What Is Social Justice Research for Asian Americans? Critical Reflections on Cross-Racial and Cross-Ethnic Coalition Building in Community-Based Educational Spaces

Fostering Asian American Emerging Adults’ Advocacy Against Anti-Black Racism Through Digital Storytelling

“…Despite these examples, a major longstanding hindrance to anti-racism advocacy among Asian Americans is anti-Blackness (Matriano et al, 2021). Anti-Blackness among Asian Americans derives from a long history of systemic racism and oppression by Western colonialism and their White supremacist ideologies (Kim, 1998; Pheng & Xiong, 2022). Western colonialism and militarism (e.g., European colonial occupation of East India, U.S. military occupations during the Korean and Vietnam Wars) have led many Asian immigrants to lose their livelihoods to war and violence, and experience the invisibility and erasure of their cultural identities (Kim, 1998; Pheng & Xiong, 2022).…”

“…Anti-Blackness among Asian Americans derives from a long history of systemic racism and oppression by Western colonialism and their White supremacist ideologies (Kim, 1998; Pheng & Xiong, 2022). Western colonialism and militarism (e.g., European colonial occupation of East India, U.S. military occupations during the Korean and Vietnam Wars) have led many Asian immigrants to lose their livelihoods to war and violence, and experience the invisibility and erasure of their cultural identities (Kim, 1998; Pheng & Xiong, 2022). These events have had an intergenerational impact, as some Asian immigrant families in Western countries have adopted a “colonial mentality,” which normalized the predominance and superiority of Western settlers and White supremacist systems (Kim 1998).…”

“…We controlled for empirically informed covariates that could differentiate views on racism and racial issues among Asian Americans, including generational status, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Specifically, generational status (earlier vs. later) and social class (lower vs. higher) have been found to differentiate the awareness of racism (Karlsen & Nazroo, 2002; Keum et al, 2018) as well as across ethnicities among Asian American individuals such as between East Asian and South or Southeast Asian groups (Yellow Horse et al, 2021; Pheng and Xiong, 2022). Below were our hypotheses:…”

“Asians Are the Least Troublemaker”: Navigating Racial In-betweenness in Korean American Community-based Spaces

“…J. Lee et al 2020). Co-ethnic community-based spaces can also foster critical youth development (Das Gupta 2019; Pheng and Xiong 2022), but the literature suggests that without a focus on social justice, these spaces may reproduce dominant narratives about ethnicity (e.g., ethnic authenticity) and race (Doerr and Lee 2010; Du 2011). This article contributes to this literature by focusing on two co-ethnic organizations that have been highlighted as important resources for East Asian American communities but are currently understudied as spaces of racial formation: heritage language schools and ethnic supplementary education.…”

“…Asian American youth strongly support defunding the police and other demands that Black Americans have organized for (Fu et al 2019; S. J. Lee et al 2020; Pheng and Xiong 2022; D. Wong 2020).…”