The Diffusing and Defusing of Race: Filipino American Youth Negotiating Racial Discourses in High School

• In Event: Encountering Race: Discourses of Race and Racialization and the Education of Immigrant Youth in the United States and Europe

Abstract

This paper draws from an ethnographic study that investigated institutional racial discourses at Mission Catholic High, a high school located in a large northeastern city. In particular, this paper maps the school’s major discursive understandings about race, ethnicity, and diversity. Research questions guiding this study were: 1) What discourses impact/frame the racial and ethnic understandings of second generation Filipino Americans high school students, and 2) How do they negotiate discourses to construct ethnic and racial identities?

Analysis of the data is informed by theories of colorblind racism and post-racial ideology (Bonilla-Silva, 2010; Leonardo, 2009; Pollock, 2004; Tatum, 2003). These concepts are based on the belief that because in the post-civil rights era, overt means for maintaining racial inequality through racist practices are illegal, then race should no longer be a significant factor that structures people’s lives. Racism, then, is personalized and the best way to overcome the effects of race is to not talk about, or downplay, racialized experiences. This results in an avoidance of critically engaging the racialized experiences of individuals and an aversion to deconstructing how race does impact the lives of students.

Key findings suggest that race is viewed as polarizing, rooted in bias and prejudice, and a threat to community. Discourses, therefore, were aimed at defusing and downplaying race, racialized identities, and experiences. Faculty and students developed frameworks of meaning that both celebrated and subverted the racial and ethnic diversity of its student body. Data from interviews, focus groups, and participant-observation were analyzed to understand the ways in which faculty, staff, and students construct and understand race, ethnicity, and diversity, and how such understandings are communicated throughout the school.

A framework of meaning for the concept of diversity was evident at Mission. For the administration and faculty, “diverse” referred primarily to students, and particularly to their physical attributes. While “diverse” was typically the first word used to describe the school by both faculty and students, a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences of students based on racial, ethnic, and cultural differences were left unexamined. Also evident was an overwhelming emphasis on community instantiated by ceremonies and school-wide events. Such discourses deemphasized racial and ethnic differences and called for faculty and students to push racialized differences aside.

In contrast, for youth participants, “diversity” provided them with a source of connection and comfort. Youth participants expressed that race and ethnicity were expected to be talked about and interpreted as funny jokes. Yet they described cultural and racist stereotypes as rampant, and students as having become used to racism. For them, a diverse environment enables them to blend in more easily, which gives them a sense of personal security knowing that there are others there who are like them, and who will support them in an environment where racist remarks are widespread. They also stated that a diverse environment is important for exposing one to multiple perspectives, ideas, and activities. Participants, thus, negotiated a context where race is not supposed to matter and their experiences with race every day.

Author

• Erica Chutuape, Hunter College - CUNY