Asian Americans on Campus Racialized Space and White Poer [Hardcover]

While there are books on racism in universities, few examine the unique position of Asian American undergraduates. This new book captures the voices and experiences of Asian Americans navigating the currents of race, gender, and sexuality as factors in how youth construct relationships and identities. Interviews with 70 Asian Americans on an elite American campus show how students negotiate the sexualized racism of a large institution. The authors emphasize the students' resilience and their means of resistance for overcoming the impact of structural racism.

1. Introduction: Asian Americans on Campus 2. White Space, White Campus 3. Color-blind Discourse and Asian American Sexual Politics 4. Intraracial and Interracial Relationships 5. Conclusion: Resign or Resist? Disengage or Engage?

According to data available from the US Census Bureau, Asian Americans on average have higher median incomes, more prestigious occupations, and higher levels of educational attainment than do non-Hispanic whites.  Some of the largest Asian American groups, such as Asian Indians and Chinese, enjoy far higher rankings than non-Hispanic whites on all of these objective indicators of socioeconomic advantage.  Asian American students are vastly overrepresented in the most elite institutions of higher education in the US.  Chou (sociology, Georgia State Univ.), Lee, and Ho reject the use of such objective indicators of status as reflections of a pernicious model minority view.  Instead, they draw on anecdotes from interviews with 70 students at an elite university to support their preconceived notion of Asian Americans as an oppressed minority suffering from unrelenting discrimination and hostility in institutions dominated by powerful white people.  It may not be surprising that they find what they are looking for.  In the end, they argue that young Asian Americans should reject racial disengagement in favl3+