Korean American Adolescents' Agentic but Still Limited Understandings of Race and Racism

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Abstract

Neither passively receiving nor being independent from racial messages that school and larger society impose on them, students construct their racial perspectives through navigating prevailing discourses surrounding them. By conducting open-ended, task-based interviews with 23 Korean American adolescents in two Midwestern cities, this study shows that, in contrast to dominant discourse, Korean American students recognized structural racism in U.S. society that Asian Americans and other racial groups are confronting today. However, at the same time, the students still believe in U.S. progress and diversity, conforming to the dominant narrative of the U.S. school curriculum. The findings reveal that Korean American students play agentic but still limited roles in developing their racial ideas in response to dominant racial discourse.

Author

• Jiyoung Kang, Indiana University - Bloomington