian" categories without a specific nationality. Without carefully looking at it or questioning it, people place themselves with the pan-ethnic term automatically.

     Question: Can the pan-ethnic term be used to a certain extent to describe a group of people accurately, but fairly?

Souce: Google Images

While the flags show their individual nationalities, the uniform can symbolize the unity of the group.