Asian American and Latinx College Experiences and DEI

• In Event: Unforgetting Legal Precedent: Illuminating the Roots of Discrimination and Forging Equitable Futures in Education

Abstract

Purpose
DEI initiatives have played a crucial role in creating welcoming atmospheres in colleges for students (Cumming et al., 2023). However, DEI efforts are currently under intense scrutiny and attack. Latinx and Asian American students have been pitted against each other in the affirmative action debate, with claims that it favors Latinx students while negatively impacting Asian American students, without questioning or examining the historical structural exclusion of students of color (Poon & Wong, 2025). The attacks on DEI have the potential to detrimentally impact students by limiting support that have made education more accessible and welcoming. Utilizing Title VI this paper examines:
• Asian American and Latinx social formation from a legal perspective
• Asian American and Latinx students' academic experience

Framework
Using AsianCrit (Iftikar & Museus, 2018) and LatCrit (Gonzalez & Portillos, 2007) this paper examines the social formation of Asian American and Latinx communities in the US, analyzing policies that have pitted these communities against each other. Stemming from Critical Race Theory (Crenshaw et al., 1995) which focuses on race, racism, and power to understand systemic and legal injustice among the Black community, AsianCrit and LatCrit bring tenets that are specific to these communities and help examine their experiences.

Methodology
This comparative case study utilizing mixed methods draws from survey responses and interviews from Asian American and Latinx students attending college between Fall 2023 through the present. Quantitative data will be analyzed focusing on racial comparisons in experience and presented in the full paper. Qualitative data were coded utilizing both deductive and inductive methods.

Findings
Programming: Both groups of students commented on initiatives to support students, including honors programs and cultural offices and the disparate impact of such initiatives that made them feel less welcome and supported. Asian students often highlighted the competitive nature of honors programs that pitted them against each other despite pursuing different majors making them feel less supported and welcome. Latinx students often commented that despite their schools having cultural programming, they were often hard to find, and they often only found out about opportunities through peers.

Words: Both groups of students experience unwelcoming environments and were witnesses to inappropriate language. Inappropriate language, whether directed at the individual or not, can constitute harassment and create a hostile learning environment. Students expressed being either victims or witnesses of stereotypes and derogatory language and interactions without much intervention from instructors or administrators. One student was shocked to hear an administrator say, “I just hope I don't have to read any more of those long, horrible Indian names they're just so hard to pronounce.”

Significance
Despite being pitted against each other in education, both groups can have negative experiences in college that can constitute Title VI violations based on race. For some, their environments became hostile and unwelcoming to the point that they lost trust in administrators while others decided to transfer institutions. It is crucial for institutions to consider ways in which they may be facilitating behavior and language that makes education settings hostile and unwelcoming.

Authors

• Mabel Eunice Hernandez, University of Southern California

• Alana Aiko Uilani Kennedy, Northern Arizona University