The Non-Asians: Racial Outliers in Academic Achievement

• In Event: 1483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 06. Space, Race, Ethnicity, and Educational Attainment

Abstract

Since 1966, the model minority myth has established a uniform and non-gendered narrative of “Asian success.” Research shows that there is a racialized definition of academic and career achievement for Asian Americans, and those who do not fit into this “success frame” of becoming a doctor, engineer, scientist, or lawyer are deemed “ethnoracial outliers” (Lee and Zhou 2015). It is suggested that the “unsuccessful” Asians who become ethnic outliers are redefined as white--Asian Americans who do not fit within this narrow success frame see themselves as “whitewashed” and “not Asian enough” (Jiménez 2017; Lee and Zhou 2015). In this project, I focus on the identity formation processes of young Asian Americans who are the “ethnoracial outliers,” those who feel they do not match the perceived norm for Asian Americans. I ask: How do Asian American college students studying social sciences, humanities, or art develop their educational and career goals? How do ideas of gender shape their decisions? How do Asian Americans identify their ethnic identity when they do not subscribe to ethnic standards of success? From fieldwork and pilot interviews conducted so far, I find that participants do not describe themselves as outsiders or rebellious outsiders, nor do they see themselves as following or diverging from expected routes. They seem to believe in the idea that college is a place to try new things and find their passions, and they do not mention seeing themselves as less Asian, or more white. Most importantly, participants who are women emphasize their own new paths in life. I am not sure what these feelings of independence and self-realization may mean for the literature on education, race, gender, and the intersections thereof, but I believe that my project will provide a deeper understanding of identity formation in social settings of higher education, and goes beyond the black-white racial line to examine how other young adults negotiate their ethnoracial identities in schools.

Author

• Doreen Hsu, University of California-San Diego