In honor of May being AAPI heritage month, I asked 27 of my friends the following two questions:
1. What do you think of when you hear the term “Asian American?”
2. When did you first hear the term “Asian American?”
Each of the 27 individuals have different backgrounds– some Asian American, some Asian but not American (i.e. live overseas), some American but not Asian (i.e. Caucasian). Below are the responses I received. See part 2, my remarks, here.
What do you think of when you hear the term “Asian American?”
"Asian roots born in the United States– having to grow accustomed to ‘America’s custom’– a hybrid." - Sara
"People like myself who are of brown descent. People who were born in American and grew up there but are not white." - Anshula
"Those young people in our generation right now who are of Asian background and share similar experiences as me growing up– usually their parents are immigrants, and we are the first generation born and raised in the U.S. Although there were millions of Asian Americans throughout history, such as those that were born or came in like the 1800s, the first thing I think of is the young Asian American population today. We are pretty knit together, whether it be in smaller friend groups or in bigger platforms like “Subtle Asian traits.” We’re all connected in our experiences, and we can even share a laugh out of them." - Jess
"People who live in America who are also of Asian descent. I also think about how often in society you’ll hear the term 'African American' but instead of 'Asian American' you’ll hear the shortened term 'Asian' when a description is necessary." - Natalija
"My friends whose families are from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, and that region of the world, while they themselves live in America and are exactly as American as me." - anonymous
"A person of Asian descent who grows up in America due to a parent’s job or better education. As an Asian American, I feel as though I’ve based the idea of that specific group of people on my experiences and what it’s meant to me throughout my life thus far." - Janice
"There’s no 'one' thing I think of when I hear the term 'Asian American.' We come from a myriad of cultures, each with their own customs, traditions, and values. However, I believe one unifying quality that bridges these different cultures is the strength and unity we can find in our communities." - Anna
"People who, like me, grew up adopting both American and Asian cultures and values into their lifestyles. I personally really value the term ‘Asian American’ because it conveys how all Asians should not be grouped into one 'foreign' category and isolated from the rest of the American community; rather, Asians can certainly practice American cultures and values, and therefore identify as American just as much as a Caucasian American can." - Claire F.
"Someone who identifies as Asian, by race, but who lives in and culturally identifies with the American nationality. This term describes someone with an intersectionality of identities, and people often confuse or misjudge them." - Lily
"Stereotyped as smart and a model minority. I also think of activism and representation, particularly in media" - Sam
"Microaggressions and political/social issues, but also of being able to experience two distinct cultures and connecting with others who share that experience." - Iris
"One moment in my english class freshman year of high school. For some context, I come from a town with one of the highest populations of white Irish Immigrants in the nation, and 75% of my town is caucasian. We were having a group discussion and someone referred to all Asian Americans as just Chinese, not even Chinese American and like no other Asian countries existed. The only Asian American kid in our class spoke up and corrected them. It was a weird moment and I think they genuinely didn’t know it was wrong. Of course, we had never really had to address it until this point since so few people were Asian in my town." - Julia
“An individual from an ‘Asian’ country who was born/grew up in America. I believe only second generation Asians in America are considered ‘Asian American.’” - Robin
“Americans whose descendants were immigrants from East Asian countries.” - Gabe
"Someone who has both of these aspects in their identity. It is totally up to the person who identifies as ‘Asian American’ and how they use it. If they are Asian but have lived in the U.S. for their whole life and choose to identify this way, that’s fine, or if they have one parent who is Asian and another who is ‘American’ then they can also identify this way, or adopted children who have ‘American’ parents." - Courtney
"An Asian person, often female, around my age." - Nate
"When the term ‘Asian American’ was established and its origin, how it represents many different things in terms of culture, food, religion, clothing, how special and unique our holidays/celebrations/traditions are." - Jenny
"The first thing that comes to mind is hard working. There isn’t a single Asian American I know who doesn’t work their butt off in both a physical and emotional way." - Cameron
"From what I've noticed outside of the U.S., I think there is a big difference between the way people perceived 'Asian Americans' vs 'Americans.' Oftentimes the word 'American' can be associated with ignorance or disregard for affairs/issues/cultures outside of the U.S., especially given the political climate over the past few years. But when you bring in the word ‘Asian’, it does in a sense bridge the two parts of the world and helps change the perception of what we think of as the stereotypical 'American.'" - Natasha
"The prejudice and racism that Asian Americans and Asians are facing right now because of the pandemic we are living through. I think of the racism we faced in American history and how it's not taught in schools or talked about very often. I think about the children of immigrants and how hard we work to prove to ourselves that we deserve to be recognized as American, as part of the country we grew up in." - Sabrina
When did you first hear the term “Asian American?”
"In 1st grade when I was forced to take ELL classes even though my English was perfect. It was literally because I was Asian." - Sara
"On some sort of standardized test, MCAS, probably. I think around third grade." - Anshula
"I can’t recall exactly when I first heard the term ‘Asian American,’ but I can tell you when it became very relevant to me, which was high school. In elementary and middle school, I was tragically seen as ‘different’ because I was not white like the other people in my town, or my family did not act or live the same as everyone else. However, in high school, the term ‘Asian American’ was increasingly defined in the friends I made (I discovered that the Asian community actually did exist in my town - whoop whoop!), and I realized our lives are actually so interconnected with one another. Thus, I’d say high school was when ‘Asian American’ became a term I began to see in a new light." - Jess
"In high school when one of my friends talked about APAC." - anonymous (APAC is the Asian Pacific American Club at our high school)
"Recently, somewhere probably in a textbook. I had rarely heard it in conversation before I got to college." - Madeline
"I don’t exactly recall the first moment I heard ‘Asian American,’ but the first time it meant something to me was in sixth grade. As a good chunk of my childhood was spent in a predominantly white community, a few instances that I encountered at the time made me feel different from my classmates and the people around me." - Janice
"I can’t really recall the first time I heard the term ‘Asian American’ — it somehow didn’t come as a revelation to me. I first heard it probably in elementary or middle school, maybe in history class, maybe from a friend or family member." - Anna
"In a program I participated in during high school called Courageous Conversations on Race. We talked a lot about the intricacies of racial identity, and that is where I first heard the term and began to think about how it differs greatly from the term 'Asian.'" - Claire F.
"In 5th grade but that was because we were talking about racism (mostly towards African Americans) but Asian American was definitely said." - Claire D.
"I think it’s always been a part of my vocabulary. There’s never been a time when someone truly explained and dictated that this is a term and this is the first time I’m hearing it." - Lily
"Sometime when I was little because my very first friend, Grace, was adopted from China by an Irish American family and like a kid I didn’t really understand how that came to be." - Julia
"Probably around middle school while watching YouTube. I watched a lot of Asian American YouTubers, so I learned a lot from them." - Jackie
“Most likely in the last couple years as the term is becoming more widely used.” - Robin
"It probably was when I was in elementary school and we had these themed lunches a few times a year and sometimes they were Asian centered. But the first time I really thought about it was probably when I was in high school. Kind of embarrassing but also I spent most of my life in a very non-diverse town." - Courtney
"When I was younger, I saw my father check off this term when filling out a form for me and I remember being confused why there was no option for Korean American. For most of my life, I found this term to constantly shift in its level of inclusiveness and specificity in both positive and negative ways." - Kathleen
"From (American-influenced) social media. Prior to that, I never really thought of anyone as simply 'Asian' – that term was way too broad to describe the largely diverse Asian cultures. I had always thought of Americans from Asian descent as 'Chinese American,' 'Indian American,' etc., as the broad term 'Asian' didn't seem to be able to encompass the vastly different traditions, values, or even native languages of the people we were referring to, whether in the context of 'Asian Americans' or just 'Asians' in general." - Natasha
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