©2007 By Jane Junn and Natalie Masuoka
To appear, Perspectives on Politics

Given our contention that Asian American racial identity may be constructed differently than that for African Americans, we first began our study by conducting semi-structured interviews with Asian American youth in California. We selected a number of racial group consciousness and political participation questions that have been asked in previous public opinion surveys. Through these interviews we observed how Asian American respondents answered these questions, which informed the development of survey items and analysis in the following section. We also used the in-depth interviews to provide a sense of the words and ways in which respondents describe their racial identities and how they feel their identities are related to politics. While the data are exploratory inasmuch as they do not emanate from a randomly selected sample of the populations in the locales in question, the responses from these Asian Americans provide a clear window into the power of that identity. Despite the complexities and the hesitations respondents often express in claiming a racial group identity as Asian American, a sense of racial consciousness clearly exists.

We found three major patterns in the in-depth interview data. First, our Asian American respondents began by describing their racial identity in cultural terms. In response to the range of linked fate and group similarity questions, our respondents provided cultural reasons to describe how Asian Americans are different from whites, including examples including food or their experiences with their parents. From this initial vantage point, our Asian American respondents did not appear to see that their racial identities were connected with political consequences. This may provide some explanation why previous studies on Asian American political behavior have failed to find a clear connection between racial group identity and political participation. General questions relating to group connectedness and linked fate may have the immediate effect of cueing a cultural identity rather than a political identity.

Although the first half of our structured interviews may have led us to believe that Asian American identity may be more cultural as opposed to political, when we turned to questions regarding electoral politics we found respondents revealed a sense of racial attachment. However, this racial attachment, like their answers to the racial identity questions, had many caveats. Our Asian American respondents understood the importance of descriptive representation but also perceived consequences of that attachment:

I’d like to say I would be more prone to vote for [an Asian American candidate]. But I would probably say that I would be more critical of them. Just because I think that they would be a huge role model and all the attention would be on them. And even if they were the most Americanized person ever, I think people would still associate their Asian background and just use that as a reason why they made a certain decision or not (Erin, fourth generation Japanese).

For our respondents, racial attachment in politics was explicitly linked with promoting a positive Asian American image. Not all of our respondents felt their racial identity played a role in their political beliefs, but those who did use racial attachment in their political choices perceived the benefit of showing not only other Asian Americans but also whites that Asian Americans are qualified to be in politics.

Second, our Asian American respondents describe an identity that is dependent on the context. Asian American respondents took into consideration their surrounding social environment before describing their identities. In response to the question, “What term would you call yourself – American, Asian, Asian American or by national origin?” one respondent explained:

I think it depends on who I’m talking to. If I was talking to a white person and they ask me what I am, I guess I would say I’m Vietnamese- Chinese. But I think they label me as Asian. But I think of myself as Vietnamese-Chinese (Tiffany, second generation).

Our Asian American respondents also took into consideration how racial group lumping influences how they are labeled. In response to a question on perceptions of linked fate this respondent answered:

Yes, because people in California – because I don’t know about other states – but people in California label anyone who looks Asian as Asian and nothing else. You’re not considered Japanese, you’re considered Asian, so when things happen to one specific Asian everyone just automatically assumes it’s going to happen to you too (Erin, fourth generation Japanese).

As a general pattern, our Asian American respondents identify that there are differences by national origin group, but they also were cognizant that others do not understand these differences. This awareness led our Asian American respondents to make certain caveats when they answered our racial identity questions. So while we find that our respondents feel a clear sense of racial and cultural difference from mainstream white society, their personal experiences with racial group lumping have led them to hesitate before describing their racial identity to others.

Third, our Asian American respondents were very open with what they considered a lack of “Asian” qualities. These respondents felt that their personalities and preferences paralleled more closely with their white peers as opposed to those from Asia. Their acceptance of what has been labeled as “whitewashed” racial identities may lead some to claim that Asian American youth lack a racialized identity and have fully assimilated into a white culture. However, upon deeper examination, these Asian American youth do not necessarily equate their “whitewashed” identities with being white. In fact, in our interviews, many who openly identified as “whitewashed” were also those who evoked a politicized racial identity. To define the term “whitewashed,” one respondent provided the following testimony:

Yes, oh my gosh, these jeans are from American Eagle, this shirt is Abercrombie. I would definitely attest to that [being whitewashed]. Me and Ben, he’s Vietnamese and completely fluent in Vietnamese. But he sports Hollister. He calls himself a twinkie, yellow on the outside, white on the inside or a banana. I was going to say that all my Asian friends act white but my three Asian roommates don’t act white, at all. [Interviewer: “What makes them Asian?”] Superficially, where we shop alone. [I shop at] Abercrombie. But it sucks because Abercrombie does not like minorities in their image. So I’ve stopped shopping there but I’m going to use their perfume up. [Interviewer: “Did you stop shopping there?”] Yeah, I did, it didn’t seem right, they’re not being American. Being a part of the boycott seemed welcoming (Lourdes, second generation Filipino).

Within the context of defining her own whitened identity, this respondent revealed how she evoked a politicized identity in her decision to join the boycott. The clothing company she describes here had recently been sued by a former Asian American employee who had been fired, she maintained, due to her racial background. Interestingly, although this respondent claimed a “whitewashed” identity, she also demonstrates a willingness to act on behalf of an Asian American cause. So although this respondent did not describe political qualities to her racial identity, she still realized that her individual life choices are linked with her racial group. Interestingly, this was not our only respondent whose description of their identity did not match many of their social and political preferences.

From the interviews, we identified three patterns about Asian American racial identity. First, Asian Americans do perceive a racial identity, but there are many dimensions to this identity. What could be considered very simple questions regarding group commonality or identity descriptor are not so simple in the minds of Asian Americans. In our in-depth interviews, Asian Americans view their identities through multiple sets of dichotomies: national origin vs. racial, immigrant vs. native born, Americanized vs. Asian. Thus, Asian American racial identity is complex and is perceived by Asian Americans as having multiple, interrelated layers. Second, Asian American racial identity is relevant to political behavior. Asian Americans understand that there are social and political consequences attached to their racial identity and are willing to take into account those consequences in their political decisions. Finally, Asian American racial identity must be activated through contextual frames. Although we believe Asian American racial identity to exist, we observed our Asian Americans respondents as hesitant to immediately evoke their racial identities. Asian American racial identity must first be primed and, more importantly, substantiated before Asian Americans are willing to assert their racial identities in their social and political choices. Therefore, unlike African Americans, whose politicized racial identities are more of a given, Asian American racial identities need to be activated before they can be used as a tool for political action.