Mother Educators' Reckoning About Asian American Children Being In/visible

• In Event: Bringing Asian American Children and Families to Light: Expanding the Racial Discourse in Early Childhood

Abstract

Purposes
A recent report from Harvard University (2021) describes how “structural, cultural, and interpersonal racism imposes unique and substantial stressors on the daily lives of families raising young children of color” (p.7). It suggests that Black, Hispanic, and Native American children are more likely to be racially disadvantaged compared to White and Asian American counterparts based on the national poverty data. While it might be correct that fewer Asian American children are living in racism associated with poverty, it is far from the truth that they are safeguarded from systemic racism. They frequently encounter covert but more persistent racism of being invisible or only stereotypically visible (Connolly, 2008; Gines, 2013; Tuan, 1998). This study is aimed to share Asian American mother educators’ reckoning about unique challenges and experiences faced by themselves and their children to break the single narrative paradigm.
Theoretical Background
Parent ethnic-racial socialization theory presented by Hughes and Chen (1997) undergirds the distinct influences parents have on their children’s understanding of race, racism, and racial socialization process. This theory, which was originally based on African American parents, is helpful for us to critically reflect on our intersectional roles as Asian American mother educators on our own children, and further examine its extension possibility for other racial/ethnic groups.
Methods & Data
This study was carried out as a collaborative autoethnography (Chang et al., 2013) by four Korean American mother educators. We individually kept anecdotal field notes and journals capturing our and our children’s lived experiences related to race and racism. We met through virtual suda [수다], which means excessive chatting in literal Korean-English translation although a perfect translation is not feasible. It is a unique platform that allows a power-free dialogic conversation among participants (Author, 2021), through which we engage in reflections and data analyses.
Findings
As mothers of young Asian American children, we noticed that our children were privy to microaggressions towards Asian Americans in mass media as well as those towards themselves in our immediate environments such as schools or communities. After struggling with a sense of guilt about letting such prejudice and stereotypes continue in this society, we made conscientious efforts to model how to be resilient in the face of being invisible or stereotypically visible due to our Asian identity markers. Additionally, as educators, we actively interrogated our cultural and pedagogical beliefs and practices to become change agents to provide early childhood educators with authentic information and resources for them to be more sensitive about the experiences and needs of Asian American children and their families.
Significance
When thinking about the danger of a single story (Adichie, 2009), Asian American children and families have been a quiet victim of a single story for too long. As Asian American mother educators, we are concerned that our silence can be misread as indifference, avoidance, or even shame (Hong, 2020). This study reveals how structural racism in the U.S. society is forcing us to hypnotize our experiences as individual issues and feel powerless, and yet how we are trying to resist it.

Authors

• Sophia Han, University of South Florida

• Jinhee Kim, Kennesaw State University

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa

• Su-Jeong Wee, California State University - Los Angeles