The Political History of the Term “Asian American”

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter established the first national observance of Asian American history and culture. This week would eventually evolve into Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—but at the time of Carter’s announcement, the term “Asian American” itself was only about a decade old. Where did it come from? Before the term “Asian American” was popularized, Americans of Asian descent typically described themselves by their ethnicity, like Chinese American or Indian American. When broader terms were used, they often held stereotypical or racist connotations. That changed in 1968 when two graduate student activists at the University of California Berkeley created the Asian American Political Alliance, or AAPA. It was the first documented use of the term “Asian American.” Inspired by the Black Power movement, founders Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka believed that uniting as a group would give Asian Americans more political sway. Ichioka, who had survived a Japanese American prison camp during World War II, would go on to teach the first course in Asian American studies at UCLA. Gee and Ichioka’s group protested the Vietnam War, protested evictions, and allied themselves with the Black Panthers. Other colleges soon formed their own chapters of the AAPA. The movement extended beyond campus life too. In 1969 Asian Americans for Action was founded in New York with the same anti-racist ideals. Today some find the term Asian American to be inadequate. It has been criticized for flattening cultural differences and centering East Asians over South Asians and Pacific Islanders. Some organizations have started collecting more detailed demographic data to better serve each unique group beneath the Asian American umbrella.