Asian Americans, a Term in Transition

Debra M. Kawahara

Asian Americans , a term used to represent a U.S. socially constructed racial category, was coined by the late Yuji Ichioka in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. The racial category includes those Americans whose families were from Asia and often encompasses those from the Pacific Islands. The terms Asian Pacific Americans and Asian/Pacific Islander Americans are also commonly used to refer to individuals whose family origins are from Asia and the Pacific Islands. For the same reasons that other racial groups such as African Americans rejected historically used racial terms such as Negro , many Asian Americans rejected the term Oriental because of its negative connotations and associated stereotypes, and they embraced the new term with pride. The term includes members of at least 40 ...

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