"Sounds About White!" Countering the Erasure of Asian American Scholars in Critical Whiteness Studies

• In Event: Our Voices, Our Turn: Complexifying Critical Whiteness Studies With Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Scholarship

Abstract

Objectives
There is no denying that Asian American scholars have made significant contributions to the field of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). However, some White scholars rarely cite or acknowledge Asian American scholars’ work to push the field to grow. This paper counters such erasure by tracing the scholarly lineage of CWS and highlighting Asian American scholars’ theorizing of Whiteness.

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws from critical race theory (CRT) and CWS. According to Crenshaw et al. (1995), CRT is conceptualized by mostly legal scholars of color and “challenges the ways in which race and racial power are constructed and represented in American legal culture and, more generally, in American society as a whole” (p. xiii). African American scholars such as Ladson-Billings and Tate IV (1995) applied CRT to education and argued that racism is normalized in U.S. schools and society, and Whiteness is the ultimate form of property in the United States. Building on CRT, CWS reveals how hegemonic Whiteness is interwoven into the fabrics of U.S. mainstream society and often invisibilized to perpetuate racism and uphold White supremacy (Leonardo, 2009; Matias, 2016).

Methods and Data Sources
This conceptual paper examines scholarship on CRT to explicate the epistemological root of CWS and analyzes how Asian American scholars continue to push the field of CWS to grow yet are often invisibilized by some White scholars.

Substantiated Conclusions
CWS stands on the shoulders of CRT and thus needs to acknowledge this scholarly lineage. In other words, an ahistorical approach to CWS goes against core principles of CRT. It may also cause White scholars to co-opt CWS, which is a function of Whiteness.
When White scholars fail to acknowledge or build on Asian American scholarship on CWS, they limit the field’s growth. Such failure further marginalizes Asian American scholars in CWS and erases their contributions, which is another manifestation of Whiteness.

Scholarly Significance of the Work
This paper calls for White scholars to stop trying to monopolize CWS. Doing so not only harms themselves but more so their colleagues of color and the field. Namely, to say there is only one way to engage with theorizing Whiteness sounds about White!
This paper also invites Asian American scholars to strategize how to reclaim our voices in CWS. Given the escalating violence inflicted upon the Asian Diasporas in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, such reclaiming can validate our scholarship and humanity.

Connection to Conference Theme
To cultivate equitable education systems for the 21st century, White scholars must resist the tendency to monopolize CWS. Instead, they should acknowledge the scholarly lineage of the field and Asian American scholars (and other scholars of color) who continue to push the field to grow. In so doing, ethnically and racially diverse scholars can share their voices equitably to expand the epistemological terrain of CWS.

Author

• Lin Wu, Western Oregon University