The Asian Fusion Confusion

The Asian Fusion Confusion

Source: CNN 2021

Presidential Proclamation 6130 in 1990 designates the month of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month also known as AAPI Month. On this month, while much of the news is focused on the rise of anti-Asian American hate crimes, I reflect upon the public's inadvertent and misguided fusion of Asian identities. Don't get me wrong, the reporting of anti-Asian hate crimes and the eventual signing of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act are important and very much appreciated. Somewhere in this conversation though, my personal feelings about how my identity is fused in the all-encompassing "Asian" term makes me cringe sometimes.

Over the years, I have heard anti-Asian remarks that are laughably ignorant.

"Go back to China, chinky-eyes!"

"So, are you Asian? But you said you're Filipino?"

"Your husband is white. Did he meet you in the navy and brought you here?"

"It's AAPI month. Are you bringing Chinese food?"

If I allow it, remarks like these can provoke me to anger, but I choose not to. To be honest, the remark that made me close to jumping on someone's throat was the third one to which I sweetly replied, "Hell no!" 😠

The ignorance is in the Asian Fusion confusion. Asia is the largest of the seven continents, people! It boggles the mind that some people boldly assign "Asian" as an all-encompassing culture and identity. Even the US Census Bureau is specific about the ethnicity of peoples from Asia... since 1870!

A huge thank you to this CNN article for validating how I feel. People from or descended from Asia come from one of the four geographical groups - East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander.

The US Census Bureau did not specify "Filipino" as a selection until the 1920 census. Yet, when I immigrated in 1998, it was still very much absent in most of the government, school, and work documents I filled-out. The all-encompassing "Asian" term was there, but I always found myself hesitating bubbling that selection. In fact, I was more comfortable bubbling the "Pacific Islander" choice because the Philippines is an archipelago. I guess, I was being literal. I could not possibly be Asian as Asia is just way too big 🤣

So, to be clear... I am FILIPINO or FILIPINA or FILIPINX or PINOY/PINAY. I come from the Philippines which is one of the nine Southeast Asian countries, which is one of the four Asian/Pacific Islander ethnicities, which is in Asia, one of the seven continents on earth. Salamat!