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List of Asian-American firsts

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Asian-Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The phrase Asian-American was coined by Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee in 1968 during the founding of the Asian American Political Alliance,[1][2] and started to be used by the U.S. census in 1980.[3]

Firsts by Asian-Americans in various fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for them is "breaking the color barrier".[4] One commonly cited example is that of Wataru Misaka, who became the first person of color,[5] and the first Asian-American, to be a National Basketball Association player (in 1947.)[6][7]

Arts and entertainment

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Main article: Asian Americans in arts and entertainment

Academy Awards

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Fashion

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Film (aside from the Academy Awards)

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Literature (aside from the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes)

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See also: List of Asian American writers

Music

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Pulitzer Prizes

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Television

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Theater

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Other

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Business and commerce

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Dentistry

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Diplomacy

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Education

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Journalism

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  • 1937: Ella Kam Oon Chun becomes the first Asian-American woman reporter on The Honolulu Advertiser.[40]
  • 1943: Ah Jook Ku becomes the first Asian-American reporter for the Associated Press.[41]
  • 1970: Al Young becomes the first Asian American U.S. mainland sportswriter at a metro daily newspaper The Bridgeport (CT) Post-Telegram.[42]
  • 1993: Connie Chung becomes the first Asian-American to anchor one of America's major network newscasts (CBS Evening News).[43]

Judiciary and politics

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See also: Asian Americans in government and politics and List of Asian American jurists
Official portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris, 2021

Military

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Religion

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Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl

Science and technology

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Main article: Asian Americans in science and technology

Aerospace and aviation

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See also: List of Asian astronauts
  • 1985: Ellison Onizuka becomes the first Asian-American in space, as an astronaut on the space shuttle Discovery.[78][79]

Mathematics

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Physics

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Nobel Prizes

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Sports

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Main article: Asian Americans in sports
See also: List of managers of Asian heritage in sports leagues in the United States and Canada

Baseball

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Basketball

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Asian American point guard Wataru Misaka broke basketball's color barrier as the first non-white player to play in the NBA in 1947.

Figure skating

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Football (Gridiron football)

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Golf

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  • 1994: Tiger Woods becomes the first Asian-American to win the United States Amateur Championship. (Woods' mixed ancestry – ¼ Chinese, ¼ Thai, ¼ African-American, ⅛ white, and ⅛ Native American – also made him the first African-American to achieve this feat. He was also the first of only five golfers of primarily non-European descent to win a men's major, with the others being Vijay Singh (an Indian Fijian), Michael Campbell (a Māori from New Zealand), Y.E. Yang (South Korean), and Collin Morikawa (Japanese American).)

Hockey

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Olympics

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  • 1948: Victoria Manalo Draves wins gold in platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Olympics, becoming the first Asian-American to win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics.[99]

Tennis

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  • 1989: Michael Chang becomes the first Asian-American winner of a Grand Slam tennis tournament in men's singles, winning the French Open. To this day, he remains the only male player of Asian descent, regardless of nationality, to win a men's singles Grand Slam event.

See also

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References

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