Disrupting Racial Triangulation in a Fragile Post-2020 Context: Counter-Perspectives from an Asian/American Woman Leader

• In Event: Critical Reflections from Equity-Minded Asian/American Education Leaders on What's Next in the Post-2024 World

Abstract

In this talk, I offer critical reflections based on over two decades of autoethnographic scholarship. I counter-narrate how I have navigated two racially charged incidents among/between faculty, staff, and students, both People of Color and White, as an Asian/American woman leader (current dean and former department chair/director) across three different white-dominated EPPs. I draw on Kim’s (1999) theory of racial triangulation, or the ways that Asian/Americans are often pitted by white people against other People of Color to promote interracial divisions as a key tactic for white-dominated institutions, especially EPPs, to maintain status-quo power structures that silence People of Color. I further draw on Asian/American Feminist frameworks (Chu, 1986; Ling, 1987; Yamada, 1983) to describe the im/possibility of leading in EPPs as sites of white supremacy.

In my analyses, I draw on Chavez’s (2009) dynamic autoethnographic framework “to analyze dilemmas of negotiating gender-cultured leadership arenas as a woman of color in higher education” (p. 44). When presenting the findings, I employ an Asian/American Feminist framework (Yamada, 1983; Yee, 2009) to describe how I have attempted to disrupt racially derogatory and inequitable views of bodies of difference that were steeped in dominant and inequitable understandings of behavioral and professional norms.

This session ends with implications for practice and theory. The significance of this talk is there is a dearth of perspectives in the field about the experiences of Asian/American education leaders, especially Asian/American women (Author & Author, 2024). In terms of implications, I will invite attendees to explore questions such as the following. How are Asian/American education leaders, faculty, staff, and students uniquely triangulated (Kim, 1999) in racially charged situations with/in their institutions? What lessons could be learned about how we are involuntarily or voluntarily engaged in these moments? What does it take for Asian/American leaders in education to disrupt and refuse racial triangulation while ensuring they navigate the politics of their college campuses?

Author

• Rachel Endo, University of Washington - Tacoma