As the US heads towards the 2024 presidential election, the Asian American and Pacific Islander American community is rightly proud of its achievements: It has an AAPI presidential candidate in Vice President Kamala Harris; it is the fastest-growing ethnic group in the US, doubling its numbers between 2000 and 2022; and it is gaining political influence with a growing number of AAPI members in Congress.
But in a country ruled by identity politics, this community of 24 million people has fundamental political weaknesses that they must overcome in order to claim their fair share of the American pie, beginning with questions of identity.
Mainstream American society does not lump all European Americans together, but it does when it comes to Asian Americans, even though their roots span more than 40 countries and make up 60% of the world’s population.
Asians have lived in the United States since before the country was founded, but for centuries they remained largely politically invisible amid rampant racism. The term “Asian American” was born with a political awakening following the passage of landmark immigration legislation in 1965. Coined by a Chinese and Japanese graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, the term increased visibility and replaced the commonly used, racist term “Oriental.”
But half a century later, the term’s shortcomings have become increasingly clear: Despite greater understanding of distinct Asian cultures among mainstream Americans, 60 percent of AAPIs say they are still perceived as monolithic as “Asian” in casual interactions.
