Asian Pacific Americans

"[3] Following this change, the U.S. Census Bureau defined Asian as "a person having origins in any of the original people of the Far East, for example, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam."

The term is used in reference to Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, the first ten days of May, established in 1978 by a joint resolution in the United States Congress.

The murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin in 1982 by two White Chrysler workers who apparently mistook him for a person of Japanese descent and attacked him as a representative of the rising dominance of the Japanese auto sector in the U.S., and the light penalty the two assailants were perceived to have been given, furthered the pan-racial movement for Asian American rights, bringing awareness of the shared struggles amongst the various pan-ethnic Asian American groups.

It is also believed by some authors that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders had shared experiences with colonialism and had been connected historically through trade and cultures.

Scholars, such as Stacy Nguyen, Dr. J. Kehaulani Kauanui, and Lisa Kahaleole Hall have argued that Asian American should be separate from Pacific Islander.

While Asian Americans suffer from immigration issues, Pacific Islanders are fighting for decolonization and sovereignty.

In "Remapping a Theoretical Space for Hawaiian Women and Indigenous Women," Hall argues that Asian Pacific Islander movements, as well as mainstream feminist movements, have failed to address issues specific to just Pacific Islanders.

Pacific Islanders face a different set of struggles than Asian Americans when it comes to land sovereignty and colonization.

[18] Lucy Hu argues Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans face a completely different set of racial and economic issues.

While the Asian American community has a higher median annual income than the national average, many Pacific Islanders are living below the poverty line.

[21] a^ The data for 2000 is generated by adding the Asian and Pacific Islander populations from two different sources both by the U.S. Census Bureau.