Critical Race Theory Examination of Asian Americans
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NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles "More Complicated than a Numbers Game": A Critical Race Theory Examination of Asian Americans and Campus Racial Climate A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Oi Yan Anita Poon 2010 UMI Number: 3405578 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3405578 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uest ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 © copyright by Oi Yan Anita Poon 2010 The dissertation of Oi Yan Anita Poon is approved. r/t<? Keith Camacho Patricia McDonough <f ^•y<kU- Don T. Nakanishi, Committee Co-Chair Daniel G. Solorzano, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2010 u This dissertation is dedicated to the students at George Mason University (2001-02) and UC Davis (2002-05), who inspired me with their honorable struggle for education access and equity. iii Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables v Acknowledgements vi Vita viii Abstract of the Dissertation xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review 14 Chapter 3: Building a Theoretical Framework 34 Chapter 4: Methods 57 Chapter 5: Racial Microaggressions, Asian Americans & Campus Racial Climate 68 Chapter 6: Racial Microaggressions as Social Constraints and Barriers in Asian American Academic and Vocational Choices 114 Chapter 7: Asian American Responses to Racial Microaggressions 140 Chapter 8: Conclusion 195 Appendix A: Recruitment Email and Flyer 209 Appendix B: Characteristics and Pseudonyms of Interview Subjects 211 Appendix C: Consent to Participate in Research 212 Appendix D: Racial Microaggressions Handout 215 Appendix E: Interview Protocol 217 Appendix F: Coding Scheme 219 References 221 iv List of Figures and Tables Figure 3.1: Critical Race Theory Model of Campus Racial Climate 51 Table 4.1: Characteristics of 25 Interview Subjects 65 Table 4.2: Fall 2008 UCLA Asian American Undergraduate Enrollment 65 Table 4.3: Fall 2008 UCLA Academic Majors by Race 66 Table 5.1: Racial Microaggression Categories by Student Characteristics 72 v Acknowledgements As bell hooks (2003) said so eloquently, "Diverse communities of resistance ... are the source of our hope, the place where our passion to connect and to learn is constantly fulfilled" (p. xvi). My work toward a Ph.D. would not have been possible without the support of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Institute for American Cultures, and the UC Asian American & Pacific Islander Policy Multi-campus Research Program. Most importantly, it could not have been possible without the encouragement of so many people that have been my communities of resistance, justice, hope, and love. The words "thank you" are not enough to express my gratitude for the love and support my parents have given to me. Thank you for your wisdom, strength, sense of humor, and letting me explore my own path in life, even if it didn't seem very "practical." To my brothers, you've been the two greatest companions a girl could have in living the "impractical" life. I am grateful for the support of many professors at UCLA and other institutions. I am thankful for the mentorship and guidance of my committee: Don T. Nakanishi, Daniel G. Solorzano, Patricia McDonough, and Keith Camacho. Thank you for giving me the freedom and affirmation to keep going in my work, and for the critical feedback you gave me. I have the utmost respect for all of you and the work you do. To Paul Ong, thank you for being a great mentor and challenging me over the last four years to become a better scholar, and for being a role model in conducting community-based and applied social science research. To Shirley Hune, thank you for always checking in with me, even from Seattle, and helping me to navigate academia as an Asian American woman. To Mitchell J. Chang, Michael Brown, Sylvia Hurtado, Rob Teranishi, Val Rust, Jennifer Yee, Gilbert Gee, Sora Park-Tanjisiri, Dina Maramba - thank you for the encouraging words that always came when I needed them most. To my RAC family, you've been an amazing space of critical community cultural wealth. Thanks again to Danny for allowing room for this space. To my cohort of mujeres - Corina Benavides, Maria Malagon, Lindsay Huber-Perez, Argelia Lara, Veronica Velez, and Crystal Alvarez - you inspire me with your spirit and the amazing work you do! To Dr. Rita Kohli, thank you for always sharing advice and information. I also owe a debt of gratitude to many people who have been my family in Los Angeles. LA would have been very lonely without Taz Ahmed, who was always there to check me when I deserved it. Thank you for always being there for me. I'm grateful to Yen Ling Shek for being my voice of reason, for sharing her faith with me, and for taking my paperwork around campus! Hey, it's a good way for you to learn the minutiae of filing! To Christina Aujean Lee, thank you for being my UCLA sister. Thank you, Cindy Mosqueda for getting me involved in UCSA and for being my baseball buddy. To my NAPAWF sisters - Varisa Patraporn, Lisa Fu, Cathy Dang, Angeline Chen, Kat Khommarath, and Preeti Sharma - thank you for your love and friendship. To Chiara Paz, Dawn Lee Tu, Cheryl Matias-Padua, Daniel Liou, Pedro Nava, JP DeGuzman, Diem Tran (and Mochi!) and Andrew Jung, thank you for challenging me with your brilliant insights on sections and chapters of this dissertation. Finally, last but not least, thank you to the twenty-five UCLA students who spent time and shared their stories with me. vii VITA January 20, 1976 Born, Maiden, Massachusetts 1998 B. S., Management, Marketing concentration Boston College 2001 M.Ed., College Student Affairs Administration The University of Georgia 2001 -2002 Director of Asian Pacific American Student Affairs George Mason University 2002-2005 Student Affairs Officer for Asian American Studies University of California, Davis 2005-2008 Research Assistant UC AAPI Policy Multi-campus Research Program 2006 UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellow 2006-2007 Research Fellow California Policy Research Center 2006-2007 21st Century Graduate Fellow UCLA Asian American Studies Center 2007 Teaching Assistant UCLA Department of Education 2007 UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellow 2007 President University of California Student Association 2007-2008 UCLA Institute of American Cultures Pre-doctoral Fellow 2008-2009 Research Associate UCLA School of Public Affairs 2009 Teaching Assistant UCLA Department of Asian American Studies viii PUBLICATIONS Poon, O. A. (in press). Generational and Communication Gaps in the AAPI Education Agenda: AAPIs in the College Access Debate. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice, and Community. Poon, O. A., Ong, P. M., Lee, C. A., Shek, Y. L., & Tran, L. D. (in press). Affirmative Action Business Contracting and Asian American Business Owners: Partial Disparity Study Analysis of Atlanta, Chicago, & San Francisco. Washington, DC: Asian American Justice Center/Ford Foundation. Poon, O. A. (2009). Haunted by Negative Action: Asian Americans, Admissions, and Race in the "Colorblind Era." Harvard University Asian American Policy Review, 18. Shek, Y. L., Ong, P. M., Poon, O. A., Tran, L. D., Yee, V., & Lee, C. A. (2009). The State of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County Report. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Poon, O. A., Tran, L. D., & Ong, P. M. (2009). The state of Asian American businesses. UCLA Asian American Studies Center Analytical Policy Brief. Funded by the Ford Foundation. http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/policy/API%20Business%200wners%20Report.pdf Ong, P., Tran, L., Firestine, T., Pfeiffer, D., & Poon, O. (2008). South Los Angeles project: The state of South LA. School of Public Affairs, UCLA. www.spa.ucla.edu/up/webfiles/SouthLABriefv_FrNAL_electronic.pdf. Chang, M. J., Park, J., Lin, M. H., Poon, O.A., & Nakanishi, D. T. (2007). Beyond myths: The growth and diversity of Asian American college freshmen, 1971- 2005. Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA. Poon, O. A. (2007). Review: Consuming citizenship: Children of Asian Immigrant Entrepreneurs by Lisa Sun-Hee Park. Inter Actions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 3, (2), Article 9. http://repositories.cdlib.org/gseis/interactions/vol3/iss2/art9 ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION "More Complicated than a Numbers Game": A Critical Race Theory Examination of Asian Americans and Campus Racial Climate by Oi Yan Anita Poon Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2010 Professor Don T. Nakanishi, Co-Chair Professor Daniel G. Solorzano, Co-Chair In the Grutter and Gratz Supreme Court decision, proponents of affirmative action claimed that a critical mass of minority students could effectively counter racial marginalization often experienced by students of color due to their racial status. On some campuses, Asian Americans as a pan-ethnic population enjoy a critical mass in undergraduate enrollments, and therefore present an opportunity for scholars to explore x the relationship between critical mass, racial marginalization, and racial power within campus racial climate. Using UCLA as a case study of a campus environment with a critical mass of Asian Americans and controversies over racial disparities in college access, I conducted in-depth interviews of 25 randomly selected Asian American UCLA undergraduates, who represent a diversity of ethnicities, genders, academic majors, and socio-economic class.