Panethnicity or Stereotyping?

In my opinion, panethnicity is not an appropriate response to racial lumping and discrimination.  To me, panethnicity seems like a milder form of racism and stereotyping. In Asian American Panethnicity, Espiritu states that "Asian American primarily meant Chinese or Japanese American" (pg. 50).  Because Chinese and Japanese Americans are the two most recognizable groups due to both the size of their population and there relative history in the United States, the political issues and values that they raise are often misrepresented as the political views of the whole Asian American panethnic group, which includes several smaller nationalities such as Korean and Filipino. For example, Korean and Filipino women were very under represented during the Asian American women's movement, as the needs of Chinese and Japanese women were primarily attended to (Espiritu pg. 51). 

However, this kind of misrepresentation did not end with political issues. Chinese and Japanese Americans were primarily hired for jobs that required Asian American insight such as ethnic studies teachers for example (Espiritu pg. 51).  Panethnicity also became a problem during several of the wars fought throughout the 20th century.  Because of WW2, Korean, and Vietnam all being fought against nationalities that fell under the "Asian American" panethnic group, members of the group that were not of the enemy nationality struggled to convince Americans that they were not the enemy.  Racial slurs such as "gook" were used to demean all members of the panethnic group rather than just that of the enemy nationality.