AsianCrit as a Lens of Racialized Identity Construction for Asian American Teachers

• In Event: Examinations of the Relational Racialization of Asian Americans in Education

Abstract

While a growing body of literature has begun to examine racialized identities and experiences of Asian American educators (Authors, 2021; Chow, 2021; Endo, 2015; Kim & Cooc, 2020; Philip, 2014), the field remains relatively emergent, particularly in terms of nuanced critical analyses of racialized identity development as a lens for personal and pedagogical choices. The proposed paper would draw from a national study of 42 Asian American teachers using the Asian Crit (Iftikar & Museus, 2018) tenets of Asianization, Strategic (Anti)Essentialism, and Commitment to Social Justice to analyze the way focal teachers constructed their racialized identities, showed resistance to simplified stereotypical ways they are read, and resisted in community with other ethnic and racial groups. Acknowledging the significance of (but moving beyond) the Model Minority stereotype (Chen, 2004) and Forever Foreigner discourse (Takaki, 1998), this paper shows how Asian American educators pushed back against racial triangulation (Kim, 1999) by drawing from their own experiences with racism, strategically choosing to identify in particular ways and allying with various groups to advance racial equity and navigate oppressive educational systems.

Asianization refers to specific forms of racialization and racial marginalization experienced by Asian Americans (Iftikar & Museus, 2018) including monolithic portrayals of Asian Americans as interchangeable, foreign others, yellow perils, and model minorities. The paper unpacks Asianization as centering around polarizing binaries of otherness and hypervisibility (e.g. positioning as “forever foreigners,” scapegoating as “yellow peril”) versus erasure and invisibility of racial oppression (e.g. positioning as “model minorities,” invisibility in consideration of racial othering), and examines educators’ experiences of these binaries leading to pressure to assimilate and feelings of isolation, but later fueling resistance and commitment to greater advocacy for Asian Americans and other people of color.

Strategic (anti)essentialism focuses on how Asian Americans make strategic choices to balance their ethnic identities with engagement in pan-ethnic solidarity as a socio-political move aligned with the establishment of the label “Asian American” to support large-scale advocacy and coalition building justice movements (Spivak & Harasym, 2014). This paper engages both Asian American educators’ uses of strategic essentialism and choices to push back against monolithic representations of a singular Asian American identity, and their strategic anti-essentialism which acknowledged Asian Americans’ shared social positioning and the importance of solidarity for both survival and resistance.

Finally, Commitment to Social Justice explores Asian American educators’ development of conscientization (Freire, 1996; Osajima, 2007) including what factors allowed for Asian American educators to develop critical consciousness of their racialized identities, and how the development of this consciousness pushed them to take action for themselves, other Asian Americans and other people of color. The paper examines Asian American educators’ positionality, speaking up for oneself, and serving as a (role) model for Asian American students and other students of color as well as looking at Asian American educators’ curricular choices and work as advocates for justice work in their professional lives.

Authors

• Betina Hsieh, University of Washington

• Jung E. Kim, Lewis University