These Asian American quotes will inspire you. Asian American an American who is of Asian (in particular East Asian) descent or relating to Asian Americans.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging Asian American quotes, Asian American sayings, and Asian American proverbs.
Best Asian American Quotes
- “I want to be a representative and be a role model for the Asian American community.” ~ Jeremy Lin
- “Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn’t occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.” ~ Maya Lin
- “OK, it was black, it was below grade, I was female, Asian American, young, too young to have served. Yet I think none of the opposition in that sense hurt me.” ~ Maya Lin
- “It was hard for me to do the show (All-American Girl) because a lot of people didn’t even understand the concept of Asian-American. I was on a morning show and the host said, “Awright, Margaret, we’re changing over to an ABC affiliate! So why don’t you tell our viewers in your native language that we’re making that transition?” So I looked at the camera and said, “Um, they’re changing over to an ABC affiliate.”” ~ Margaret Cho
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“A lot of my students are Asian-American, and it has been thrilling to watch them break through the stereotypes into something alive and surprising.” ~ Robert Morgan
- “I am an American, not an Asian-American. My rejection of hyphenation has been called race treachery, but it is really a demand that America deliver the promises of its dream to all its citizens equally.” ~ Bharati Mukherjee
- “I bring quadruple diversity to the Senate: I’m a woman; I’ll be the first Asian woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate; I am an immigrant; I am a Buddhist. When I said this at one of my gatherings, they said, ‘Yes, but are you gay?’ and I said, ‘Nobody’s perfect.'” ~ Mazie Hirono
- “We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn’t have to be white, and the other one doesn’t have to be the ethnic sidekick. We’re way over that. And I think it’s happening in society, too.” ~ Roger Ebert
- “For me, I’m just trying to be the best at what I do. I’ll wave an Asian American flag if I get that opportunity. I’m not hiding or trying to discredit my background or anything, I just haven’t had the opportunity.” ~ Chad Hugo
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“Great numbers of Asian Americans do not fit the model minority or ‘tiger family’ stereotypes, living instead in multigenerational poverty far from the mainstream.” ~ Eric Liu
- “There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don’t understand what an Indigenous American is. We don’t understand what a Latino American is” ~ Edward James Olmos
- “I started asking friends, my white friends around, I said, “What’s something that you think all Asians have in common?” They almost always immediately said, “Slanted eyes.” I thought that’s really interesting. No. 1, it simply isn’t true. Not all Asian Americans have slanted eyes, and of course, Asians aren’t the only ethnic identities to have them. No. 2, we could talk about our slant on life and what it’s like to be people of color, while at the same time, using this outdated and obscure racial slur, and turning it on its head.” ~ Simon Tam
- “Within the model minority rhetoric, Asian Americans are represented as “good” minorities and African Americans are represented as “bad” minorities. Here, the achievements of Asian Americans are used to discipline African Americans. As model minorities, Asian Americans achieved the status of “honorary Whites”. Again it is important to point out that the honorary whiteness of Asian Americans was granted at the expense of Blacks. It is also significant that as “honorary Whites,” Asian Americans do not have the actual privileges associated with “real” whiteness.” ~ Jennifer Lee
- “As a first-generation “Asian American woman,” for one thing, I knew there was no such thing as an “Asian American woman.” Within this homogenizing labeling of an exotica, I knew there were entire racial/national/cultural/sexual-preferenced groups, many of whom find each other as alien as mainstream America apparently finds me.” ~ Shirley Geok-lin Lim
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“Chinese culture has a lot of virtues that are tremendously valuable to not only us as Asian-Americans, but also the world in general.” ~ Martin Yan
- “As an Asian American, I’m aware of how stereotypes can be very destructive. We’ve been defined by the drag queens. And yes, they exist. But we’ve been defined as irresponsible, flamboyant, loud, and garish. I think what we need to do – and what we haven’t done as aggressively as we should have – is to depict the vast diversity of the GLBT community.” ~ George Takei
- “Does people not asking me about Asian American literature mean they don’t see it as its own literary tradition? I certainly believe in it as its own literary tradition, because your race plays a great factor in how you are seen by the world, and how you see the world; the fact that I’m an Asian American isn’t incidental to who I am as a writer. Where it becomes difficult is defining what, if anything identifiable at all, makes an Asian American book an Asian American book, other than the fact of its creator being Asian. And I’d argue that there is nothing identifiable beyond that.” ~ Hanya Yanagihara
- “My heritage is something that I have always been aware of, however, some would say that there is a disproportionately low number of Asians as professional athletes. I take pride in trying my best to be a role model to show young Asian American boys and girls that they are only limited by the size of their dreams.” ~ Nathan Adrian
- “The Vietnam War was taking place, which was raising all sorts of questions in the United States, and it was forcing Asian-Americans to stop thinking of themselves as model minorities and to identify themselves more with world revolution, which was very important in my development.” ~ Grace Lee Boggs
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“Asian American men, Asian men have been basically eunuchs in American cinema and television.” ~ John Cho
- “But, yeah, as far as Asian Americans go, I hope they know they can look at me and see that they can do music on their own, within a band or just on their own, and not feel like there’s any barriers. I’ve never felt any particular barriers myself, being who I am.” ~ James Iha
- “To be honest, at that point, just being so fresh to L.A., I was in the mindset of just getting work, at all costs. But, if you take a step back from it, it’s just such a blessing to be able to play somebody like Glenn. Me being Asian American, it’s nice to have something to play that’s not so very stereotypical. It’s also nice to have somebody that I identify with.” ~ Steven Yeun
- “We cannot educate white women and take them by the hand. Most of us are willing to help but we can’t do the white woman’s homework for her. That’s an energy drain. More times than she cares to remember, Nellie Wong, Asian American feminist writer, has been called by white women wanting a list of Asian American women who can give readings or workshops. We are in danger of being reduced to purveyors of resource lists.” ~ Gloria E. Anzaldúa
- “I was grateful to see President Obama’s victory speech. I was over the moon to see the audience. There were about 60 percent white voters the other 40 percent were African Americans, Asian, Spanish speaking etc. I wept at that spectacle, it told me that the pundits that continue in our country to try to polarize us, to keep us apart, are not succeeding. Americans are waking up not only to the truth, but the truth in each other. Hallelujah!” ~ Maya Angelou
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“Obviously the Asian American community wants you to do well. They are cheering you on no matter what the circumstances.” ~ Michael Chang
- “We have seen a man dragged to death in Texas simply because he was black. A young man murdered in Wyoming simply because he was gay. In the last year alone, we’ve seen the shootings of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish children simply because of who they were. This is not the American way. We must draw the line. Without delay, we must pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And we should reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.” ~ William J. Clinton
- “As a Chinese American legislator, I applaud the RNC’s Growth and Opportunity Project. Engaging Asian American and Pacific Islander communities about Republican principles is a worthwhile effort. I thank Chairman Priebus and Co-Chairman Day for making this a priority. We need to ensure our message of growth and opportunity is being heard in all communities throughout this nation, and I am proud to be a part of this effort.” ~ Kimberly Yee
- “There have been, in recent years, many Asian American pioneers in the public eye who’ve defied the condescendingly complimentary ‘model minority’ stereotype: actors like Lucy Liu, artists like Maya Lin, moguls like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. They are known, often admired.” ~ Eric Liu
- “People take pride in being Irish-American and Italian-American. They have a particular culture that infuses the whole culture and makes it richer and more interesting. I think if we can expand that attitude to embrace African-Americans and Latino-Americans and Asian-Americans, then we will be in a position where all our kids can feel comfortable with the worlds they are coming out of, knowing they are part of something larger.” ~ Barack Obama
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“Americans are fickle. And what constitutes the enemy is always changing. Believe it or not, at one time Blacks were the favored model minority over Asian Americans.” ~ Ishmael Reed
- “Is there deeply embedded change within our industry? And I would say, as a black filmmaker, it’s easy for me to focus my attention on blackwork, but true change would include brown work, and it would include work by Asian-Americans, and it would include natives, and it would include women, and it would include more LGBTQ voices.” ~ Ava DuVernay
- “So how do Latinos feel if there’s a big investment just in the African American community, and they’re looking around and saying, “We’re poor as well. What kind of help are we getting?” Or Asian Americans who say, “Look, I’m a first-generation immigrant, and clearly, I didn’t have anything to do with what was taking place.”” ~ Barack Obama
- “I happen to be one of those lucky people who says that she’s a working actor. And to always be working is very fulfilling and I’m just lucky because the opportunities just came up. And as an Asian American female actor, the opportunities have been furthering, have been widening all across the years. And I can say that there are many young people who see that the opportunities are expanding, as well as you can make it yourself.” ~ Tamlyn Tomita
- “I am honored to have Ajamu Baraka as a running mate. I think he brings enormous credibility in the disenfranchised communities, not just African American but Latino, Asian American and Native American. He is a recognized advocate for racial justice, economic justice and human rights, and I think this conversation is only just begun. It is very important.” ~ Jill Stein , Asian American quotes justice
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“I’m very humbled and honored. I’m very thankful to the Asian-American Community for all their support!” ~ Jeremy Lin
- “Jeremy Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA today and one of the few in any professional U.S. sport. His arrival is surely leading other talented Asian American athletes this week to contemplate a pro career.” ~ Eric Liu
- “There’s the complex categorization of low warmth/high competence. This is the hostile stereotype of Asian Americans by white America, of Jews in Europe, of Indo-Pakistanis in East Africa, of Lebanese in West Africa, of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and of the rich by the poor most everywhere. It’s the same low-high derogation: They’re cold, greedy, clannish – -but, dang, they’re sure good at making money and you should go to one who is a doctor if you’re seriously sick.” ~ Robert M. Sapolsky
- “It’s interesting for myself, growing up as an Asian-American filmmaker. Coming into the industry, my parents always said, “No one’s going to give you the opportunity. You just have to do the work. Be better than everyone else, so they can’t deny it.”” ~ Daniel Radcliffe
- “Our film [Hide and seek ]was created as part of the Asian American Film Lab’s 11th 72 Hour Film Shootout filmmaking competition, where filmmaking teams have just 72 hours to conceive, write, shoot, edit and submit a film based on a common theme. The winners were announced during the 38th Asian American International Film Festival in New York last July. The theme for 2015 was ‘Two Faces’ and was part of a larger more general theme of ‘Beauty’.” ~ Garth Kravits
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“You don’t get respect for being an Asian-American basketball player in the U.S.” ~ Jeremy Lin
- “The next Republican that will win will campaign in the Latino community, will campaign amongst Asian-Americans, will campaign in the black churches, will campaign in college campuses.” ~ Jeb Bush
- “Some Asian American male scholars have claimed this muse to be Guong Goong, God of Literature, and, simultaneously, although not coincidentally or triflingly, God of War, but I did not have such a gendered muse in mind then.” ~ Shirley Geok-lin Lim
- “I reached the age of 70, because I have cultivated an association of multicultural intellectuals who are informed and alert to whatever “tricknology” that’s laid on us by the powers that be. These include White ethnic intellectuals- people who know their roots- as well as Native American, Asian American, Hispanic and Black intellectuals. These are thirty, forty-year associations with some of the best minds around. Minds that are ignored by the media.” ~ Ishmael Reed
- “Kusewera, an organization that fosters orphanages in Africa and the Philippines and encourages through creative play and education. Anything and everything that supports cancer research. East-West Players, the oldest and biggest Asian American theater in the U.S.” ~ Reggie Lee
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“Hawaii’s own Patsy Mink served as the first congresswoman of color and first Asian American woman in the House; she later sought the Democratic Party presidential nomination.” ~ Colleen Hanabusa
- “I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people. We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn’t have to be white, and the other one doesn’t have to be the ethnic sidekick. We’re way over that. And I think it’s happening in society, too.” ~ Roger Ebert
- “Coming out of college into the draft, being Asian-American and being from Harvard, that’s not going to be an advantage because of stereotypes.” ~ Jeremy Lin
- “Today, we have come a distance. We have made a lot of progress. That cannot be denied. You cannot dispute the fact that our country is so different from 50 years ago. But we still have problems. There are too many people that have been left out and left behind, and they are African American, they are White, Latino, Asian American, and Native American.” ~ John Lewis
- “I think we have to really focus on the issues much more than we may have in the past. I think we have to seek to create coalitional strategies that go beyond racial lines. We need to bring black communities, Chicano communities, Puerto Rican communities, Asian American communities together.” ~ Angela Davis
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“It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study Asian American history.” ~ Maya Angelou
- “The strike and its outcome had an enormous impact on the system of education and on our lives as well. The strike began as a response to the college’s refusal to hire Professor Nathan Hare [the so-called father of black studies], and certainly unified the college around issues of justice. These issues were reflected in many communities: the Asian American community, Hispanic community, Native American community.” ~ Danny Glover
- “As an Asian American at pilot season you take whatever there is.” ~ Reggie Lee
- “Once there are more African Americans and Asian Americans behind the scenes as producers, writers, and directors, I think more inclusive casting will happen.” ~ Nicole Ari Parker
Asian American, a citizen or resident of the U.S. of Asian birth or descent.
