Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Are Often Overlooked in DEI

This May, as we celebrate the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, we must also confront the problem of AAPI invisibility and the paradox of AAPI success.

Asians are often overlooked in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion, rising high enough to escape focus as a demographic group in need of assistance but still not high enough to determine our own destinies. One of my favorite authors, Cathy Park Hong, captured this perfectly in her book Minor Feelings. “When I hear the phrase, ‘Asians are next in line to be white,’” she writes, “I replace the word ‘white’ with ‘disappear.’ Asians are next in line to disappear.”

I find her words chilling—because I know exactly what she means. As a first-generation Korean American, I have a lifetime of experience with the societal expectations that hold Asians in America to White standards. We are pressured to assimilate, then passed over when we do.

And as the leader of an organization using quantitative assessments to champion diversity in corporate America, I’ve seen the ways that we can disappear even in the data.

As Hong notes, “we’re hard to find in racial breakdowns on reported rape or workplace discrimination or domestic abuse,” a function of reporting systems that lack cultural sensitivity and polling methods that discount us based on population share.

What’s more, the AAPI community is in truth many communities, with roots in dozens of countries across an entire continent and ocean. Lumping all these groups together fails to capture any of them accurately. Statistics touting Asian Americans as highly educated may reflect the three-quarters of Indian Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree, but not the three-quarters of Hmong Americans without one. Assessments of AAPI income levels, health outcomes, and more suffer the same issue. As a result, it’s too easy for the success of a few to mask the struggles of many.

At MCCA, we know disaggregating data is one of the most important steps towards truly making AAPI communities, our achievements, and our obstacles, visible to all. And yet, we still encounter this misconception that the entire AAPI community has “made it” based on the high-profile accomplishments of a few Asian American subgroups.

Unfortunately, our own MCCA law firm diversity survey reveals a more nuanced dynamic. While AAPI attorneys are hired at fairly high rates relative to our population share, we are noticeably underrepresented at the partner level. In fact, the partner to associate ratio is lower for AAPI lawyers than it is for either Black or Hispanic attorneys.

Successful by some measures, we are still hitting a hard ceiling. And we are not always empowered to be part of the movements to break it.

The irony is that we are often underrepresented in DEI conversations and in the very positions that might advocate for greater representation. Recently, I’ve seen people sharing one demographic breakdown of chief diversity officers in the US that claims 7.7% of CDOs are Asian Americans. Candidly, I’m not sure of the methodology behind this particular figure, but based on my observation, I suspect it is much lower. And this low representation ties back to the same dynamics of assimilation and erasure. Anecdotally, I’ve seen companies reluctant to hire AAPI diversity professionals because we are somehow not “diverse enough.”

While we clearly need greater representation for all communities of color, we must also reframe the characterization of AAPI communities as somehow on the periphery of our collective push for more equitable workplaces and a more just society.

That starts with the way we as a community talk about ourselves. Amid justified focus on the threats and challenges facing Black and Brown communities, many Asians are unsure where they fit in. Some are reluctant to identify as people of color or to claim space in conversations about discrimination and inequality, convinced by narratives about our relative privilege that this may not in fact be our fight.

But it is. It must be.

The same oppressive forces that perpetuate the “model minority” myth by holding up some of our community’s accomplishments to diminish other communities of color are quick to turn their racism against us, dismissing us as too quiet and unsuited for management.

We have the right to demand more for ourselves and the responsibility to demand more for everyone else. To translate our intimate understanding of what it means to be overlooked and undervalued into advocacy on behalf of everyone else who is subject to stereotyping, discrimination, and even violence.

Many in our communities have been at the heart of this shared struggle since the beginning, from the multiracial labor unions formed by Japanese and Mexican migrant workers over a century ago to solidarity between modern campaigns like Black Lives Matter and Stop AAPI Hate.

Now, we must build on this legacy and embrace without reservation our place in the coalition of people of color. We must take up advocacy for DEI in the workplace and broader movements for justice in the world. We must use what success we do achieve to advance systemic reform on behalf of our allies and our own complex, multidimensional community.

This month and every month, we must rise united with other communities of color, acknowledging our shared vulnerability and recognizing the power in our collective visibility, refusing to disappear.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Jean Lee is president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

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