Panethnicity Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

In the simplest sense, panethnicity means all ethnicities in a particular category. From this perspective, ethnic groups are usually collections of people with origins in the same nationstate: for example, Americans of Japanese descent would comprise one ethnic group, and Americans of Korean descent would comprise another. Members of those two roups, along with other Americans of Asian ancestry, could be placed together under the panethnic label “Asian American.”

In some cases, however, groups may have roots in multiple nation-states (e.g., Kurds), while individuals with origins in the same nation-state are comprised of a wide variety of subpopulations (Asian Indians, for example), each of which can be considered to constitute a different ethnic group. Because of this, panethnic groups can be categorized differently, although the most common approach in the United States uses panethnic labels very similar to the ones used to identify racial groups— so, for example,“Asian American” and “Latino” are labels used both when referring to racial groups and when referring to panethnic ones.

Distinguishing Panethnicity From Race

The concept of panethnicity differs significantly from the idea of race, however: panethnicity is a chosen identity, while race has frequently been imposed. Implicit in this is the idea that a panethnic group can be thought of as a collectivity comprised of smaller groups. Group names that reflect this—for example, pan-African or pan-Asian—call attention to the fact that their members may choose to identify in different ways.

The concept of panethnicity helps to highlight that individuals can embrace or reject these broader identities. For example, some choose to identify as Mexican American rather than Latino. For many individuals, the choice may vary with the situation. An individual with ancestral roots in Cambodia might identify as Cambodian in certain settings, while in others, the same person might identify as Asian American.

In contrast, racial identity has been imposed by others and has been used to deny opportunities to certain categories of people. For example, for African Americans, the “one drop” rule—which declared that any African ancestry made one “black”—was part of an effort to deny opportunities by eliminating any chance of assimilation into the more privileged segment of society. When racial categories created for blacks and whites were confronted with significant immigration from China and then Japan, another category— sometimes labeled “Oriental”—was formulated and defined as “nonwhite,” thereby making it easier for public officials to deny equal treatment to those of Asian ancestry.

When governments require individuals to use these broader categories, this is most appropriately defined as an act of racialization. Since many respondents would not voluntarily opt for labels such as “Asian American” or “Hispanic,” asking them to choose only from among those labels is imposing an identity, even though the rationale may be to benefit those upon whom the identity is imposed.

Because the political behavior of those who choose the broader labels may differ in significant ways from those who do not, it is important to have terms that distinguish between these two groupings. Without terms to differentiate between someone choosing to identify with a larger category and someone who has a larger category imposed on them, there is risk of conflating subpopulations whose political behavior and attitudes differ in significant ways. For example, an American of Vietnamese ancestry who chooses to identify as Asian American may have significantly different political orientations from an American of Vietnamese ancestry who chooses to identify as Vietnamese, but government data will typically lump both of them into the category Asian American.

Factors Promoting A Panethnic Identity

The concept of panethnicity highlights how immigrants may not categorize themselves the way that many native-born Americans would. Research has found that newcomers from Asia and Latin America usually do not identify panethnically, at least when they first arrive. Growing immigration from Africa emphasizes this point, as new African immigrants will often see many differences between themselves and African Americans whose ancestors arrived three centuries ago, despite the tendency of most Americans to lump them all into an undifferentiated “black” category. Recent immigrants are much more likely to choose national identities rather than panethnic ones—for example, Vietnamese rather than Asian American— although, over time, they may come to feel that they have some things in common with the larger panethnic group.

Some scholars suggest that politics can be an important factor in developing bonds that connect individuals to a panethnic group. Pei-te Lien argues that an Asian American identity has been greatly enhanced through political involvement, and Felix Padilla’s study of Chicago Latinos concluded that a pan-Hispanic coalition was fueled by shared political goals. Since the larger panethnic constituency is likely to wield more influence than individual ethnic groups, political participation may encourage panethnic thinking.

The development of a panethnic identity is not certain, however. Although political pundits speak of the “Latino vote” or the “Asian American vote,” implying panethnic unity, there is in fact considerable political diversity among Latinos and Asian Americans. African Americans do appear to have greater political similarities, reflecting conditions that have imposed a more powerful racial identity and given them a greater sense that their fate is linked to that of other African Americans. As immigration brings in growing numbers of people not familiar with the American notions of race and ethnicity, however, identification cannot be taken for granted, and understanding panethnicity will be increasingly important to understanding the politics of this country.

Bibliography:

Dawson, Michael. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Espiritu,Yen Le. Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions and Identities. Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1992.
Haney-Lopez, Ian. White by Law:The Legal Construction of Race. 10th anniversary ed. New York: New York University Press, 2006.
Lien, Pei-te. The Making of Asian America through Political Participation. Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 2001.
Lopez, David, and Yen Le Espiritu. “Panethnicity in the United States: A Theoretical Framework.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 13, no. 2 (1990): 198–224.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the New Millennium. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Padilla, Felix M. Latino Ethnic Consciousness: The Case of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.
Waters, Mary. Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. New York: Russell Sage, 1999.

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