5% isn't a lot. And it's 5% only because indians, pakistanis, bengalis, etc are classified as asian along with chinese, japanese, koreans, etc. In other words, "asian" population is inflated. So it's a lot less than 5%.
> It's over 16 million people.
16 million out of nearly 350 million isn't much.
> I don't see how you can keep making this argument with a straight face.
Because it's a fact. And as I said, up until the 1970s, the asian population in the US was pretty much 0%. Asians were banned from immigrating to the US.
> We must have wildly differing opinions of what constitutes statistical significance.
We do. But you also have wildly differing opinions with every statistician.
As I said in the other comment, as the asian population in the US grows, statisticians will pay more attention to them. Although the "out"-marriage rates of asians ( particularly asian women ) might prevent increasing asian population. But who knows.