Photo credit: Cheska Tolentino
Stop AAPI hate sign
Yard sign photographed by Cheska Tolentino
by Daniel Domaguin, LCSW
The United States has celebrated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month since 1991 (Library of Congress, 2020). Prior to 1976, there was no “Asian/Pacific American” or any of its multiple forms, such as “Asian American Pacific Islander” (AAPI), on government documents until the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) introduced the term “Asian or Pacific Islander” (Young et al., 2008). However, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been listed as separate pan-ethnic groups since 1997, when the OMB separated “Asian” from “Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander” (Ishisaka, 2020), after Native Hawaiian community members fought to have the two groups separated (Hall, 2015). Pacific Islanders did not ask to be part of “AAPI” and have actively resisted to maintain separation. Why, then, does “AAPI” still get used? How is its continued usage, including by social workers and human service agencies, perpetuating harm?
The concept of “Asian American” was initially conceived in Hawai‘i during World War II, as Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino settlers shared similar othering experiences as non-Asians (Wright & Spickard, 2002). Politicization of this new identity occurred in the late 1960s, as movements against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and racial equality inspired Asians to organize. The widespread usage of “Asian American” as a self-identifying term sprang from the UC Berkeley-based Asian American Political Alliance, a group with associations to the Black Panthers (Ho, 2000). “Asian American,” then, began as a political term for Asians living in the United States, who prior to this time identified with their own specific ethnic groups rather than this new pan-ethnicity. New ethnic and national identities from across South, East, and Southeast Asia would, through the years, become a part of the encompassing term. As mentioned, the “P” was added to represent the people of the Pacific Islands, a distinct geographic region encompassing the island groups of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Even though “AAPI” was supposedly created to provide “visibility” to Pacific Islander communities, the opposite effect has been true, with Asian Americans (and Americans, in general) being ignorant of Pacific Islander issues and history.
This ignorance has a harmful impact on Pacific Islander communities when they are supposedly being served through “AAPI” organizations. Debbie Hippolite Wright and Paul Spickard (2002) addressed the notion of Pacific Islander identity as separate from Asian American identity, asserting that “Pacific Islanders perceive themselves as different and distinct from Asian Americans.” This was a theme that emerged in their research among Pacific Islander communities (p. 112). One of their interviewees commented, “I have seen the term ‘Asian Pacific Islanders’ written in books and articles but never thought it related to me” (p. 112). As mentioned earlier, Native Hawaiians fought against the use of “AAPI” and succeeded in separating Pacific Islanders from Asian Americans. Yet, the use of “AAPI” persists, even after community members have stated that they do not feel a part of that construct, as well as specifically asking to be removed.
How, then, can “AAPI” organizations aid Pacific Islander clients, when Pacific Islanders do not see themselves as a part of the “AAPI” construct? Social workers and other human service providers who work with Asian Americans must be aware of the disparities in cultural attitudes and perceptions amongst the variety of groups within Asian America in order to provide appropriate services. This becomes complicated when the “P” is inserted in organizational titles and missions. Many human service organization websites use “AAPI” and similar terms to describe the population they are working with, but refer to this population as a singular “community.” Furthermore, while specific online resources may be linked for different ethnic groups within the Asian American community, no Pacific Islander resources, either pan-ethnic or ethnicity-specific, are likely to be listed. Human service organizations’ passive acceptance and use of “AAPI” silences the voices of Pacific Islanders who have challenged the use of the term for decades.
The use of “AAPI” has seen a recent resurgence with the rise of Anti-Asian hate incidents, including violence against East Asian-presenting people who have been targeted as a result of harmful rhetoric blaming the People’s Republic of China and Chinese people for COVID-19. Hashtags such as #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate are used both together and interchangeably, and social media posts talk about supporting the “AAPI community” while speaking specifically about incidents and acts of violence perpetrated against Asian people. “AAPI” seems to be used as shorthand for “Asian” in these circumstances, even though “Asian” has just one more letter. Well-meaning but ill-informed social workers and human service staff use “AAPI” to be inclusive and aware during this time of heightened violence against the Asian community, but ultimately continue the use of a term that Pacific Islanders have repeatedly asked to not be a part of, essentially denying consent to a group they are supposedly providing services to (Hall, 2015; Niumeitolu, 2015; Pacific Islanders’ Club, 2016).
Use of “AAPI” may actually violate the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. Section 1.02 of the Code states that “social workers respect and promote the right of clients to self determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals” (NASW, 2017). Using “AAPI” as it has been utilized historically would not promote self-determination, as “AAPI” has privileged Asian American issues and experiences, while Pacific Islander issues have been afterthoughts, if thoughts at all. Section 1.04(c) reads, “When generally recognized standards do not exist with respect to an emerging area of practice, social workers should exercise careful judgment and take responsible steps (including appropriate education, research, training, consultation, and supervision) to ensure the competence of their work and to protect clients from harm.” Section 4.01(c) additionally recognizes that “social workers should base practice on recognized knowledge, including empirically based knowledge, relevant to social work and social work ethics.” Considering the fact that most sources on the “AAPI” community, scholarly and otherwise, barely touch on (if not completely leave out) Pacific Islander issues, competency in the needs of the Pacific Islander community is out of the question. Another contradiction lies in section 6.01, which states, “Social workers should promote the general welfare of society…and should promote social, economic, political and cultural values and institutions that are compatible with the realization of social justice” (NASW, 2017, emphasis mine). As discussed, organizations using “AAPI” have fallen short in providing adequate resources and information regarding their Pacific Islander clientele.
Asian American community members defend their continued use of “AAPI” by noting that the Asian pan-ethnic term is also diverse, and that Asian and Asian American organizations (let alone “AAPI” ones) are also inadequate in providing assistance to such a disparate service population. There are multitudes of discussions that can be had regarding how the use of “Asian” or “Asian American” is also problematic and not inclusive, specifically for South, Central, and Southeast Asian community members who may not be fully represented by the pan-ethnic identity. This is an important conversation to be had by Asians and Asian Americans, and has nothing to do with Pacific Islanders not being lumped in with “AAPI.”
As we celebrate the Biden Administration’s newly-declared “Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month,” be cognizant of who is being celebrated and also how the conflation of these two large pan-ethnic groups is not only problematic, but harmful. The solution to this ethical dissonance is quite simple: Do not use AAPI.
References
Hall, L.K .(2015). Which of these is not like the other: Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are not Asian Americans, and all Pacific Islanders are not Hawaiian. American Quarterly, 67(3), pp. 727-747.
Ho, F. (2000). Introduction. In Ho, F. (Ed.), Legacy to liberation: Politics and culture in revolutionary Asian Pacific America (pp. i-vi). Big Red Media.
Ishisaka, N. (2020). Why it's time to retire the term 'Asian Pacific Islander.' The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/why-its-time-to-retire-the-term-asian-pacific-islander/
Library of Congress. (2020). Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/asian.php
National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Code of ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/about/ethics/code-of-ethics/code-of-ethics-english.aspx
Niumeitolu, F. (2015). Pacific Islanders march for self-determination. https://morethantwominutes.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/pacific-islanders-march-for-self-determination/
Pacific Islanders' Club. (2016). The stake Pacific Islanders have in ethnic studies. https://medium.com/@picsfsu/the-stake-pacific-islanders-have-in-ethnic-studies-133e1bf0a196
Wright, D.H., & Spickard, P. (2002). Pacific Islander Americans and Asian American identity. In Võ, L.T. & Bonus, R. (Eds.), Contemporary Asian American communities: Intersections and divergences (pp. 105-119). Temple.
Young, K.T., Faletau, V., Pang, V., & Glass, N.F. (2008). Guidance on the classification of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders [Flyer]. Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum.
Daniel Domaguin, LCSW (he/him, isú), is a second-generation Ilokano immigrant, born and raised in Tiipai/southern Kumeyaay territory (south San Diego, CA). He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, his Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan, and currently provides behavioral health training and technical assistance services to Tribal and other communities in California.