Critical Historical Sense Making: Locating Where I am Within a Multicultural Coalition to Disrupt Anti-Blackness

• In Event: Toward an Archeology of Collective Solidarity: Co-conspirator Leadership as Racial Healing, Justice, and Liberation

Abstract

Objectives
Co-conspiring (Love, 2019) within institutions of higher education to interrupt injustices around race and racism requires critical conversation and critical action (Freire, 1970). For Asian Americans and Black Americans, a multicultural co-conspiratorship that focuses on addressing anti-Blackness involves building solidarity through dialogical, cross-cultural sensemaking, and acting strategically against oppression. Expectedly, institutions of higher education systematically hinder this process by reifying white supremacy culture (Okun, 2021), which amplifies how antiblackness (Dumas, 2016) shows up in ways that are nuanced and unrecognized (Liu, et al., 2023). Building upon the above, my study details how I, as a cis-gender, Chinese-Taiwanese American, constantly engaged in an Archeology of Self™ (Sealy-Ruiz, 2022) to (re)negotiate my identity as I built collective solidarity with Black colleagues and other minoritized racial groups working to disrupt anti-Blackness within a public university in Northern California.

Theoretical Framework
To make sense of my place in cross-cultural coalitions, AsianCrit (Chang, 1993; Museus, 2013) serves as a useful guide in my reflective process of working to disrupt anti-Blackness and white supremacy. AsianCrit tackles issues relevant to Asian Americans, such as monolithic views of Asian Americans and the Model Minority Myth, in ways that Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1980; Delgado, 1995; Matsuda, 1991) does not. Its theoretical foundation focuses on the Asian American experience within the context of a U.S. society in which race and racism is endemic and intercentric. Within the context of this paper, the (Re)Constructive History tenet of AsianCrit is given particular focus. From this frame, I aim to situate my co-conspiratorship within histories that are written with the intention to disrupt the master narrative (Takaki, 2008).

Methods and Data
To inform my narrative, I use permitted notes collectively taken by members of the workgroup. To facilitate my self-excavation (Sealy-Ruiz, 2022), I use reflective journals written after meetings with the Black Lives Matter/Anti-Racism faculty workgroup. These reflective journals aim to document how my experiences are continuations, parallels, or juxtapositions to the experiences of Black and Asian Americans in U.S. history. These historical perspectives serve as the brush that reveals how I fit into the injustices and the legacies of social justice movements that have come before me.

Findings and Significance
By working with Black women colleagues to interrupt anti-Black racism, my study revealed the necessity of an Archeology of Self™ (Sealy-Ruiz, 2022) as I (re)negotiated my own identity, which included elevating my consciousness around how our identities have been pitted against each other in media and court cases (e.g. LA Riots, Supreme Court rulings on Affirmative Action). It also revealed how white supremacy culture manifests via privileged performances, practices, and discourses aimed at (in)validating the worth of BIPOC co-conspirators within the constraints of the white gaze. This has relevance to racial justice and healing, because my self-exploration can be a useful model for others in higher education who are authentically involved in disrupting anti-Blackness—especially in moments when white supremacy culture has pushed us to lose hope or retreat from this difficult work.

Author

• Derek Wang, California State University - East Bay