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Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship: Critical Race Theory, Post-Structuralism, and Narrative Space
Abstract
As Asian Americans join the legal academy in growing numbers, they change the face of the academy and challenge its traditional legal doctrines. The author announces an "Asian American Moment" in the legal academy and an opportunity to reverse the pattern of discrimination against Asian Americans. Traditional civil rights work and current critical race scholarship fail to address the unique issues for Asian Americans, including nativistic racism and the model minority myth. Space must be made in the legal academy for an Asian American Legal Scholarship and the narratives of Asian Americans. The author states that the rational-empirical mode is inadequate as a justification for narrative scholarship and argues for a post-structural basis for Asian American Legal Scholarship. He gives a few historical examples of how narrative can be used to effect social change. Finally, the author offers a framework for constructing an Asian American Legal Scholarship which acknowledges the tremendous diversity among the disempowered but which also recognizes that it is through solidarity that Asian Americans will gain the freedom to express their diversity.
... Asian American critical race theory (AsianCrit) [15], complemented by the racebased traumatic stress theory [16] and the school ethnic-racial socialization model (school ERS) [17], serves as the theoretical framework for this study. AsianCrit posits that racial discrimination prevails in the everyday experience of Asians and Asian Americans in the US, racializing them as model minorities and as perpetual foreigners at the same time [15]. ...
... Asian American critical race theory (AsianCrit) [15], complemented by the racebased traumatic stress theory [16] and the school ethnic-racial socialization model (school ERS) [17], serves as the theoretical framework for this study. AsianCrit posits that racial discrimination prevails in the everyday experience of Asians and Asian Americans in the US, racializing them as model minorities and as perpetual foreigners at the same time [15]. The model minority stereotype portrays Asians and Asian Americans as model minorities or "honorary white"-hardworking, successful, and law-abiding-with narrowly defined educational and economic success [18]. ...
... As the most salient stereotypes that fundamentally drive anti-Asian hate and sentiment, the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes are linked to racial discrimination in various forms (e.g., physical, verbal, and microaggression) and at different levels (e.g., interpersonal and institutionalized) [15]. The perpetual foreigner stereotype deteriorates Asians' and Asian Americans' mental health [21][22][23]. ...
Anti-Asian scapegoating, sentiment, and hate have caused devastating psychological and behavioral challenges among Asians and Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study aims to understand Asians' and Asian Americans' experiences of racial discrimination during the pandemic, examine their reflections on the impacts of anti-Asian racism on their emotions and coping, and explore their perspectives on teaching Asian American history in combating anti-Asian racism. The results of this study showed that the participants articulated an array of profound emotional challenges in response to the deleterious effects of personal and vicarious experiences of racism. They used varied coping strategies, exhibiting heightened vigilance and intentional proactive measures to protect themselves and their communities against anti-Asian racism. The participants also underscored the intersectionality between race and gender, highlighting the vulnerability of Asian women. Additionally, the participants advocated for the inclusion of Asian American history in the school curriculum to dismantle and disrupt systematic racism. This study reveals the emotional and behavioral effects of anti-Asian racism on Asian and Asian American individuals and communities. It illustrates the crucial role of amplifying Asian and Asian American voices in the school curriculum in combating anti-Asian racism beyond the pandemic.
... Each of us came to the United States as an international student from South Korea (Korea, hereinafter) to pursue advanced degrees in education, and after obtaining a terminal degree, all landed on a tenure-track assistant professor position in higher education institutions across the United States. Upon our arrival to the United States, each author had a wide range of racialized experiences Chang, 1993), starting with the automatic and involuntary categorization into Asian or Asian American. We had to learn what it means to live like Asians or Asian Americans in the United States and began thinking about our identity in association with this newly prescribed racial label. ...
... The literature on AsianCrit examines racialized experiences of Asian Americans in the United States and offers a lens to resist White supremacy and racism and to foster solidarity. This nonlinear, complex process involved revisiting racialized experiences we encountered and negotiated tensions around key constructs of AsianCrit-perpetual foreigners (PF) and model minority myth (MMM; Chang, 1993;Museus et al., 2013)-in eyes of in-betweenness ("Korean" and "American") when exploring our Asian and Asian American identities. ...
... AsianCrit is a useful tool to analyze the ways that White supremacy and global colonial and imperial project, intersecting with other structural forces such as capitalism, patriarchy, ableism, sexism, and monolingualism subjugate racially marginalized people particularly in the United States (Iftikar & Museus, 2018;Museus et al., 2013). AsianCrit was introduced as a subdivision of CRT to illuminate the racialized experiences specific to Asian Americans Chang, 1993). By centering Asian Americans' experiences and voices, AsianCrit can help researchers and practitioners expand knowledge about Asian racialization processes, question dominant racial narratives and U.S. imperialism, and engage in coalition building to advocate for the end of all oppression (Iftikar & Museus, 2018). ...
... Despite their extensive history of collective action, Asian Americans are perceived as apolitical and separate from conversations about social justice movements in the United States and abroad (Chang, 1993). This dissonance can be attributed, in part, to racial triangulationinvolving the interplay between the "model minority" and "perpetual foreigner" racial tropes-and Asian Americans' positioning in an anti-Black society (Davies, 2022;Kim, 1999). ...
Throughout U.S. history, Asian Americans engaged in various forms of collective action to challenge systems of oppression. Despite this, few studies challenge the stereotype that Asian Americans are apolitical and uninterested in collective action and focus on psychological correlates of Asian Americans' collective action. Collective action may be motivated by critical reflection on racism and inequality, which may induce shifts in racial identity ideological values that lead Asian Americans to align with minoritized groups. The current study examines whether Asian American racial identity ideological values-specifically, Asian American Unity, Interracial Solidarity, and Transnational Critical Consciousness-help explain why critical reflection is linked to collective action among Asian Americans. Multiple mediation analyses suggested that, among Asian American college students in the Southwest United States (N = 272), beliefs about Interracial Solidarity and Asian American Unity mediated the relationship between critical reflection (i.e., Critical Reflection on Racism and Perceived Inequality) and collective action (i.e., Support for Black Lives Matter and Sociopolitical Participation). Transnational Critical Consciousness did not mediate the relationship between critical reflection and collective action. This study highlights how Asian American unity and interracial solidarity beliefs underlie Asian Americans' critical reflection and collective action.
This study employs critical ethnographic child–parent research to examine Korean American children’s lived experiences related to anti-Asian racism, looking closely at children’s ordinary interactions in their everyday lives at home. Children’s conversations at home were audio – and video-recorded and artifacts created by children and from school were collected. While children as co-researchers actively participated in the research, they shared their perspectives on race and anti-Asian racism, noticing the invisibility and stereotypes of Asian Americans. The children’s counterstories from child–parent research reveal that racialized discourses toward Asians and Asian Americans are not discussed at school even though children experience them.
This study opens more conversations to understand and navigate Asian American children’s perspectives on race and racism and methodological insights for racially minoritized parent research with children.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to gain insight into Asian Americans’ experiences with racism during elementary, middle and high school and how those experiences shape the ways they describe their racial identity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative research design and narrative inquiry strategy. The authors used Chang’s (1993) Asian Critical Race Theory framework to examine participant’s descriptions of experiences with racism during elementary, middle and high school and how these experiences shape how they describe their Asian American racial identity.
Findings
Participants’ narratives revealed a common theme of silencing through two major processes: acceptance of the Asian American identity as an “other” and measuring the Asian American self against the barometers of physical appearance and the model minority stereotype.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on Asian Americans by examining how experiences as a child shape how they have come to perceive their racial identity in relation to their overall self-concept. The authors argue that Asian American experiences have been excluded from discourse on race in education as the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes have allowed for this marginalization.
In this article, the authors present a qualitative study focused on preservice teachers employing a framework using tenets of critical race theory (CRT)—permanence of racism, experiential knowledge and counter-storytelling, interest convergence, and critique of liberalism—in literature study. Drawing on critical English education, critical race English education, and CRT, the proposed framework integrates key tenets of CRT with literature in classrooms. Our findings demonstrated engagement by preservice teachers in identification, analysis, and reflection of CRT tenets in texts. This framework has the potential to provide a tool for students and teachers in K-12 schools to connect tenets of CRT to their knowledge of society and race in the texts they read.
As anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) movements descend on educational spaces, it is necessary to self-reflect on investments in whiteness within our discipline. In this piece, I comment on Communication Studies’ epistemological investments in the property of whiteness, particularly through discursive strategies. Next, I outline a path forward in race and communication research coined Critical Communication and Race Theory of Research and Practice (CCRT). Finally, I suggest how CCRT may engender opportunities for liberatory race research, and disciplinary practices, in the areas of Critical Rhetorical Studies and Interpersonal Communication Studies. It is my hope that this piece supports conversation about unifying race scholars in the Communication Studies Discipline under the goal of disrupting racial logics, rather than working toward academic proliferation.
Bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical dilemma.
Recent works by neoconservatives and by Critical legal scholars have suggested that civil rights reforms have been an unsuccessful means of achieving racial equality in America. In this Article, Professor Crenshaw considers these critiques and analyzes the continuing role of racism in the subordination of Black Americans. The neoconservative emphasis on formal colorblindness, she argues, fails to recognize the indeterminacy of civil rights laws and the force of lingering racial disparities. The Critical scholars, who emphasize the legitimating role of legal ideology and legal rights rhetoric, are substantially correct, according to Professor Crenshaw, but they fail to appreciate the choices and possibilities available to an oppressed group such as Blacks. The Critics, she suggests, ignore the singular power of racism as a hegemonic force in American society. Blacks have been created as a subordinated "other," and formal reform has merely repackaged racism. Antidiscrimination law, she argues, has largely succeeded in eliminating the symbolic manifestations of racial oppression, but has allowed the perpetuation of material subordination of Blacks. Professor Crenshaw concludes by demonstrating the importance of exposing the racist nature of ostensibly neutral norms, and of devising strategies for change that include the pragmatic use of legal rights.
Analyzes and responds to an article criticizing the idea that some scholars of color write in a distinctive "voice" by virtue of their experience and background. Summarizes how conventional liberal discourse views the issue of voice. Contrasts that view with outsider perspectives and illuminates the paradigmatic gap between critical race theory and mainstream scholarship.
Investigates the state of affairs now that critical race theorists and radical feminists have entered the legal academy in substantial numbers. Revisits the original article, The Imperial Scholar, and explores whether the new generation of majority-race (white) scholars continue to operate in an insular fashion that marginalizes outsider and minority writers. Documents how the descendants of the original imperial scholars -- white academics writing about race in the top reviews -- although younger and hipper than the original versions, continue the same exclusionary pattern of neglect and non-citation. Concludes that those who control the terms of discourse will marginalize outsider writing as long as possible.
Immigrants to the United States have been a source of national pride, but also the object of national prejudice. At times, employers have used claims of "unintelligible English" to deny jobs to accented, but otherwise qualified, applicants. However, these claims may be mere pretense to discrimination based on national origin, a violation of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In such cases, courts must make a judgment about an individual's comprehensibility, and thus, his or her qualifications. These determinations are subjective and highly vulnerable to the sways of prejudice. In this Comment, the author calls for the use of an objective test to determine the comprehensibility of an individual's speech. She offers the Test of Spoken English, a standardized test administered nationwide by the Educational Testing Service, as a tool available to both parties and the courts in accent discrimination litigation.