Interfering With the Chinese Dream in America? WeChat Views on Affirmative Action

• In Event: 61.068 - MTCC Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 61.068-7 - Asian American and Pacific Islander Perspectives on Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

As the fastest-growing population in U.S. society, Asian Americans, particularly Chinese Americans, have started to engage more actively and amplify their presence in the recent legal challenges to affirmative action in higher education. In order to get a deeper understanding of how U.S.-based Chinese view affirmative action, we conducted a textual content analysis informed by Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) to analyze comments on several articles surrounding affirmative action published on a WeChat news outlet, ChineseAmericans. This study represents one of the first attempts to look into the public perceptions of affirmative action within the Chinese and Chinese immigrant community, whose voices have either been overlooked completely or critiqued as solely pawns in a larger quest to eliminate affirmative action.

Authors

• Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, The Ohio State University

• Kai Zhao, The Ohio State University