During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, TODAY is sharing the community’s history, pain, joy and what’s next for the AAPI movement. We will be publishing personal essays, stories, videos and specials throughout the entire month of May.
This year, amid a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents, there is a sharper focus on the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. With the increased attention comes more scrutiny on the AAPI designation. After all, the AAPI term seeks to include and represent an outsized group of people hailing from or having roots in the largest continent on Earth, a region that includes nearly 50 countries.
Among Pacific Islanders, specifically, there’s a renewed debate about the inclusion of Pacific Islanders within wider AAPI initiatives and programs. Some argue that Pacific Islanders benefit when categorized alongside Asian Americans. Others say Pacific Islanders are underrepresented and should be separated because their issues and needs are different from those of Asian Americans. Yet another group, who have both Asian and Pacific Islander ties, are torn over the debate, unsure whether splitting up the AAPI grouping is necessary.
“We Polynesians don’t have any representation in the AAPI. I think it’s time we separate Asian American & Pacific Islander since this is becoming an ongoing problem,” a Twitter user wrote in a May 1 tweet.
“People have really strong feelings about combining asian & pacific islanders when talking about racism, which confuses me bc i’m half asian (filipino) & half pacific islander (chamorro)... i can’t separate the two, AAPI is just me,” tweeted another in March.
“What exactly is an 'AAPI' woman? Just say Asian American women, Pacific Islander women! We Pacific Islanders are indigenous to Oceania/Pacific & are not Asian! Terms such as 'AAPI, API Asian/Pacific Islander' flout federal laws (OMB Directive 15) to keep our groups separate!” another asserted, in response to a tweet from the American Civil Liberties Union about the gender wage gap and racial justice. The user's tweet referenced the White House Office of Management and Budget’s 15th directive which consists of standards for “maintaining, collecting, and presenting federal data on race and ethnicity.”
Who is considered Pacific Islander?
The federal government gathers and reports data for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders separately. In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget revised Directive No. 15 and divided the “Asian or Pacific Islander” racial classification into two separate ones — “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.” The change wouldn’t create a “new population group” but would expand government recognition of “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” as a separate racial category.
Anyone identifying as Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Northern Mariana Islander, Samoan, Fijian, Micronesian, Carolinian, Palauan, Papua New Guinean, Kosraean, Ponapean (Pohnpelan), Trukese (Chuukese), Yapese, Melanesian, Polynesian, Solomon Islander, Tahitian, Tarawa Islander, Tokelauan or Tongan would fall under the “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” classification.
Tavae Samuelu, the executive director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), a national social justice organization based in Los Angeles, explained to TODAY that the definition of a Pacific Islander is complicated by multiple factors. “One, race is a social construct. So, 'Pacific Islanders' is constructed," she said. "Two, Pacific Islander is constructed a very specific way here in the U.S., that so many of the conversations I've had with folks … (in) international spaces, where, we have folks who are based in Australia or New Zealand who are like, ‘AAPI is not a thing here.’”
The definition, Samuelu added, is also shaped by years of U.S. colonization and militarism in the Pacific Islands and whether a Pacific Island nation has a formal relationship with the U.S. or not.
Dr. Lilikalā Kame’eleihiwa, a senior professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, defines Pacific Islanders as “the people whose ancestors were on those islands."
"If people have come in the last five or 10 generations, look, their ancestors are somewhere else, which is cool. That's fine, but they're not native or indigenous to the islands," Kame’eleihiwa told TODAY. "And to make sure that our own cultures never disappear, we have to make sure that we can stand up and say who we are.”
‘We need to have alliances’
Kame’eleihiwa, 68, who identifies as a Native Hawaiian, sees room for growth within the AAPI designation. “I think if there's only one question, 'Are you Asian American or Pacific Islander?' then that's not going to do very much good for people in the government who want to do the things we do for the people. I like that AAPI … that Asian American Pacific Islander term has been used in a way because there's a big network of people who are doing good things and are doing a lot of work.
"So the Asian community in America is much higher in numbers than the Pacific Islander or the Hawaiian community in America. And that means that we get to benefit from the work that Asians are doing on different issues about racism and bias, so that's a good thing."
But Kame’eleihiwa emphasized the AAPI term shouldn't be applied in all cases. “Now when it comes to the census, I think it should be broken out. I think Asians are not monolithic either. ... So you got Chinese lumped in with Indians with Indonesians, etc., that's such a big area. It's like saying all Caucasians are the same, which is what they do anyway, right?
"I'm not going to tell Asians what they should have, but for Native Hawaiians, we want to be counted separately on account of we want the country back. We want Hawaii to become an independent nation again. So we're always advocating for more control of our land, more control of our politics, more control of higher education. ... Our numbers are important to be counted. So we are Pacific Islanders, and we're happy to be Pacific Islanders."
May 15, 2021 at 12:17AM
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How inclusive is 'AAPI'? Pacific Islanders debate the label - Today.com
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