When referring to individuals, or specific ethnic communities, you should avoid using the acronym and instead opt to use their specific ethnic identifier. If you are referring to a large group of people of varying ethnicities within the APIDA umbrella, using the acronym is appropriate.
When referring to folks in the APIDA community, you should use the most specific language available. To fully understand these acronyms it’s important to remember that they reference a diverse population of more than 20 ethnic groups living in the United States. Particularly in regards to spotlighting Asian American advocacy work in the United States. They were both in graduate school and wanted to use a term that they felt represented their community. To create a more culturally inclusive term, Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee started using the term Asian American in 1968. Former President Obama even had the term Oriental eliminated from being referenced in federal law in 2016 due to the term being culturally insensitive. However, the term was used as a way to differentiate and discriminate against people of the Asian diaspora living in the United States. Due to the benign origin of the term, it isn’t as derogatory as racial slurs. The term was used to refer to anyone that originated from the eastern side of the globe. Prior to the 1970s, people of Asian descent in America were commonly referred to as Orientals, a term that is more vague and outdated in comparison to other terms that are now in existence. APIDA stands for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, with the Desi term representing South Asian identifying people.
Since 2010 a newer term, “APIDA” has been used in order to be more inclusive of South Asians. AAPI stands for Asian American Pacific Islander and started formally being used in the 1990s as a category in the U.S. A great example of how language, acronyms, and terminology change over time is in regards to the acronyms “AAPI” and “APIDA”.
0 kommentar(er)
