I Refuse to Be a Pawn for Whiteness: A Korean Transracial Adoptee Speaks Out

• In Event: 60.055 - Unhooking From Whiteness: Autoethnographic Approaches Toward Education as Freedom Dreams Through the Abolition of Liberalism, Meritocracy, and Color Blindness in U.S. Teacher Education

Abstract

The first paper, I Refuse to Be a Pawn for Whiteness: A Korean Transracial Adoptee Speaks Out, dispels the model minority stereotype. The personal journey of a Korean American transracial adoptee is shared. The author discusses how his dual consciousness impacts his personal and professional approach to antiracist work. His narrative shares how he refuses to be used by whiteness. In other words, the author refuses to acquiesce and benefit from honorary white status. Instead, he actively fights racism through forming coalitions with other people of color in hopes to undermine the model minority stereotype’s divide-and-conquer strategy for maintaining white supremacy (Hartlep, 2010, 2013, 2014; Horsford, 2011; Kailin 2002; Tuan, 1998; Warren, 2010; Zhou, 2004).

Author

• Nicholas Daniel Hartlep, Metropolitan State University