Asian American Identity

Who is an Asian American? Who is an Asian American? “Asian American” can mean different things to different people. At the most basic level, an Asian American is an American who is of Asiatic descent. The term is so broad though that to make further assumptions about an Asian American would be folly. Within this racial category are many distinctions, like ethnicity, class, and place of origin, that overlap and intersect as they define Asian …

…the interethnic marriage figures shown before. As children are born to those unions, and pan-Asian children are born, it seems only logical that eventually primary identification by ethnicity will become less common as identification as an Asian American increases. Class and ethnicity will still matter, as will place of origin for immigrants, in defining identity, but differences among these categories may become less important as Asian Americans unite behind their shared identity and common experiences.