Asian American movement

The Asian American movement was a U.S. based social and political movement in which Asian Americans mobilized to exercise their political power and build solidarity with other communities of color.

The movement is often associated with the establishment of the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) formed at UC Berkeley in 1968. The Asian American movement would quickly spread to UCLA and the creation of UCLA's Asian American Studies Center in 1969, inaugurating a new academic discipline.

Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee founded the AAPA and first used the term "Asian American" in the process. Because Asian Americans had been called Orientals before 1968, the formation of the AAPA challenged the use of the pejorative term. According to Karen Ishizuka, the label "Asian American" was "an oppositional political identity imbued with self-definition and empowerment, signaling a new way of thinking."

At the AAPA Rally on July 28, 1968, Richard Aoki gave a speech that summarized the organization's ideology:

We Asian-Americans believe that American society has been, and still is, fundamentally a racist society, and that historically we have accommodated ourselves to this society in order to survive...

We Asian-Americans support all non-white liberation movements and believe that all minorities, in order to be truly liberated, must have complete control over the political, economic, and social institutions within their respective communities.

We Asian Americans oppose the imperialist policies being pursued by the American government...

Ichioka and Gee included the words "political" and "alliance" in their group's name to emphasize its pan-Asian focus, its anti-imperialist stance, and its membership in the Third World Liberation Front.

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