Asian American Students in Higher Education

Samuel D. Museus

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780415844307
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135013608
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Asian American Students in Higher Education offers the first comprehensive analysis and synthesis of existing theory and research related to Asian American students' experiences in postsecondary education. Providing practical and insightful recommendations, this sourcebook covers a range of topics including critical historical and demographic contexts, the complexity of Asian American student identities, and factors that facilitate and hinder Asian American students' success in college. The time has come for institutions of higher education to develop more holistic and authentic understandings of this significant and rapidly growing population, and this volume will help educators acquire deeper and more intricate knowledge of Asian American college students' experiences. This resource is vital for college educators interested in better serving Asian American students in their institutions.

Chapter 1
Critical Racial Contexts

In 2000, two White men and one White woman abducted two Japanese female college students who were on their way to class, raped the students, and videotaped the crime. The assailants threatened that, if the incident was reported, they would release the video footage of the rape to the victims’ families. The victims helped police locate the perpetrators, and the offenders were charged with kid-knapping, rape, and intimidation.

When the offenders were questioned, they admitted to targeting Asian women because they believed that Asians are submissive, averse to shaming their families, and therefore less likely to report these incidents to authorities.

In 2011, a White undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) posted a YouTube rant called “Asians in the Library.” Throughout the video, she described her discontent with the “hordes of Asian people” getting into UCLA, shared an array of racist views about Asians and Asian Americans at UCLA, and mocked Asian and Asian American people with “ching, chong, ling long, ting tong” noises. The video ignited a backlash from Asian Americans at UCLA and throughout the nation, and the White student eventually discontinued her enrollment at the university.

In 2010, the highly visible and widely read Canadian magazine, Maclean’s published an article that was titled “Too Asian?” and expressed fears that Asian students are taking over top colleges and universities in Canada. The article shared stories that suggested this trend is driving away White students from some of the most prestigious Canadian colleges because they do not want to compete with Asian students who always study and do not know how to have fun. After the article sparked outrage in both Asian Canadian and Asian American communities, Maclean’s refused to offer an apology or remove the piece from the Internet. Instead, they decided to change the title of the article.

In 2012, the well-respected Pew Research Center released a report, titled “The Rise of Asian Americans.” The report asserted that Asian Americans have taken over as the largest percentage of immigrants to the United States, lead others in education and income, and have a superior work ethic. The Asian American community responded with discontent with the Pew Center’s simplistic message about a diverse and complex population, as well as their reinforcement of longstanding and harmful stereotypes of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, yellow perils, model minorities.

It is difficult to deny that race and racism play a significant role in shaping the lives of Asian American students in higher education. Although the disconcerting stories presented above range from individual hate crimes to national policy discussions, and vary from a seemingly harmless policy report that reinforces harmful racial stereotypes to a rape, they all constitute real life examples of the ways in which race and racism influence the experiences of Asian American students. For postsecondary education scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to understand the Asian American undergraduates with whom they work, they must understand the racial context of those students’ lives.

In this chapter, I discuss the significance of race and racism in the lives of Asian Americans. First, I introduce the nature of racial dynamics and processes in American society and delineate and define the different types of racism that affect the experience of people within society. Second, I offer a brief critique of the Black–White nature of racial discourse in American society and discuss some of the most salient ways that society racializes Asian Americans. In doing so, I illuminate the most salient racist constructions of Asian Americans that, at least in part, define Asian American experiences in society. Finally, I present an AsianCrit framework that offers a useful conceptual lens for understanding Asian American experiences specifically in higher education and beyond.

Racial Processes in American Society

Although many people think of race as a natural, commonsense, or biological reality, it is a socially constructed concept. Indeed, the emergence of race as a significant element of society can be traced back to the initial contact between European and non-European populations occurring hundreds of years ago (Omi & Winant, 1994). European explorers, who encountered people inhabiting distant lands and exhibiting physical characteristics different from their own, socially constructed a racial worldview that allowed them to make sense of these differences and racially categorize their own communities as not only different than, but also superior to, other people and communities. As a means of harnessing power, race and racial categories were also used to justify the oppression of people of color through the denial of their rights, imposition of coercive labor, creation and perpetuation of slavery, and even extermination. Moreover, because race and racial categorization are not natural but are con structed realities, racial categories and meanings that are attached to them vary across societies and over time. The term racial formation refers to this process by which economic, political, and social forces shape racial categories, their meanings, and their importance (Omi & Winant, 1994).

Despite the fact that race is not natural and is socially constructed, it is a powerful and pervasive aspect of society (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Omi & Winant, 1994). On an individual level, one of the first things we notice about people when we meet them is their race, and this recognition of race influences our understanding of these people and how to interact with them (Omi & Winant, 1994). On a systemic level, despite the implementation of laws prohibiting racial discrimination, most social indicators suggest that racial inequalities and inequities continue to permeate almost every aspect of society (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Moreover, the persistence and pervasiveness of race and racism has led some to argue that race is a permanent aspect of American society (Bell, 1992; Omi & Winant, 1994).

Within societal systems of racism, racial minority groups are racialized. The term racialization refers to the process of creating a racial category, associating that category with a previously unclassified population, and attaching racial meanings to that category and community (Omi & Winant, 1994). History illuminates how society racialized Asian Americans. As mentioned in the preceding introduction, the first wave of people who emigrated from Asia to the United States in the mid-1800s did not identify with a racial group (Takaki, 1998). However, historical accounts illuminate how the dominant majority in America racialized these immigrants throughout history (see Chapter 2 for more thorough discussion). Speaking to the permanence and pervasiveness of race and racism is the fact that racialized constructions of Asians in the 1800s reflect persisting stereotypes that still permeate discourse about Asian Americans today, which I discuss in greater detail in the following sections.

Racism in American Society

Although racism is often viewed in simplistic ways, it is a complex concept. The nature of racism and its meanings are certainly not obvious or commonsense, and they can vary across individuals, communities, and time. Therefore, before discussing the role of racism in Asian American students’ experiences in postsecondary education, it is important to offer some definitions of racism and clarifications regarding the meaning of racism as it is used herein.

The general term racism can be defined as a social system that benefits a dominant racial group and allows that population to maintain disproportionate power and privilege over minority racial groups, their experiences, and their access to resources (Harrell, 2000). In addition to this general term, several scholars have delineated different types of racism that negatively influence the lives of people of color in society (Bulhan, 1985; Carter, 2007; Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999; Essed, 1991; Harrell, 2000; Jones, 1997; Ridley, 2005; Rothenberg, 2007), and they include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Systemic racism is used to describe racism that has encompassed and permeates all major societal institutions. It functions as a deeply embedded system of social oppression but is also intensely contested (Feagin, 2006).
• Institutional racism refers to “patterns, procedures, practices, and policies that operate within social institutions so as to consistently penalize, disadvantage, and exploit individuals who are members of racial minority groups” (Better, 2007, p. 11).
• Cultural racism is a result of ethnocentrism and power. It refers to members of society favoring the values, beliefs, and norms of the dominant racial group over other racial populations. Through this process, the latter is constructed as racially inferior, thereby contributing to the oppression of these the racial minority groups (Jones, 1997).
• Individual racism refers to individual “beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism” (Wijeyesinghe, Griffin, & Love, 1997, p. 89).
• Aversive racism or symbolic racism have been used to describe the phenomenon of Whites endorsing egalitarian values and regard themselves as non-prejudiced, but discriminating against populations of color in subtle ways that are rationalized (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986; Sears, 1988).
• Vicarious racism or secondhand racism refers to the process by which persons of color observe other people of color experiencing racism, reach the realization that they are also vulnerable to experiencing this racism, and experience negative consequences as a result of these observations and conclusions. People of color can either directly observe racist incidents or subsequently learn about such incidents through stories from family members, friends, community members, strangers, or people or messages in the media (Truong, McGuire, & Museus, 2011).
• Internalized racism is a term used to describe racially marginalized populations’ acceptance of negative societal beliefs and stereotypes about themselves that function to oppress them (Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000, p. 255). Through this process, marginalized racial groups adopt the dominant groups’ version of reality and cease to define themselves and their reality independently (Bulhan, 1985).

Together, these definitions provide a more holistic understanding of the pervasive nature of racism in society and its various manifestations. Moreover, each type of racism that is delineated above can constitute a useful tool for understanding the certain aspects of the racial realities that Asian American students encounter in college life.

A few other important considerations related to these definitions are warranted. First, it is important to note that such definitions of racism or typologies of racism often imply that there is a racist system of power and privilege that advantages the dominant White majority and disadvantages people of color. According to these definitions, people of color are disempowered by systemic racism and cannot be the source of racism themselves. People of color can, however, commit acts of prejudice or prejudge people based on race and discriminate or differentially treat people on the basis of their racial backgrounds.

Another important consideration is the fact that racism can be either explicit and overt or subtle and covert. Given that racism has become less socially acceptable over time, it increasingly manifests in subtle ways (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007). People who commit acts that perpetuate racism might believe that a particular racial minority population is inferior and express this in overt ways, or they can commit more subtle acts of racism by espousing liberal ideals while subconsciously believing that other racial groups are inferior and acting on those beliefs (Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami, & Hodson, 2002).

More subtle acts of racism are often called racial microaggressions, which can be defined as, “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color” (Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, Bucceri, Holder, Nadal, & Esquilin, 2007, p. 271). There are three main types of racial microaggressions, and they include microassaults, micro-insults, and micro-invalidations. A micro-assault is the most like old-fashioned forms of racism in that it is an explicit verbal or nonverbal attack meant to degrade the intended target. A micro-insult is characterized by snubs, rudeness, or insensitivity and transmits demeaning messages about a person’s racial heritage or identity. Finally, a micro-invalidation functions to “exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color” (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007, p. 274).

There is evidence that Asian Americans experience unique racial micro aggressions in everyday life and on college campuses in particular (Lewis, Chesler, & Forman, 2000; Museus, 2008a; Museus & Park, 2012). An example of a micro-assault that is often experienced by Asian Americans in college is when someone calls an Asian American a “chink” or “gook” and engages in a physical bullying (e.g., Museus & Park, 2012; Sue, Bucceri, et al., 2007). An example of a micro-insult often experienced by Asian Americans might occur when people make racist jokes about Asian people having deficient English skills. Finally, micro-invalidations experienced by Asian American students in college can include incidents, for example, in which faculty members exclude Asian American perspectives and voices from the curriculum or ascribe intellectual superiority upon these students and convey that they should not require support. Whether these acts are intentional or unintentional, they can have significant cumulative negative academic, psychological, and social consequences for Asian American and other racial and ethnic minority under graduates.

It is also important to acknowledge that racism is a stressor and exhibits significant negative physical, physiological, psychological, and social effects on victims of racial oppression (Bryant-Davis, 2007; Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005; Carter, 2007; Carter & Forsyth, 2009; Carter, Forsyth, Mazzula, & Williams, 2005; Clark et al., 1999; Harrell, 2000). Indeed, people of color who experience racism in many forms and from many directions can experience racism-related stress. These consequences of racism-related stress may include, but are not limited to, experiencing headaches, anxiety, low self-esteem, humiliation, night mares, anger and frustration, difficulty concentrating, lack of productivity and motivation, and depression. Symptoms of racism-related stress can also manifest in somatic form and include sleep deprivation, upset stomach, chest pains, tunnel vision, ulcers, back pains, loss of appetite, nausea, shortness of breath, weeping, vomiting, fatigue, increased heart rate, and hypertension (Bryant-Davis, 2007; Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005; Carter, 2007; Carter & Forsyth, 2009; Clark et al., 1999; Harrell, 2000; Smith, Allen, & Danley, 2007; Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000; Sue, Bucceri, et al., 2007).

Finally, it is important to note that, while subtle forms of racism are difficult to detect, evidence suggests that they might be just as harmful to the individuals who are victimized by them as more explicit manifestations of racism. In fact, scholars who study racial microaggressions have asserted that this form of racism is not trivial and may even be more problematic and psychologically damaging to individuals than more explicit forms because they have cumulative effects, their subtle nature makes them difficult to confront, and they can lead to victims investing psychological energy to figure out whether the experience was a manifestation of racism or an over-reaction to a benign incident on their part (Constantine & Sue, 2007; Perry, 2008; Perry & Robyn, 2005; Pierce, 1995; Solórzano et al., 2000; Sue, 2003; Sue, Capodilupo, & Holder, 2008). As a result, experiencing racial microaggressions has been associated with negative physical and psychological consequences such as increased discouragement, fatigue, and frustration (Solórzano et al., 2000). With this context of racism in mind, I now turn to the ways that Asian Americans have historically been excluded from discourse around the role of racism in American society.

The Black—White Paradigm in American Society

Before discussing the ways in which racism shapes the lives of Asian Americans in more depth, it is important to acknowledge the Black–White nature of racial discourse in the United States and the problematic implications of this binary. Asian Americans can and do experience all of the aforementioned forms of racism, but their racialized experiences are rarely at the center of racial discourse in American society. Indeed, several scholars have noted that racial discourse in America is characterized by a Black–White paradigm, which centers discussions of racism on the experiences and material conditions of Blacks and Whites, while excluding other racial groups (Espinoza & Harris, 1997; Gee, 1999; C. J. Kim, 1999). Moreover, the Black–White racial paradigm is readily apparent in both scholarly circles and mainstream media.

This often Black–White nature of racial discourse in American society is problematic for multiple reasons. First, while there is much about race and racism that can be learned from the experiences of Blacks and Whites, there is also much that is rendered invisible in discourse that excludes Asian Americans and other racial groups (Espinoza & Harris, 1997). For example, within the Black–White binary, immigration and language issues have been given insufficient attention (R. S. Chang, 1993). In addition, the Black–White paradigm precludes critical analyses of the relations between different groups of color. Most importantly, the Black–White paradigm impedes the development of more holistic understanding of the ways that race and racism shape the lives of all people within American society (Johnson, 1997). Therefore, it can be argued that moving beyond the Black–White paradigm is critical for developing more comprehensive understandings of racial issues in American society in general. In the context of higher education, the illumination of the racial realities of Asian American students can demonstrate some of the ways in which the inclusion of Asian Americans in racial discourse can inform larger discussions of race, culture, diversity, and equity in postsecondary education.

In the rare cases in which Asian Americans are brought to the foreground of racial discourse in the United States, they are often racialized in relation to their Black and White counterparts (C. J. Kim, 1999). Indeed, scholars have written about how Asian Americans have been racialized as relatively better than Blacks in the racial hierarchy or as relatively superior racial minorities who almost, but never quite fully, achieve White status (C. J. Kim, 1999; Wu, 1995). Of course, this conferral of honorary White status to Asian Americans reinforces existing racial paradigms that pr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Editor Introduction
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Critical Racial Contexts
• 2 Critical Historical Contexts
• 3 Critical Demographic Contexts
• 4 Asian American Identity in College
• 5 Asian American Race Relations in College
• 6 Asian American Success in College
• 7 Future Directions for Research on Asian American Students in College
• References
• Index