Affiliation:
1. UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Department of Community Health Sciences, , Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
2. University of Washington School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, , Seattle, WA 98195, United States
3. Center for the Study of Racism , Social Justice and Health, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
4. UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Department of Health Policy and Management, , Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
Abstract
Abstract
The conventional use of racial categories in health research naturalizes “race” in problematic ways that ignore how racial categories function in service of a White-dominated racial hierarchy. In many respects, racial labels are based on geographic designations. For instance, “Asians” are from Asia. Yet, this is not always a tenable proposition. For example, Afghanistan resides in South Asia, and shares a border with China and Pakistan. Yet, people from Afghanistan are not considered Asian, but Middle Eastern, by the US Census. Furthermore, people on the west side of the Island of New Guinea are considered Asian, whereas those on the eastern side are considered Pacific Islander. In this article, we discuss the complexity of the racial labels related to people originating from Oceania and Asia, and, more specifically, those groups commonly referred to as Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Asian. We begin with considerations of the aggregation fallacy. Just as the ecological fallacy refers to erroneous inferences about individuals from group data, the aggregation fallacy refers to erroneous inferences about subgroups (eg, Hmong) from group data (ie, all Asian Americans), and how these inferences can contribute to stereotypes such as the “model minority.” We also examine how group averages can be influenced merely by the composition of the subgroups, and how these, in turn, can be influenced by social policies. We provide a historical overview of some of the issues facing Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Asian communities, and conclude with directions for future research.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
General Medicine,Epidemiology
Reference79 articles.
1. “Who are you calling Asian?”: shifting identity claims, racial classifications, and the census;Espiritu
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