We Always Look Happy: Racial Meaning-Making Among Asian American and Pacific Islander Women in Community Colleges

• In Event: 63.084 - MTCC Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-8 - Asian American and Pacific Islander Experiences Across Educational Contexts

Abstract

In this study, we examine racial meaning making among women who identify as Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in community colleges. Guided by an AsianCrit lens, the purpose of uncovering such information was to identify the unique ways in which race, along with other intersecting forms of oppression, informed the lived experiences of our participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven AAPI women who identified as Filipina (2), Japanese (2), Korean, Vietnamese, and Nepali. We found that, overall, students were principally racialized via interpersonal interactions in which they were stereotyped. That is, participants often articulated being stereotyped according to the model minority myth and shared feelings of ambivalence in reacting to this stereotyping.

Authors

• Elvira Julia Abrica, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Soua Xiong, California State University, Fresno

• Christina W Yao, University of Nebraska - Lincoln