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An Asian American is generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry or origin who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. In this context, "Asia" consists of the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.

The term "Asian American"

Usage

The coining of the term "Asian American" is credited to the historian Yuji Ichioka. However, the term was mainly popularized by civil rights movement activists in the 1960s. Such denomination underlined the common plight of all Asians in the United States and gave Asian Americans more prominence on the political scene. In the United States, this term has widely supplanted "Oriental," to describe East Asian people regardless of nationality, upbringing, or origin. Some have argued that "Oriental" is politically loaded and referenced a colonial "other" (see orientalism). To many people, the term "Oriental" is often seen as an unfriendly, even derogatory term. This is similar to the transition from "Negro" or "Colored" to "black" or "African American."

Even though "Asian American" is now a very widely used term in the United States, it is mostly the younger generation of Asian Americans who refer to themselves this way. A simple analogy would be the use of terms "Irish American" and "Italian American". The double allegiance represented in such denominations (Asian and American) was largely discouraged in the early twentieth century. Ford Motor Company, for instance, encouraged all recent immigrants to think of themselves as American and not as Irish American. The civil rights movement (re)introduced the use of hyphenated names (although the hyphen is not used any longer). Today, many younger Asian Americans speak of "Asian Pride." First-generation Asians are more likely to refer to themselves as "Chinese," "Korean," "Vietnamese," etc. This is mainly because first-generation Asian Americans are much more conscious of their Asian sub-group backgrounds and cultures and tend to avoid generalizations. However, "Asian" is almost never considered an unfriendly word, and is still currently widely used in many English-speaking countries.

Definition

"Asian American" is not a very precise or accurate term, and some people prefer it being replaced by the use of separate terms for each Asian cultural or geographical group.

Additionally, although the term "Asian" in the United States is most popularly used as a term to group peoples with physical or cultural characteristics resembling East Asian people, Asians from the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia (including the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia) are also included in the Asian American grouping for cultural studies and academic works, as well as for official government and census purposes. To a lesser extent, some government agencies also classify Middle Easterners as "West Asians." Until recent times, South Asians were previously categorized in the white racial category together with immigrants from the Middle East. Lobbying by South Asian business groups resulted in their placement into the "Asian" category.

As a result, they are not considered by most Americans to be "typical" Asians or Asian Americans, and are classified as "whites" for official racial purposes and popularly referred to as "Middle Eastern". For these same reasons, northern Asians such as Siberians and peoples from formerly Soviet Central Asian states are usually not spoken of as "Asian Americans" either and are part of Europe for the US Census racial purposes.

The history of this development can be seen in several key Supreme Court decisions that defined "white" with respect to people from different parts of Asia. In the 1922 case Takao Ozawa v. United States, Associate Justice George Sutherland wrote that only Caucasians were white, and therefore the Japanese, by not being Caucasian, were not white and instead were members of an "unassimmilable race", lacking provisions in any Naturalization Act. The next year, in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, Sutherland again ruled that Mr. Thind was not eligible for naturalized citizenship. Justice Sutherland wrote that "It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them to-day..."

Demographics

The 2000 census recorded 12.3 million people who reported themselves as having either full or partial Asian heritage, 4.3% of the U.S. population. The largest ethnic subgroups were Chinese (2.7 million), Filipinos (2.4M), Asian Indians (1.9M), Vietnamese (1.2M), Koreans (1.2M), and Japanese (1.1M). Other sizable groups are Cambodians (206,000), Pakistanis (204,000), Laotians (198,000), Hmong (186,000), and Thais (150,000). The Asian American population is heavily urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of Asian Americans living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. Asian Americans are concentrated in the largest U.S. cities, with 40% of all Asian Americans living in the metropolitan areas around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. Half of all Asian Americans (5.4M) live in Hawai'i or the West Coast, mostly in California (4.2M). Census data show that Asian American populations are growing in most major metropolitan areas, with visible communities in areas in and around Washington, D.C./Baltimore, and Houston, to name the largest examples. Asian Americans are visible, growing, but "underrepresented" (against the national aggregate) in several of the largest areas, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, although sizable concentrations (double the national percentage) can be found in urban neighborhoods in such cities, as well as suburbs of these cities such as Naperville, Illinois; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Upper Darby, Pennsylvania; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Lexington, Massachusetts.

Asian American history

Early history

A large amount of Chinese and Japanese began immigrating to the U.S. in the mid 19th century. Many of these immigrants worked as laborers on the transcontinental railroad. A surge in Asian immigration in the late 19th century gave rise to a fear from some, referred to as the "yellow peril."

In Hawaii, both Chinese and Japanese laborers were brought in during the 19th century to work on sugar plantations. Later, Filipinos were also brought in as laborers.

Effects of war

Asian participants in the American Civil War were not given citizenship, voting rights, or access to public schools because they were legally declared “neither Black nor White.”

The Japanese American Internment refers to the controversial, forcible relocation of approximately 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, 62 percent of whom were United States citizens, from the west coast of the United States during World War II to hastily constructed housing facilities called War Relocation Camps in remote portions of the nation's interior. President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the internment with United States Executive Order 9066.

Despite the treatment, many Japanese Americans served in World War II in the American forces. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Artillery Battalion is the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history. Composed of Japanese Americans, the 442nd/100th fought valiantly in the European Theater even as many of their families remained in the detention camps stateside. The 100th was one of the first units to liberate the Nazi extermination camp at Dachau.

Immigration trends

Immigration trends of recent decades have dramatically altered the statistical composition and popular understanding of who is an Asian American. This transformation of Asian America, and of America itself, is the result of legislation such as the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 and the 1965 immigration reforms. The McCarran-Walter Act repealed the "free white persons" restriction of the Naturalization Act of 1790, but it retained the quota system that effectively banned nearly all immigration from Asia. But Asian immigration increased significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act altered the quota system.

Historically, Asian Americans have largely been perceived as members of the East Asian ethnic groups, specifically Chinese and Japanese, the two largest ethnic groups before 1965, as well as Filipinos who became colonial subjects of the US in 1898 due to the Spanish-American War (also see Philippine-American War). This occurred despite the early presence of Korean and Indian immigrants in the early 1900s as well.

This rapid change in Asian American demographics occurred after enactment of the 1965 Immigration Act. This act replaced exclusionary immigration rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its successors, such as the Reed-Johnson Act or 1924 Immigration Act, which effectively excluded "undesirable" immigrants, including Asians. The 1965 rules set across-the-board immigration quotas for each country, opening the borders to immigration from Asia for the first time in nearly half a century.

Two other influences, however, have been equally worthy of attention. First, in the wake of World War II, immigration preferences favored family reunification. This may have helped attract highly skilled workers to meet American workforce deficiencies. Secondly, the end of the Korean War and Vietnam War or so-called "Secret Wars" in Southeast Asia brought a new wave of Asian American immigration as people from Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia arrived. Some of the new immigrants, as in the case of the Korean War, were war brides, who were soon joined by their families. Others, like the Southeast Asians, were either highly skilled and educated or part of subsequent waves of refugees seeking asylum. Some factors contributing to the growth of sub-groups such as South Asians and mainland Chinese are higher family sizes, higher use of family-reunification visas, and higher numbers of technically skilled workers entering on H-1 and H-1b visas.

Japanese Americans and South Asians are emblematic of the dramatic changes since the immigration reforms of the mid-20th century. Japanese Americans are widely recognized as an Asian American sub-group. In 1970, there were nearly 600,000 Japanese Americans, making it the largest sub-group. Today, Japanese Americans are the sixth-largest group, with relatively low rates of births and immigration. In 2000, there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million Japanese Americans (depending on whether multi-ethnic responses are included). In 1990 there were slightly fewer South Asian in the US than Japanese Americans. By 2000, Indian Americans nearly doubled in population to become the third largest group. High rates of immigration from across Asia will make Asian Americans increasingly representative of the continent itself.

Socioeconomic trends

Asian Americans who tend to have larger families earn per capita less than white populations. The proportion of Asian Americans at many selective educational institutions far exceeds the 3% national population rate.

Such conditions are common among Asians emigrating to the United States from southeast Asian countries such as Laos, and Cambodia, among others; many of these immigrants can be considered refugees from Communist and totalitarian states and as such, often do not have the educational or socioeconomic advantages of other Asian Americans. Many immigrants are often forced to work in minimum wage or below-minimum wage jobs, including in menial sweatshop or restaurant labor, because they fear that mainstream employers will not hire them or, if they have entered the country illegally, will report them to the government. Due to popular labeling of Asian Americans as model minorities, the critical issues of poverty and low educational attainment among southeast Asian immigrants and their Asian American children do not receive the attention that such issues receive in the African American and Hispanic communities.

Criminal issues

Although Asians comprise 3.6% of the population, they account for less than 1% of all jail inmates. In fact, Asians make up such a small percentage of the criminal population that the Department of Justice often does not present specific data for Asians when accounting for criminals by race.

However, this does not mean that no Asians engage in criminal activity in the U.S. Some Chinese communities have had problems with Triads, some communities have Vietnamese gangs, and the Japanese Yakuza are known to conduct criminal business in the U.S.

Asian Americans today

In Politics

In recent decades, many Asian Americans have entered politics, and succeeded in getting elected into political offices. In 1957, Dalip Singh Saund became the first Asian immigrant elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1959, he was followed by Daniel Inouye, who was subsequently elected to the Senate in 1962. As of 2006, he is the Senate's third-most senior member. In 1959, another Hawaii politician, Hiram Fong, was the first Asian American elected to the Senate.

George Ariyoshi became the first Asian American governor in 1974; twenty years later, in 1994, another Asian American, Benjamin Cayetano, was elected governor of the same state, Hawaii. They were followed in Washington by Gary Locke, who became the first Asian American governor on the mainland United States in 1996.

Mike Honda currently serves as U.S. Congressman for California's Fifteenth Congressional District. Van Tran is a Republican member of the California State Assembly. Norman Mineta is currently serving as the United States Secretary of Transportation, and Elaine Chao is serving as the United States Secretary of Labor. More recently, Bobby Jindal became the first Indian American congressman from Louisiana. In Texas during the 2004 election, Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese immigrant, became the first Vietnamese American elected to the Texas Legislature, making Vo and Van Tran the highest serving Vietnamese Americans holding public office.

In Business

Asian Americans are major contributors to the American economy. Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. Andrea Jung serves as Chairman and CEO Avon Products Inc. Vinod Khosla was a founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and is a successful general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Sabeer Bhatia co-founded Hotmail which was bought over by Microsoft. In general Asian Americans hold very higher percentages in professional sector compared to its population size and earn higher wages as because of it, especially in the technology and business sectors compared to other groups.

In Sports

Dat Nguyen was an All-American linebacker at Texas A&M University and later became the first Vietnamese American in the National Football League. Michelle Kwan has won nine national championships and five world titles in figure skating. Norm Chow is the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans after helping lead USC to several NCAA championships. And Tiger Woods is the current number 1 golfer in the rankings. Another Asian American hapa, the Korean American and African American wide receiver Hines Ward was the MVP of Superbowl XL while playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This also includes Toby Dawson and half-Asian Apolo Anton Ohno both Olympic medal winners.

In Arts and Entertainment

In architectural design, Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Margaret Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994. Yo-Yo Ma is considered by some as the best cellist in the world. Zubin Mehta also remains a prominent name among modern conductors. Most recently, ImaginAsian Entertainment has made a major contribution by starting the first national 24/7 Asian American television network. Asian American jazz is a musical movement in the United States begun in the 20th century by Asian American jazz musicians. There are famous actors and actresses such as Lucy Liu. In music, American R&B singer, Amerie, is considered one of the most talented R&B singers of today. She has won numerous awards, and is often referred to in America and elsewhere as “Korean-American R&B singer, Amerie…”. Amerie is half Korean and half Black. Amerie and her younger sister are both conversational in the Korean Language, and identify as being Korean American and Black.

In Science and Technology

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. Chien-Shiung Wu worked on the Manhattan Project and disproved the conservation of parity. She was known to many scientists as the "First Lady of Physics".

Attitudes towards Asian Americans

Even reported incidences do not receive adequate attention via news media or history textbooks. Examples of much-ignored landmark events in American history include the murder of Vincent Chin, and Wataru Misaka breaking the NBA color barrier the same year as Jackie Robinson's much-acclaimed achievement.

Another concern is that the notion of Asian fetishism, which has gained more attention recently, is negatively portraying Asian females and has aroused some concerns and controversy. The negative and prejudicial attitude towards Asian Americans tended to decrease after the September 11 attacks on the U.S..

See also

• British Asian
• Asian Canadian
• Asian Argentines
• Asian Australians
• Demographics of the United States
• Hapa - Hawaiian term commonly referring to Eurasians and Blasians
• Model Minority - Depiction of Asian Americans as a model success group
• Amerasian — a person fathered abroad by U.S. servicemen to women of Asian nationalities
• Asian American art
• Asian Pride
• Jade Ribbon Campaign

References

1. U.S. Census Bureau: Demographic Profiles, DP-1. Profiles of General Demographic Characteristics, 2000
2. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Criminal Offenders Statistics, 2005-11-13

External links

• Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues by C.N. Le, Ph.D.
• Azn Forum - An online Asian American community forum
• Asia Society - A multinational site with headquarters in the US, Hong Kong, Australasia, and more. This site is an "Asian" resource for everything from food to politics
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance - Information about Asian American workers, labor history, and union organizing.
• Asian American News Journalism Unlimited Daily news and information of Asian American interest
• R-Toyz.com - The World's Premiere Online Performance Community for Filipinos
• AMWD - Asian Media Watchdog - One of New York based premier Asian American media watchdog organizations. Known for activist-like approach towards stereotypical portrayals of Asian/Asian Americans in American entertainment. The group has organized numbers of successful protest campaigns. At the same time, it boasts some solid connections in New York show business scenes (and some Hollywood), as shown in series of high profile interviews with Asian American entertainment professionals.
• Media Action Network for Asian Americans - This is Los Angeles based. Boasts for being the first Asian American media watchdog group in the US. Obviously it has the deepest contacts in Hollywood.
• Angry Asian Man One of the most popular Asian American blog.
• Asian American Arts and Culture - manja: News site promoting Asian American Artists in the community
• - Income Disparity amongst ethnic asian populations in the United States
• The Asians in America Project - A national clearinghouse for news and information on Asian America
• Asian-American Race Definition Asian-American Race Definition and an argument for the religious body of Asia.
• Model Minority - A Guide to Asian American Empowerment. Its message board contains some radical, unfiltered point of views from Asian American community. Good tool to learn how Asian Americans feel about various issues.
• Yellowworld - A website dedicated to cultivating Asian American political consciousness.
• 23 Big Milestones in Asian American History (Goldsea)
• Asian American television network
• Yellow Rage - A popular spoken word duo that challenges mainstream misconceptions of Asianness.

Further reading

• Frank H. Wu Yellow: Race in American Beyond Black and White New York: Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0-465-00639-6
• Ronald Takaki Strangers From A Different Shore Boston: Back Bay Books, 1989. ISBN 0-316-83109-3

• Asian American-related topics
• Ethnic groups in the United States