Racialization Processes in Korean American Community-Based Educational Spaces

• In Event: 3241 - Educational and Labor Market Outcomes among Asian Americans

Abstract

Drawing upon data from a larger multi-sited ethnography that examined a Korean language school and a private tutoring academy, this paper contributes to scholarly understanding of how Asian Americans actively negotiate with racialization processes that position them as both “model minority” and “perpetual foreigner” (Tuan, 1998) by focusing on community-based spaces. My findings showed that in spite of the important roles that two community-based spaces played in creating a sense of community among Korean American youth and families and nurturing youths’ cultural identities, these spaces were not immune to the White supremacist logics that structure U.S. society. I argue that in many ways, both the Korean language school and the tutoring center reproduced discourses that racialize Asian Americans as both model minorities and foreigners.

Author

• Eujin Park, University of Illinois at Chicago