Making Sense of Segregation: Asian American Youth Perspectives

• In Event: The Persistence of School Segregation and Opportunities for Change: Lessons From New York City

Abstract

Objectives
Researchers have examined how Black, Latinx, and white students and families experience segregation between nonselective and selective public schools in NYC, wherein the latter “screens” students based on grades, test scores, and other factors (Hailey, 2022; Roda, 2015; Sattin-Bajaj, 2015). Less research examines how Asian Americans make sense of these issues, though they comprise a growing population (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021). Therefore, I ask: How do diverse Asian American students in NYC make sense of racial and socioeconomic segregation across selective and nonselective public high schools? What does their sensemaking reveal about their understandings of race, class, and power?

Theoretical Framework
I employ Poon et al.'s (2019) multidimensional model of raceclass frames, which captures how people make sense of affirmative action in higher education. Those opposing affirmative action employ an ethnocentric nationalism frame, invoking cultural differences to explain racial disparities in college enrollment; and an abstract liberalism frame, emphasizing how economic inequality, more so than racism, shapes educational access. Affirmative action supporters use a conscious compromise frame to explain how diversity facilitates educational benefits for all students; and a systemic transformation frame, situating affirmative action within a broader vision for racial justice.

Methods
This project is a qualitative case study of 30 East, South, and Southeast Asian American public high school students and recent alumni, ages 14–20. Asian American youth constitute a revelatory case, as research on segregation and integration attends little to their experiences and perspectives (Yin, 2014).

Data Sources
I conducted semi-structured interviews in Summer 2022 and 2023. I recruited interviewees from four NYC-based youth organizations and, subsequently, via snowball sampling. I supplemented interviews with observing 10 hours of educational workshops facilitated by the youth organizations from which I recruited interviewees. Workshops focused on Asian American identity and systemic racism. I analyzed all data for evidence of Poon et al.’s (2019) multidimensional raceclass frames.

Findings
Participants largely critiqued segregation across screened and unscreened high schools yet used different frames in doing so. Most students employed an abstract liberalism frame, perceiving that insufficient resources for tutoring and test preparation explained the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx students at screened schools. Participants often combined this with an ethnocentric nationalism frame, explaining the overrepresentation of Asian Americans at screened schools in terms of a cultural emphasis on academic achievement among Asian immigrant families. Fewer students employed a systemic transformation frame. These students generally had greater experience analyzing structural racism and Asian American identity through multiple years of involvement with youth organizations that facilitate discussions on these topics. Those exhibiting a systemic transformation frame pointed to various structural explanations for segregated high schools, including segregated neighborhoods and the model minority myth, which advantages Asian American students while implicitly reinforcing anti-Blackness (Lee, 2009).

Significance
Scholars increasingly challenge portrayals of Asian American students as homogeneous by highlighting their diverse ethnic, socioeconomic, language, and other backgrounds (Lee et al., 2017). This study extends such work by documenting the multiple frames with which Asian American youth make sense of segregation and educational inequity.

Author

• Elise Castillo, Trinity College