While the term “Asian American” encompasses multiple ethnicities, conversations about Asians in the U.S. tend to center East Asians, leaving little understanding about how different Asian American groups are comparatively racialized.
Method. An English-speaking sample of 689 Asian Americans was recruited through a Qualtrics panel in December 2020. 49.6% identified as East Asian, 22.5% as Southeast Asian, 18.6% as South Asian, 6.5% as multiracial, and 3.1% as multiethnic Asian. We asked participants to select the census-designated racial category that most Americans would assume they are when on the street. Participants also indicated if they had ever been mistaken for another race/ethnicity and named the three most common misperceptions.
Results. 97% of East Asian, 79% of South Asian, 80% of Southeast Asian, 81% of multiracial, and 77% of multiethnic participants reported that most Americans perceive their race as Asian based on census-designated categories. Additionally, over half of South Asians (60%) and multiethnic Asians (63%) reported having been mistaken for a non-Asian race/ethnicity. As race is a social construct based on shared understandings of physical characteristics, additional analyses will explore how these ambiguities of Asian Americans’ street race impact racial/ethnic identity, group belonging, and discrimination.
Prasai. A.K., Song, H, Lee, C.S., Yoo, G, Liang, B., Okazaki, S., Chang, D.F., (2021, June). Asian or Ambiguous?: Street Race Experiences of Different Asian American Subgroups. Poster presentation at the American Psychological Association Division 45 Research Conference, Virtual.