LibGuides: We Need To Talk : AAPI Inclusion

Are All Asian American Experiences Created Equal?

Since the inception of the Asian American Movement, Filipino Americans, South Asian Americans, and Southeast Asian Americans have consistently vocalized feelings of marginalization and exclusion within the pan-ethnic group. Filipino Americans have described discrimination from other Asian Americans, including being told they are “not Asian enough”; being stereotyped as inferior or uncivilized; or being completely overlooked or excluded altogether.

South Asian Americans have shared how they are excluded from the Asian American umbrella because of their cultural, religious, and racial/phenotypic differences – resulting in lack of representation in Asian American Studies, narratives, and media representations.

Southeast Asian Americans have reported feeling like “other Asians” and being stereotyped as being inferior to East Asian Americans. Across all of these subgroups, individuals from these three subgroups describe a common narrative that “Asian” usually refers to East Asians – resulting in feelings of marginalization and invisibility within the Asian American umbrella.

We need to talk about the South Asian American experience!

Local South Asian and Pacific Islander Organizations

UNLV South Asian Student Association This student-led organization that represents South Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and more as it spreads South Asian culture through celebrating holidays, hosting cultural events, and educating the community.
UNLV Asian American Pacific Islander Student Association The purpose of the U.N.L.V. Asian American Pacific Islander Student Association (A.A.P.I.S.A.) is to unite all Asian and Pacific Islander American organizations on campus and foster an inclusive community of leadership, service, and mentorship through various social and educational events throughout the semester. Each academic semester, A.A.P.I.S.A. will host 1-2 grand events for A.A.P.I.S.A. members.
South Asian Young Professionals Alliance Whether you are interested in enhancing your network, broadening your knowledge, or taking charge of your career - we’ve got you’re back. We believe there are strength in numbers and we want you to stay inspired and motivated.
Las Vegas Hawaiian Civic Club The mission of this organization is to promote and perpetuate the traditional values and cultural expertise of Native Hawaiians, to promote educational projects for the benefit of any race (with the primary emphasis on the people of Hawaiian Ancestry or Hawaii born) and to assist in furthering their education with the aid of scholarships; and to unite members into one harmonious group, while working to promote good government. They also aim to take an active interest in the civic, economic, social, health and moral welfare of the community and the people of Hawaiian ancestry.

News You Can Use

South Asians Are Asians Too. When Will Our Racial Reckoning Be?
South Asians Are Asians Too. When Will Our Racial Reckoning Be? In other parts of the world, we are known by our place of origin—as Thai, Indian, Chinese, Pakistani, Bangladesi and so forth. Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States has also long predated this moment, and yet still we find ourselves contextualizing anti-Asian racism about certain groups (read: East Asians) versus our entire community.
Discrimination against Indian Americans happens more than you might think
Much of the recent media attention has focused — rightly, in our view — on Americans of East Asian descent. But to what extent are immigrants of South Asian heritage also victims of bias and discrimination? To shed light on this question, we carried out an original survey of Indian Americans, who make up the second-largest immigrant community in the United States.
The inadequacy of the term “Asian American”...
While Asian American was a term established by activists in the 1960s as a means to build political power, it’s also been criticized for obscuring the immense diversity among those it purports to cover, centering East Asians and preventing specific ethnic groups from getting the policy support they need. Asian Americans not only have the largest income gap of any racial group but also massive health care, education, and economic disparities that rarely get addressed.
New Analysis Shows Startling Levels Of Discrimination Against Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander Transgender Folx
API transgender people faced the combination of anti-transgender bias with structural and interpersonal racism. This analysis by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) is a supplement to the comprehensive national study released last year, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which revealed widespread discrimination experienced by transgender and gender non-conforming people across the board.

The South Asian American Experience

Research on South Asian and Pacific Islander Student Experiences

Food insecurity and Filipino Americans in Clark County, NV Filipino Americans comprise over half of the Asian American population in Clark County, Nevada. Despite their large numbers, food insecurity rates are aggregated with the entire Asian American population. In 2016, 1.6% of Asian American households in Clark County were food insecure, yet, 22% of households reported annual incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. This study aimed to assess the status and correlates of food insecurity specific to Filipino Americans in Clark County, Nevada.
Health Inequities of Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Family Caregivers: Disaggregate vs. Aggregate Data & Findings
Pacific Islanders in College Football: Getting in, Staying in, and Moving on This dissertation uses cultural and racial frameworks to offer counter-narratives that center PI perspectives, and decolonizes academic spaces that normalize whiteness and operationalize cultural racism in colleges and universities. This study of PI college football players focuses on three components of their college experience: 1) the college choice process (getting in), 2) transition and persistence (staying in), and 3) professional matriculation into the academy (moving on). Accordingly, this dissertation by compilation investigates each component as separate studies – Getting In, Staying In, and Moving On – but as integral parts of the same overarching research topic.

Wisdom from the Stacks

The Brown Asian American Movement: Advocating for South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Filipino American Communities
South Asian Americans have been particularly vocal about the need for data disaggregation, as a way of understanding the unique needs of their ethnic communities and combatting false notions of a homogenous “Model Minority”.
The Construction of South-Asian-American Womanhood
This article explores the ways in which South-Asian womanhood is socially constructed in the context of gendered racism in the U.S. mainstream society and gender-role expectations within the various South-Asian-American communities. These conceptions create a double bind for South-Asian-American women in which cultural loyalty and gender empowerment are placed in diametric
opposition to each other.

Whiter by Nikki Khanna (Editor)
ISBN: 9781479881086
Publication Date: 2020-03-10
Heartfelt personal accounts from Asian American women on their experiences with skin color bias, from being labeled "too dark" to becoming empowered to challenge beauty standards. In Whiter, thirty Asian American women provide first-hand accounts of their experiences with colorism in this collection of powerful, accessible, and brutally honest essays, edited by Nikki Khanna.
Fashioning Diaspora by Vanita Reddy
ISBN: 9781439911549
Publication Date: 2016-02-01
In her insightful study, Fashioning Diaspora, Vanita Reddy carefully maps how transnational itineraries of Indian beauty and fashion shaped South Asian American cultural identities and racialized belonging from the 1990s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. She observes how diasporic subjects engage with and respond to various encounters with Indian beauty and fashion.

We Need To Talk : AAPI Inclusion

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