Asian American Identities: Racial and Ethnic Identity Issues in ...

Having a common language in which to communicate can become a strong unifying factor, however, this is an advantage that Asian Americans do not have, given the variety of cultures, languages, and countries that they come from (Portes & Rumbaut, 1996). This level of diversity is an important consideration to take into account when studying the identity experiences of Asian Americans. Despite the growth in the interest of the identity development of Asian Americans, the generic “Asian” racial classification, which actually constitutes 29 distinct ethnic groups, often conceals important ethnic group differences in language, religion, values, cultural norms, value orientations, and immigration history (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1993). It is important to acknowledge this diversity in research conducted on this group.

In light of the diversity of Asian Americans as a group and how it has been defined and redefined, an individual’s choice of identity has shifted considerably given the political climate in the United States, as well as its relationship to Asian countries. As this group continues to grow and identities continue to shift, it is imperative that psychologists begin to address the ways in which individuals might identify differently with these socially constructed terms, as this has implications for the study of identity in this group. Examining the extent to which an individual might identify differently with a racial and an ethnic-specific identity is important for a number of reasons. There has been some debate among scholarly circles within the disciplines of sociology and ethnic and racial studies regarding who is considered “Asian American” in the American context (Prashad, 1998; Shankar & Srikanth, 1998). Because the Asian American classification has been used for political purposes, and most notably for census purposes (Espiritu, 1992; Fong, 1998; Shankar & Srikanth, 1998; Takaki, 1998), there is some ambiguity regarding which Asian origin groups are considered more traditionally “Asian.”