Discussing Race: Opportunities and Challenges for Chinese American Youth

• In Event: Ethnic Racial Identity

Abstract

As protests against police brutality and systemic racism continue, more people are leaning into critical conversations about race and racism. Still though, guided opportunities to unpack and heal from harms associated with racism are still not commonplace – especially for young Chinese Americans, whose racialized experiences and histories are often overlooked in schools and unseen at home (Hartlep, Scott, and Hartlep. 2016; Kuo 1998; Pang 2006; US Department of Education 2016).

However, there is an opportunity for schools and youth-serving organizations to better support young people’s development, particularly around race and racism. Psychologists have found that students who have a strong, positive racial-ethnic identity are better able to buffer stressful race-related experiences (e.g., Iwamoto and Liu 2010; Kiang et al. 2006; Lee 2005; Phinney 1989; Sellers and Shelton 2003). Furthermore, Asian American youth who embrace their culture are better able to draw upon cultural values and cultural types of coping that support well-being in instances of high race-related stress (Iwamoto and Liu 2010; Kiang et al. 2006). Thus, facilitating spaces where young people develop a positive self-concept and understanding of their racial and ethnic identity can improve mental health outcomes and general psychosocial adjustment in significant ways.

My study seeks to investigate the impact of sustained, critical racial dialogue in a coethnic space on the social development of Chinese American, high-school-aged youth who participate in a youth program facilitated by an ethnic community-based organization. Using multiple qualitative methods, I examine how engagement in conversations about race and racism shapes youth perceptions of collective identity and agency over time. I also assess the general opportunities available to Chinese American youth to engage in productive conversations about racism, particularly around rising anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID19 pandemic and around interrogating anti-Blackness.

In this paper talk, I hope to present the case to study the dialogical processes that contribute to not only positive racial-ethnic identification but also cross-ethnic and cross-racial allyship. I also hope to present preliminary insights from my study of 40 high-school-aged, Chinese American youth in Chicago. I will share how Chinese American youth interpret the current racial landscape and the opportunities for race talk available to them.

Group Authors

Helen Lee, University of Chicago, helenlee@uchicago.edu

Author

• Helen Lee, foundry10
  Presenting Author