ABSTRACT
Studies of intermarriage involving minority groups of color, however, especially those of African Americans and more recently of Latinos, challenge any benign or celebratory interpretations that a rise in, or acceptance of, intermarriages may signal a decline in racial prejudice, the breakdown of group barriers, or the majority group’s acceptance of the minority group. Drawing attention to Asian American interethnic marriages leads to an exploration of panethnicity, more specifically, its post-1960s evolution and possible intensification. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the ways in which the intermarried participants navigate hegemonic discourses at various levels—particularly at the interstices of the global, national, local-ethnic politics of race, ethnicity, and gender—which opens up space to challenge ideological structures in creating new identity forms and cultures, including attempts to reconfigure the term "Asian American".
