Asian American Racialization in Elite High Schools: Synchronizing Discourses of Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Micro/Macro Contexts of Racism (Table 25)

Abstract

This critical discourse analysis examines the ways that Asian American students and families are discursively positioned by the racializing discourses of model minority and perpetual foreigner. Through a detailed analysis of key discursive moments from semi-structured interviews with parents at highly selective public magnet high schools characterized by significant Asian American over-representation, I demonstrate how these synchronizing discourses are mobilized not only to uphold meritocratic myths and to discipline Black and Latinx communities but also to ostracize and vilify Asian American families themselves. These racializing discourses work together to position Asian Americans within the unequal U.S. racial power structure, further reproducing white supremacy and the racial injustices that have long permeated educational spaces.

Author

• Christopher Hu, University of Alabama