The category “Asian American” currently encompasses more than forty-five Asian-origin groups, from countries ranging from Bangladesh to Vietnam to South Korea. How did one label come to include such a wide range of ethnicities, national origins, and languages, and represent individuals across vastly different social and economic standings? In Redefining Race, a new book from the Russell Sage Foundation, sociologist Dina G. Okamoto traces the complex evolution of “Asian American” as a cohesive identity, emphasizing how it has been a deliberate social achievement negotiated by group members, rather than an organic and inevitable process.

As Okamoto explains, a combination of broad social conditions in the post-Civil Rights era created an environment for Asian American panethnicity to develop. While the expansion of immigration policies in the 1960s allowed greater numbers of Asian immigrants into the U.S., these new immigrant groups were subsequently subject to racial discrimination by the state and larger society. At the same time, movements led by African Americans, women, and students provided Asian groups with models for political organizing and sparked the push for greater political representation among minorities. These conditions laid the groundwork for a collective identity among Asian immigrants of different ethnicities:

However, Okamoto argues that while these broad social conditions facilitated the development of a panethnic identity, the construction of “Asian American” as a cohesive category also required proximate factors such as ethnic organizing and active leaders. Because the racial segregation of Asians in similar occupations and industries produced a shared experience of racial discrimination, Asians of different national origins began to develop shared interests and identities. Somewhat paradoxically, organizing along distinct ethnic lines to gain recognition and rights from the larger society gave ethnic organizations an additional foundation necessary to build solidarity within different Asian-origin communities. Leaders and community members who created inclusive narratives and advocated policies that benefited groups beyond their own subsequently moved their discrete ethnic organizations toward a panethnic model.

As Okamoto shows, the process of building ties between ethnic communities while also recognizing ethnic diversity is the hallmark of panethnicity. In mapping the genesis of a panethnic Asian American identity, Redefining Race illustrates the ways in which ethnic and immigrant groups are able to challenge current racial categories and create new forms of community and identity. It also highlights how concepts of race continue to shape how ethnic and immigrant groups view themselves and organize for representation in the public arena.

Click here to read more or purchase a copy of Redefining Race.