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Asian American College Students: Making Racial Meaning in an Era of Color-Blind Racism

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Asian American College Students: Making Racial Meaning in an Era of Color-Blind Racism DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Education Theses and Dissertations College of Education Fall 11-2013 ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS: MAKING RACIAL MEANING IN AN ERA OF COLOR-BLIND RACISM Vijay Pendakur DePaul University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Pendakur, Vijay, "ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS: MAKING RACIAL MEANING IN AN ERA OF COLOR-BLIND RACISM" (2013). College of Education Theses and Dissertations. 61. https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd/61 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Education Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DePaul University College of Education ASIAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS: MAKING RACIAL MEANING IN AN ERA OF COLOR-BLIND RACISM A Dissertation in Education with a Concentration in Curriculum Studies by Vijay Pendakur © 2014 Vijay Pendakur Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education November 2013 Abstract Since the end of the Civil Rights era, a new paradigm has emerged for understanding race and racism in American society. This neoliberal hegemonic discourse argues that systemic racism ended with the abolishment of formal, juridical racism and that any continued investment in race is both unnecessary and deeply problematic. Critical race theorists have named this framework color-blind racism. In recent years, color-blind racist discourse has been repackaged under a ―post-race‖ label and the election of America‘s first non-White president has only served to bolster notions that America might have somehow transcended race. For college students, the undergraduate years are often a time of great intellectual, emotional, and spiritual upheaval and this instability makes college a prime site for examining individuals‘ meaning-making and identity formation processes. Students of color are no exception to this overall phenomenon and the literature on racial identity development speaks to the dramatic changes in self-concept that individuals of color often experience while attending college. One group of students of color, Asian American college students, are deeply under- studied and there is little scholarly writing on Asian American college students‘ racial identity development process. This dissertation is a qualitative study of the effects of color-blind racism on the racial identity meaning-making of Asian American college freshmen. Using a narrative inquiry methodology, the author conducted lengthy in-person interviews with nine participants. The emergent themes from the study indicate that the participants‘ racial meaning-making process was heavily laden with elements of the ethnicity paradigm of race, color-blind racist tropes, and Asian American racial tropes. The study results suggest that these participants‘ hold little in the iii way of racial identity consciousness, as Asian Americans, and that their heavy investment in ethnic identity works to support a color-blind racial frame. Furthermore, elements of color-blind racism and Asian American racial formation appear to interlock in unique ways to produce complicity with the logic of color-blind racism and support for key elements of White racial hegemony. Further research is needed on the effects of color-blind racism on the identity development of college students broadly, and on Asian American students specifically. iv Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... x Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Theoretical Frameworks: Racial Formation Theory and Critical Race Theory .......................... 5 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................................ 9 Scope and Significance ............................................................................................................. 11 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 12 A Note on Terminology ............................................................................................................ 12 CHAPTER 2 – A REVIEW OF THE RELEVANT LITERATURE ........................................... 14 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 14 Color-Blind Racism and Post-Raciality .................................................................................... 14 History and terminology ........................................................................................................ 14 Definitions and mechanics ..................................................................................................... 15 Theoretical criticism .............................................................................................................. 19 Applied criticism in education ............................................................................................... 27 In psychology ........................................................................................................................ 31 Asian American Critical Race Theory ...................................................................................... 39 Racial identity and Asian American college students ........................................................... 40 Asian American college students: Racial identity development ........................................... 46 New Directions in College Student Development Theory ........................................................ 50 Rationale for my Study ............................................................................................................. 55 v CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY AND METHOD .................................................................. 57 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 57 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 57 Qualitative Research and Narrative Inquiry .............................................................................. 58 The Site ..................................................................................................................................... 61 Sampling, Participant Selection, and Sampling Issues ............................................................. 62 Instrumentation and Data Collection......................................................................................... 64 Data Collection - Confidentiality .............................................................................................. 66 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 66 Issues of Validity ....................................................................................................................... 67 Positionality ............................................................................................................................... 69 Methodological Limitations of this Study ................................................................................. 71 Brief Participant Biographies .................................................................................................... 72 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 75 CHAPTER 4 – THEME 1: THE ETHNICITY PARADIGM ...................................................... 76 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 76 Culture and Descent .................................................................................................................. 78 Melting Pots and Salad Bowls .................................................................................................. 82 The Diversity Panacea ............................................................................................................... 86 Clubs, Fairs, and Festivals ........................................................................................................ 93 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 98 CHAPTER 5 – THEME 2: COLOR-BLIND RACISM ............................................................. 100 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 100 Minimization of Racism .........................................................................................................
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