Racialized identities in a colorblind context: Filipino American youth negotiating discourses of race, identity, and diversity in school
Item
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Title
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Racialized identities in a colorblind context: Filipino American youth negotiating discourses of race, identity, and diversity in school
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:2761a9ef49df:11296
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identifier
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11760
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Creator
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Chutuape, Erica D.,
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Contributor
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Jean Anyon
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Multicultural Education | Educational sociology | Asian American studies | Hispanic American studies | Culture | Filipino Americans | Identity | Race | Racialization
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Abstract
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This dissertation is an ethnographic study that examines the discursive process by which 1.5 and second generation Filipino American students construct racial and ethnic identities in the context of school. Using a theoretical framework that focuses on the racialization of immigrant students, this study investigates some of the underlying assumptions about race, ethnicity, culture, and diversity that impact the institutional discourses in a large, northeastern high school. It explores the discordance between a context in which race is not supposed to matter and students' experiences with race everyday. Findings suggest that at the institutional level, race is viewed as polarizing, rooted in bias and prejudice, and a threat to community. Thus, discourses are aimed to defuse and downplay race by calling for students and faculty to put racialized differences aside. In contrast, race proved to be a significant factor in youth participants' daily school experiences. They participated in activities bounded and defined by race, and dialogued with their peers about ethnic and racial categorical meanings, which manifested in conversations as cultural stereotypes, yet verged on outright racism. Findings also show how Filipino youth found innovative ways to offer alternative representations to dominant perceptions of culture. Traditional notions of culture and identity as fixed were challenged and instead are shown to emerge as socially-embedded systems of meaning.;Importantly, this study provides a deeper understanding of the interracial connections not just between non-whites and whites, but among non-whites. Filipino American youth in this study contended with a dominant bipolar racial discourse that marginalizes the racialized experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders. However, instead of feeling invisible or marginalized data point to how they negotiated a black-white racial discourse to decide when and how they enter dialogues about race. Youth reconceptualized this racial binary to position themselves on a continuum to form the racial "middle ground" between blacks and whites. Importantly, rather than a racial hierarchy that places whites at the top, youth used discursive strategies to place themselves on a racial continuum that emphasizes the interconnectedness among racial minorities.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Urban Education
