Abstract
Recent census reports tell us that Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. Yet, in Redefining Race, Dina Okamoto explains that the category of “Asian American” did not even exist before 1968. How do ethnic groups that differ by national origin, language, culture, class, phenotype, and religion come to be seen and identify as a panethnic group? How and when do group boundaries widen to create new bases for solidarity and collective action? This book examines pan-ethnic organizing using the case of Asian Americans. The study focuses in particular on the meso-level conditions that facilitate pan-ethnic organizing and collective action.
The author argues that while liberalization of immigration laws, access to citizenship and civil rights, and racialization by the larger society are preconditions for pan-ethnicity’s emergence, these are not enough. In addition to these preconditions, Okamoto identifies three factors that facilitate pan-ethnic organizing: 1) racial segregation in the labor market, 2) ethnic organizing, and 3) active leaders who espouse a narrative of collective identity.
Okamoto systematically develops this argument throughout the book using a rigorous mixed-methods study that includes historical archival data, analyses of quantitative data on ethnic organizations and collective action events, and data from in-depth interviews with organizational leaders. She begins with a convincing historical account that shows that prior to 1968, boundaries between Asian subgroups were quite rigid. Despite facing seemingly similar restrictions on immigration, naturalization, and civil rights, Asian immigrants developed their own separate social and economic support systems within their ethnic communities, largely due to antagonistic relationships between immigrants’ homelands, as well as their status as newcomers.
The remainder of the book draws on analyses of original datasets that Okamoto painstakingly created through the collection of information across three decades. For one set of analyses, Okamoto collected information from the Encyclopedia of Associations on when Asian ethnic and pan-Asian organizations were formed or ceased to exist and how their characteristics changed over time. Her careful analyses of this dataset show that the emergence of Asian American pan-ethnic organizations was not just in response to macro-level conditions such as racialization, but rather varied across time and place in response to meso-level conditions. Okamoto shows that the number of Asian pan-ethnic organizations per capita surpassed that of Latinos or blacks and that while pre-1970 pan-ethnic Asian organizations were focused on relations with or the study of Asia, after 1970 pan-ethnic organizations were focused on building a multiethnic Asian community. In contrast to competition theories suggesting that pan-ethnicity emerges where racialized groups compete with other groups for resources, Okamoto’s systematic analysis shows that, in the post-civil-rights era, pan-ethnic organizations were more likely to emerge in metropolitan areas where Asians were segregated from other racial groups into low-status occupations, while pan-ethnic organizations were less likely to develop in areas with high levels of segregation between Asian ethnic subgroups.
For a second set of analyses, Okamoto collected information from three national newspapers on collective action events involving Asian Americans. Her findings based on these analyses underscore one of the most important and counterintuitive arguments in the book: collective action and organizing by Asian ethnic groups and Asian pan-ethnic groups are mutually beneficial, and not opposing, forces. Here, Okamoto uses event history analysis to show that pan-Asian collective action events are more likely to occur as the number of Asian ethnic organizations increases in a metropolitan area. Okamoto draws on these findings to argue that group boundaries are layered and boundaries at the pan-ethnic and ethnic level can be asserted at the same time.
Okamoto uses a case study of ethnic organizations in the San Francisco-Oakland area to delve more deeply into the process through which ethnicity and pan-ethnicity are intertwined. Drawing on in-depth interview data with leaders of ethnic and pan-ethnic Asian organizations, Okamoto shows that only ethnic organizations headed by leaders who promoted inclusive narratives and prioritized programs that benefited others beyond their ethnic group moved toward a pan-ethnic model. These leaders, most of whom were children of immigrants, negotiated pan-ethnic practices while maintaining ethnic boundaries.
In sum, Okamoto’s racialized boundary framework emphasizes the flexible and layered nature of ethnic and racial boundaries. In contrast to views that equate the expansion of ethnic boundaries with assimilation, Okamoto argues that pan-ethnicity does not necessarily indicate the erosion of ethnic affiliations or organizing. Instead, pan-ethnicity can not only coexist with continued ethnic identities and organizing, but ethnicity and pan-ethnicity can mutually reinforce one another. Despite the title’s suggestion that Asian American pan-ethnicity involves a redefinition of race or a shifting of ethnic boundaries, Okamoto’s key argument is that expanding ethnic boundaries through pan-ethnic organizing often does not constitute so much a shift in identity but rather a layering of identities.
The quality and depth of the research in Redefining Race are impressive, and the arguments are convincing. However, in comparative terms, some of the findings are somewhat surprising, such as that high levels of racial segregation in the labor market are associated with pan-ethnic organizing. On average, given the selectivity of Asian migration, one would think most Asian ethnic groups are more integrated into labor markets than most Latino or black ethnic groups, yet, as Okamoto shows, these groups have lower levels of pan-ethnic organizing. Here is where more description of key variables such as racial segregation in the labor market would have been helpful, as well as some examples of key metropolitan areas with high levels of Asian racial segregation and associated rises in pan-ethnic organizing.
As the author suggests, one clear direction for future research would be to examine how generalizable these findings are to other pan-ethnic groups, such as Latinos. Another direction for future research would be to examine how closely pan-ethnic organizing and pan-ethnic identification correspond. At times, the author seems to conflate pan-ethnicity more generally, which could be examined at the individual level through studying self-identification or intermarriage, with pan-ethnic organizing. As Okamoto notes, but does not fully engage, pan-ethnic organizing might emerge as a particular political strategy without corresponding to an enduring identity.
Overall, the book’s findings regarding the meso-level conditions that facilitate pan-ethnic organizing are convincing, and the argument that ethnic and pan-ethnic boundaries can mutually reinforce one another is compelling. Redefining Race is an important contribution and should be required reading for anyone interested in ethnic organizations and collective action or racial and ethnic boundary-making.