| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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The model minority myth and successes in assimilation are underlying tropes to which people of Asian descent must respond directly and indirectly in their daily lives. These issues are particularly perplexing when we consider the ideology that racial categories are socially constructed (McDaniel, 1995). The term Asian American encompasses anyone who can claim ancestry from the continent of Asia, including groups who may have been slotted in different racial groups in history (Prashad, 2000) and those who may have been in conflict with each other throughout history before being lumped together as a singular racial category in the United States.
The problem of panethnicity and ethnicity lies in how people of Asian descent in the United States oscillate between the blanketing yet politically powerful position of panethnicity and the particular yet self-identifying agency of ethnicity. Prompted by the mass mobilization of people of color during the Civil Rights Movement, people of Asian descent came together to create a coalition to fight for their rights alongside other minorities. The pan-Asian American movement started as student movements in California—at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State College (now called San Francisco State University)—to mobilize people of Asian descent to have a bigger voice in political issues that affected them. The hope was to unite people of Asian descent under one umbrella so that the bloc can be more influential in politics by electing officials who would be more sympathetic to their needs (Espiritu, 1992). There is also an economic dimension to panethnicity as well, for federal funds are allocated to groups that are considered to be legitimate or recognized (Omi & Winant, 1994). Moreover, political clout is most often backed by financial contributions and influ-ence. While there is a great diversity in Asian cultures, languages, and histories, new cultures of unity based on common political visions are being forged in panethnic groups.
Prior to the 1960s, most Asian Americans were first-generation immigrants. This posed a linguistic barrier to mobilize people of Asian descent because there was no one unifying language (Espiritu, 1992). Moreover, their interest in American politics was not as marked as their interest in politics in their homeland.