"They're Not Going Through It Alone": Building Asian American Youth Power in the Suburbs

• In Event: Reimagining Suburbia: Youth of Color, Family, and Community Activism for Educational Justice

Abstract

Purpose

Asian Americans’ history with the suburbs reflects their complicated in-between racial status. Chinese and Japanese Americans were allowed to buy homes in the suburbs as early as the 1950s, as Whites made certain concessions in the racial geography of the United States to reaffirm their international and domestic reputation as an egalitarian democracy (C. I. Cheng, 2006). Currently, more Asian Americans are settling into the suburbs than urban centers (Alba & Logan, 2016; Lacy, 2016). In response, White families have sought to protect their dominance in the suburbs by resisting Asian Americans’ attempts to change schools and geography or fleeing to Whiter suburbs (Jiménez & Horowitz, 2013; Kye, 2018; Lung-Amam, 2017; Nicolaides & Zarsadiaz, 2017). At the same time, Asian Americans experience some advantages in the suburbs due to perceptions that they are more deserving than Black and Latinx communities (W. Cheng, 2013; Ochoa, 2013). Drawing upon a larger ethnographic study of Asian American community-based spaces, this paper examines how one organization that I call Korean Americans for Social Justice (KASJ) has nurtured youth organizing in the suburbs.

Framework

The paper employs the CRT model of community cultural wealth (CCW), which conceptualizes multiple forms of cultural capital fostered by communities of color to help them survive racial oppression (Yosso, 2005), to analyze the skills and knowledges that youth gained through their work with KASJ. The concept of counterstorytelling (e.g., Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), or the centering of narratives based on the racialized people’s lived experiences to destabilize commonly accepted social narratives, facilitates my understanding of how the organization challenged dominant ideas about schooling, race, and Asian American identity.

Methods & Data Sources

This paper draws upon preliminary findings from an ongoing ethnographic investigation of KASJ. The broader study examines the approaches and practices that KASJ uses to empower youth of color, especially Asian Americans, to challenge social inequities. Data sources include observations of youth programming department activities (workshops, meetings, informal gatherings); interviews with 20 staff and youth participants; and site documents (e.g., flyers, youth-produced artwork). Data analysis included multiple rounds of coding to identify preliminary themes, analytic memos, and ongoing member checks.

Findings & Significance

Preliminary findings suggest that KASJ staff designed their suburban youth group, Asian American Youth Resist (AAYR), to counter majoritarian narratives about Asian Americans (e.g., Asian Americans as politically passive) by teaching youth about topics like U.S. imperialism and Asian American organizing and by holding healing spaces in light of anti-Asian violence. These counterstories were part of KASJ’s efforts to develop youths’ agency to resist the isolation they experienced in suburban schools, such as when some AAYR youth participated in a walkout over a racist incident in their school. KASJ youth workers created a space for Asian American youth to connect their shared experiences with structural patterns of racism, U.S. empire, and more. The findings highlight the marginalization Asian American youth face in suburban schools and the promising practices of community-based organizations to help them develop a sense of belonging and empowerment.

Author

• Eujin Park, Stanford University
  Presenting Author