Critically examining Asian American Kid Lit

• In Event: Researching for Repair: Enacting Critical Frameworks When Analyzing Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Objective
More Asian American children’s and young adult literature is being published than ever. However, it is imperative that teachers are critical and discerning in the texts they use in class as there are still plenty of books that discuss racism without critically engaging in pushing back against racism, feature white saviors, advocate for assimilation instead of acculturation, reinforce the model minority myth, and center internalized racism as the primary conflict of a story.
Theoretical Framework
Internalized racism, or internalized white racism or internalized white supremacy, is when white supremacy can be indirectly internalized by people of color through cultural myths and racist ideologies pervasive in society. (Pyke). The Internalized Racism Scale for Asian Americans (Liao) includes five themes and is a helpful frame for understanding internalized racism among Asian Americans and the ways they may manifest in Asian American youth literature (Table 1). This theoretical paper analyzes Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese using the constructs from the Internalized Racism Scale for Asian Americans to offer a nuanced way in understanding how internalized white supremacy manifests in Asian American youth. The paper then provides additional texts (The Legend of Auntie Po and The Magic Fish that are culturally conscious counterstories and analyzes them through the same scale highlighting similarities and differences.
Results
American Born Chinese is a book about a Chinese American boy who experiences internalized racism and struggles to assimilate. This struggle for Asian Americans to assimilate has been embedded into American consciousness throughout history. Therefore, though American Born Chinese is an excellent book, it is a book about deep internalized racism, and when used as the single text used to describe all Asian American youth experiences, it can inadvertently perpetuate one of the most prevailing stereotypes of Asian Americans— the perpetual foreigner.

Meanwhile, both Tiến in The Magic Fish and Mei in The Legend of Auntie Po actively subvert stereotypes and tropes. Tiến is an endearing, conscientious teen who has a crush on his friend and is worried about what to wear to the school dance. At the same time, he is trying to find the best way to come out to his parents while processing his mother’s grief and his grandmother’s death. Mei is a sweet, spunky teen who is committed to her work and role at the logging camp and has to navigate not coming out, but the growing anti-Asian violence and racism in her community. Mei and Tiến are fully realized characters with complex identities that do not fit into binaries. In addition, the parents in both stories also break stereotypes and have their own struggles and backstories which are deeply entwined with their children’s and provide an additional layer of nuance to the stories of children of immigrants.

Significance
The study offers how to use the theory of internalized racism and specifically how it impacts Asian Americans as a tool for critically reading Asian American youth stories.

Author

• Rosa Nam, Colorado State University