Asian American Studies, Comparative Racialization, and Settler Colonial Critique

Just data representation for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: A critical review of systemic Indigenous erasure in census and recommendations for psychologists

“…For example, experiences of discrimination for AAPI likely differ at the intersection of multiple social identities and sociopolitical contexts of each group. Third, when NHPIs are included in the study, we recommend that researchers explicitly use Indigeneity as a critical analytic framework (Tiongson, 2019), and U.S. settler colonialism as the fundamental cause of health and social inequities for NHPIs (Phelan & Link, 2013). Fourth, we recommend that researchers should be self‐reflective of their own positionality within and in relation to the communities they are working with (Clauss‐Ehlers et al, 2017), and engage with community partners by sharing ownership in the decision‐making process when applicable.…”

“…Such aggregation in the AAPI category legitimizes the misconception of homogeneity among AAPIs (Hollinger, 2006), and can mask important and meaningful heterogeneities within both communities (Hall, 2015). That is, despite the frequent conflation of NHPIs with Asian Americans as AAPI, their relations to the United States and their experiences fundamentally and substantially differ from Asian Americans (Hall, 2015; Tiongson, 2019). For instance, while Asian Americans' “incorporation” to the United States have been predominantly “controlled” by series of racist nativism that shaped exclusionary immigration laws (although U.S. imperialism also contributed to “push” factors for Asian immigration; Lee, 2015); NHPIs have been “incorporated” into the United States as a result of American imperialism and colonization throughout the Pacific, beginning with the United States' acquisition of Guam, Sāmoa, and the Marshall Islands after the 1898 Spanish‐American War (Spickard et al, 2012).…”

“…Such differences in sociopolitical contexts provide critical nuances for how NHPI Peoples are categorized, how the Census is collected using the categorization, and how results from data should be interpreted. Furthermore, when NHPIs are conflated into AAPI, it contributes to the missed opportunities to center Indigeneity and U.S. settler colonialism in understanding complex experiences of NHPI persons and communities, and their social justice concerns from the communities (e.g., Asian settler colonialism in Hawai'i; Kauanui, 2005; Tiongson, 2019).…”

“…Such forcefully confined pan‐racial categorization provides important opportunities for coalition building and political solidarity, yet this aggregation also in turn legitimizes the misconception of homogeneity among AAPI (Hollinger, 2006). Furthermore, an AAPI category leads to the missed opportunity for appropriately centering Indigeneity as a critical analytic point for assessing NHPIs’ experiences (Tiongson, 2019), and U.S. settler colonialism as the fundamental cause of health and social inequities for NHPI (Phelan & Link, 2013). In turn, systemic erasure of NHPIs in data leads to invisiblizing the complexities and social justice concerns of NHPI persons and communities.…”

Underrepresented Encounters in Mining Towns: Chinese and Indigenous Relations in the Cariboo Region During the 1850s to 1920s

“…What this means for this research is a recognition that Chinese immigrants, whether or not they are aware of it, have been complicit in the process of settler colonialism. Tiongson (2019) examines how Asian Americans and Asian Canadians are intentionally and unintentionally part of settler colonialism because their striving for belonging produced their participation in Indigenous land dispossession. In particular, socially constructed racial hierarchies that are constructed to perpetuate and support white supremacy can become ingrained in the thinking of Chinese immigrants (and other settlers) as factual as they try to find a space of belonging within the temporal and geographical space.…”