For decades, every May, schools, businesses, government agencies and broader communities have taken part in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with lessons, events and celebrations. The month is a time to honor how AAPI communities have played (and continue to play) a role in shaping the U.S.
While Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month was officially designated by Congress in 1992, the push to recognize the contributions of AAPI communities took root much earlier. In 1977, lawmakers, including Reps. Frank Horton (who took inspiration from Jeanie Jew, a co-founder of the congressional Asian-Pacific staff caucus) and Norman Mineta and Sens. Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, proposed legislation for Asian Pacific Heritage Week, according to the U.S. Senate’s website. A year later, President Jimmy Carter signed into law a joint resolution, prompting the first official celebration in May 1979. Over the next decade, continued efforts led President George H.W. Bush to expand the celebration in the early 1990s to a full month.
Ultimately, May was chosen to honor two significant milestones in American history. One is the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the U.S. in 1843, and the other is the completion of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 — a historic achievement built in large part by Chinese laborers.
As the term “AAPI” gains visibility in conversations about identity and representations, it’s worth taking a moment to ask: What does “AAPI” mean, and who does it include? The answer, it turns out, is as rich and varied as the experiences that make up the acronym.
What does ‘AAPI’ mean?
“AAPI” stands for Asian American Pacific Islander. It is an umbrella term used in policy and advocacy in an attempt to unify people in the United States who identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander.
Manjusha Kulkarni — an attorney, the executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate — tells TODAY.com that the term encompasses roughly 24 million people across all 50 states plus U.S. territories.
“It’s really a political term to describe Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,” she explains. “It includes folks from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islanders (including) Native Hawaiians.”
Who is included in the AAPI community?
The AAPI community is far more diverse than its four-letter acronym implies. This extends beyond national origins and includes language, geography, cultural practices, history and religion, which a 2012 Pew Research study on social and demographic trends among Asian Americans highlights.
The Smithsonian highlights how, across the U.S., AAPI communities practice a range of traditions tied to their heritage, from the marking of the Lunar New Year among Chinese, Korean and other groups, to Diwali and Eid observed by South Asian communities. There’s also, as a 2022 Cambridge University Press publication notes, the rich tradition of oral storytelling among Pacific Islanders.
Their cuisines are just as distinctive, according to the National Restaurant Association, which notes the popularity of dishes such as chicken adobo from the Philippines, bingsu from Korea, and pho from Vietnam among American diners.
“It’s more often adopted by folks born or raised here who understand the term’s political significance. In many ways, it’s aspirational,” Kulkarni explains. “Once people learn what identity and coalition building mean, they often feel more connected to the term.”
In addition, a number of people in AAPI communities identify as biracial or multiracial. According to the Pew Research Center, about 16% of Asian Americans identify as multiracial. The 2020 U.S. Census found that nearly 900,000 people identified as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, together with another racial background.
The limits of the ‘AAPI’ umbrella and what’s next
“AAPI” is a common label, but it doesn’t entirely capture the diversity of the people it includes, some in the community say.
Kulkarni highlights the stark differences, like economic gaps, between refugees from Vietnam or Cambodia and the many highly educated immigrants from India or China. Meanwhile, Pacific Islanders often have a different history altogether:
“Asians or Asian Americans are immigrants to this country, Pacific Islanders — America came to them, often under violent circumstances,” Kulkarni says, pointing to the takeovers of Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa. “They didn’t necessarily make a choice to be American — they were taken over.”
This is why a growing number of Pacific Islanders are exploring new terms to define themselves.
“Some in the PI community are using the term ‘Pacifica’ instead of ‘Pacific Islander,’” Kulkarni explains. “Some are thinking of no longer having ‘A’ and ‘PI’ together.”
Still, for many, the label “AAPI” doesn’t entirely resonate.
Scholar Dr. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui echoes this critique in a paper on colonialism, writing that “one of the most persistent setbacks for indigenous Pacific Islanders in the United States is related to miscategorization within terms such as Asian-Pacific American or Asian Pacific Islander, where there is no recognition that Pacific Islanders already constitute a panethnic group that is distinct from Asian Americans.”
As Kulkarni emphasizes, people who are part of the Asian diaspora are entitled to “use the framing that makes them feel seen and empowered.”
So, what do I say? What should I use?
The term “AAPI” is useful, but it’s also broad, and not everyone who technically falls under it sees themselves in it. As Kulkarni notes, the best way to ensure accuracy and mindfulness is to:
Be specific when possible: Don’t assume a person’s identity, and when you can, use the terminology that they prefer. Instead of Asian or Asian American, name their specific background like Pakistani, Filipino, Tongan or Korean.
Listen and learn about how people identify: A friend you might describe as Asian American might prefer to be called Indian American or Vietnamese American.
