Asian American is generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry and American citizenship. The term Asian American was used by activists in the 60’s who sought an alternative to the term Oriental, arguing that the latter term was derogatory, and colonialist.
Today, the term Asian American is often shortened to Asian in common usage.
As with other racial and ethnic groups, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term. What defines Asian American have expanded to include progressively more of the people with ancestry from various parts of Asia.
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