Racialized Cultural Capital at Work: A Comparative Study of Transracially Adopted and Second-Generation Asian Americans

• In Event: 50260 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 8: Precarity, Labor, and Relational Work Across Asian and Asian American Contexts

Abstract

This study uses in-depth, qualitative interviews to compare how two groups of Asian Americans, second-generation immigrants and transracial adoptees, navigate the racialized workplace. In particular, it examines the uneven acquisition and activation of racialized cultural capital as a mechanism for inequality at work. I find that what constitutes cultural capital, perhaps especially for non-white workers, includes familiarity with white culture, presenting important implications for my two groups. For second-generation Asian Americans, limited socialization into white culture during their upbringing can become a barrier to career advancement later in life, which may help to explain the persistence of the so-called “bamboo ceiling” in the workplace. By contrast, transracially adopted Asian Americans who were raised by white parents are able to use their intimate knowledge of white culture to their professional advantage.

Author

• Allison Sullivan, Emory University