Browsing by Subject "Asian American"

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Coping with Racial/Ethnic Discrimination: The Role of Color-Blind Racial Ideology among Asian Americans
(2016-08) Lee, Joyce
The present study examined how Asian Americans (N = 404) experience and manage racial/ethnic discrimination in both its explicit and ambiguous forms. Color-blind racial ideology also was examined as a moderator in the association between racial/ethnic discrimination and negative affect (anger and anxiety), social state self-esteem, and behavior following a racist event. Results from this experimental vignette study showed that Asian Americans experience more anger and anxiety when confronted with explicit racial/ethnic discrimination. Asian Americans who were more racially color-blind about racial privilege experienced less anxiety when confronted with ambiguous discrimination compared to Asian Americans with less racial color-blindness. Asian Americans used a variety of strategies to respond to racial/ethnic discrimination. These strategies ranged from disengaging from the source of stress or engaging with the stressor in both positive (neutral or warm/friendly) and negative (contentious) ways. Asian Americans who were more racially color-blind about institutional discrimination were less likely to engage as a response to discrimination. Furthermore, when confronted with ambiguous discrimination, Asian Americans were more inclined to positively counter ambiguous discrimination than be disengaged from it. Asian Americans respond differently to explicit and ambiguous forms of discrimination and use a variety of strategies to manage and negotiate their racialized status.
Emergency Department Use by Asian American Children
(2015-05) Zook, Heather
The purpose of this study was to compare emergency department (ED) utilization and treatment patterns of Asian American children with children from other racial/ethnic groups. A cross-sectional design was used to examine all visits by children under 18 years to two urban pediatric EDs between June 2011 and May 2012. Demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical data were extracted from the patients' electronic medical records. A logistic regression model was used to assess the patients' odds of high ED utilization (at least 4 ED visits in the study period), controlling for potential confounders. The overall sample consisted of 86,922 ED visits, and over 4% were made by Asian American children. Asian Americans' ED usage and treatment patterns reflected those of Whites and not of other minority racial/ethnic groups in areas such as elopements, visit frequency, time and day of visit, time to exam, length of stay, tests ordered, inpatient admissions, and triage scores. Among all racial/ethnic groups, Asian Americans had the largest percentage of patients living in the lowest income level (45%). After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical covariates, Asian American children were the least likely to have high ED utilization. White patients were 2.57 (95% confidence interval 1.89 - 3.51) times more likely to have high ED utilization than Asian Americans, with all other groups having even higher odds. In conclusion, despite similar ED behaviors as Whites, Asian American children were significantly less likely to use the pediatric ED than all other racial/ethnic groups.
From a “Contagious” to a “Poisonous Yellow Peril”?: Japanese and Japanese Americans in Public Health and Agriculture, 1890s – 1950.
(2009-06) Shinozuka, Jeannie Natsuko
In the late nineteenth century, increasing agricultural trade and mass Asian migration facilitated the transpacific exchanges of Japanese insect, plant, and human immigrants. This dissertation, "From a `Contagious' to a `Poisonous Yellow Peril'?: Japanese and Japanese Americans in Public Health and Agriculture, 1890s - 1950," challenges the nation-bound paradigm within the history of American public health and agriculture by examining how the "contagious and poisonous yellow peril" image applied first to Chinese immigrants was also imposed on plants, insects, bodies, and pathogens from Japan in the late nineteenth century. As Japanese and Japanese Americans in California resisted this stigmatization, early views of Japanese and Japanese American plants, insects, fishermen, and farmers as a "contagious yellow peril" evolved into a "poisonous yellow peril," leading to their "quarantine" in the form of incarceration during World War II. Beginning at the turn of the twentieth century, this study examines the emergence of "biological nativism" and its correlative, "a contagious yellow peril" which soon expanded to include Japanese immigrants. Linking fears of diseased bodies to that of injurious insects from Japan, these earliest biotic exchanges occurred within a larger transpacific dialogue between health officials and agriculturalists. Throughout the 1910s, government officials increasingly monitored environmental dangers from East Asia and Mexico, as well as "infected" produce sold by Japanese fishermen and farmers within their borders. Fears of perils from Mexico and Japan led to a heightened awareness of biological attacks on "native" plants and bodies and the implementation of federal plant quarantine legislation. During the 1920s and 1930s, fears of a "contagious yellow peril" transformed into a "poisonous" menace in the form of the Japanese beetle pest and a rising second-generation Japanese American population. By World War II, government officers enacted a host of regulatory mechanisms in order to eradicate or at least control the beetle pest and prevent the sale of "poisoned" Japanese produce. Quarantine in the form of internment and the medical treatment of Japanese American prisoners helped transform them into viable citizen-subjects worthy of conservation. Yet health officials' changing views of Japanese Americans was determined in relationship to their American Indian and Mexican counterparts. In weaving together stories that are often told separately--including American history, Asian history, public health history, environmental history, and Asian American studies--this study reveals how racial and state formation unfolded across larger transpacific exchanges during American empire-building. Examining the lives of Japanese and Japanese Americans through the lens of public health and agriculture reveals how some species can be included while others could not.
From water margins to borderlands: boundaries and the fantastic in fantasy, Native American, and Asian American literatures.
(2009-12) Miller, Jennifer L.
This dissertation examines the tropes of boundaries and the fantastic in Asian American, Native American, and fantasy literature, in works by authors ranging from Sherman Alexie and Stephen King to Maxine Hong Kingston and J.K. Rowling. Because both race and the fantastic engage the theme of boundaries, by focusing on the elements of the fantastic in these works of contemporary literature, the theme of race can be brought to the fore as well. The fantastic proves to be particularly valuable in challenging the binary relationship between Self and Other, suggesting new ways to think about the process of identity formation. Furthermore, because of the hesitation and uncertainty inherent in the trope of the fantastic, this same uncertainty is transferred to the discussion of race in these texts, highlighting the way in which many authors simultaneously embrace and reject stereotypical racial fantasies. Additionally, examining the limitations of the fantastic provides another challenge to expected portrayals of race and difference in the way it blurs the line between reader and text and compels the reader to become a more active participant in discussions of race. In this way, reading these works through the lens of the fantastic moves questions of race in popular texts to the center of the discussion, forcing readers to acknowledge the complex, ambiguous, and often contradictory ways in which race is portrayed in contemporary works of fantasy, Asian American, and Native American fiction.
Identity profiles and psychological adjustment among adopted Korean American adolescents
(2012-08) Reichwald, Reed Tyler
Drawing upon social identity and intersectionality theories and research, I conducted a person-centered, multi-informant study of 158 pairs of adopted Korean American adolescents (AKAA) and their adoptive parents. Using cluster analytic procedures, I examined AKAA' patterns of identification across multiple social domains (ethnic, racial, and adoptive identities). The obtained clusters were validated empirically by comparing groups along relevant variables (e.g., engagement in ethnic and racial socialization, dissatisfaction with racial appearance, birth family interest, perceived discrimination, colorblind attitudes, diversity in friendship networks) on which they would be expected to differ . Finally, I examined the association between these identity profiles and psychological adjustment, including behavioral development and other measures of well-being. Results revealed the emergence of six conceptually unique identity clusters that differed significantly on the various validity constructs measured. However, the identity profiles were largely undifferentiated with respect to behavioral development per parent and adolescent reports on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 1997). Group differences were found on broad psychological outcomes including life satisfaction, perceived school belongingness and peer competence, and school interest and motivation. Results confirm the importance of considering the collective impact of multiple social identities on a variety of outcomes.
Korean American Creations and Discontents: Korean American Cultural Productions, Los Angeles, and Post-1992
(2020-12) Chang, Michelle
Korean American Creations and Discontents looks at Korean American subjectivity in Los Angeles after the 1992 Riots/Uprisings. This project begins with the LAPD beating of Rodney King and ends with the fatal Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. This dissertation is necessarily rooted in 1992 and 2020. Using Korean American cultural producers, this project examines the figure of the Korean American entrepreneur and Korean American subjectivity within the boundaries of model minority narratives, neoliberalism, multiculturalism, and post-racial rhetoric. Situated in Los Angeles, this project is grounded in the Riots/Uprisings as an event that shaped, transformed, and reified new cultural, racial, economic, and gendered assumptions of multiple categories, identities, and bodies. While some events leading up to the Riots/Uprisings are covered, this project looks more specifically at media representation and the consequences of a media-constructed Black-Korean conflict. Moreover, while this project shifts away from the Riots/Uprisings, it remains rooted in them as a spectral haunting, influencing racial dynamics in the contemporary moment, as well as Korean American cultural productions. I look at how 1992 was a pivotal moment that influenced and continues to inform how Korean American cultural producers view themselves and their work, whether consciously or unconsciously. Moreover, my own perspective as a 2nd generation Korean American instrumentally informs my work, appearing most explicitly in personal anecdotes and vignettes, inserted throughout the dissertation. Chapter one takes a broader look at the shifting Asian American figure, looking at how Asian American representation has shifted between yellow peril and model minority narratives, given the historical moment and events that are unfolding. Taking a contemporary look at the increase of Asian American representation in popular culture, I situate this idea of representation as a paradox. Chapter two then looks at the history of Korean immigrants/Americans in Los Angeles, and how generalized tropes of Asian Americans impacted Korean American figures. The second part of this dissertation takes a look at 1.5 or 2nd generation Korean American cultural producers, Justin Chon and his 2017 film Gook, Roy Choi, the creator of the Kogi Truck and the Korean BBQ taco, and Dumbfoundead, a Koreatown-based rapper and media creator. Chapter three looks at Justin Chon and Gook, alongside the 1992 Riots/Uprisings, news media representations, and the media-constructed Black-Korean conflict. Chapter four and five examine Roy Choi’s Korean BBQ taco and the Kogi truck and Dumbfoundead, respectiviely, within the context of rising multiculturalism, neoliberalism, and post-racial rhetoric.
Review of Father of the Four Passages by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
(Voices from the Gaps, 2004) Wettstaedt, Megan
Unreading multilingualisms of the Korean diaspora
(2013-07) Kim, Eun Joo
This project critiques the impulse to read literature and culture of the Korean diaspora as representative of individual(s), culture(s), or community(ies), and the long-standing focus on what difference looks like. Each of my primary texts has been written or performed by Korean diasporic women in the past three decades. My primary materials also include both Korean and English, and most include a third or even a fourth language. While still attending to visual reading practices, my project privileges the sound of difference. I attend to how these different sounds are represented on the printed page, the cinematic screen, and the theatre stage. Each of these genres and media allows multilinguality to be expressed in different and very specific ways. My methodology consists of "unreading" contemporary texts. By unreading, I mean the practice of disrupting and deconstructing more dominant languages, vocabularies, and reading practices, guided by Rey Chow's discussion of "unlearning" and Kandice Chuh's work on deconstructing the "Asian American subject." With this approach, I investigate how relations of power are represented in cultural productions. I begin with a discussion of the modernization and democratization of the Korean language, particularly during the period of Japanese colonization. It is within this context that I read the historical traces that emerge in the language(s) of contemporary works. I then consider the grammatical, social, political, and cultural implications of eliciting a specific Western-derived first-person singular subject from a more (potentially deliberately) ambiguous Korean context. In the second half of this project, I turn to the media of film and television to argue that historical traces of the phenomena of early cinema, particularly during Korea's colonial period inform the translation and communication technologies featured in contemporary films of the Korean diaspora. The layering of subtitling in noraebang scenes enacts a doubling of both screens and subtitles, introducing rich layers of textuality while recalling the titles of early cinema. I conclude by considering the specific contributions of this project to the field of Asian American studies.
What’s Race Got to Do With It? Narratives of Asian Americans in Asian/White Interracial Relationships
(2021-08) Wu, Christine
Despite high rates of Asian Americans in interracial romantic partnerships with Whites and the sociohistorical context of interracial relationships and race in the United States, there is limited empirical work regarding Asian Americans’ experiences of navigating race and racial differences in Asian/White romantic relationships. Drawing from the master narrative framework, this mixed-methods study aimed to describe Asian Americans’ experiences in Asian/White interracial relationships, identify master and alternative narratives of addressing racial differences within participants’ responses, and examine how narratives relate to psychological adjustment and relationship quality. Participants (N = 189) were self-identified Asian American young adults in committed relationships with White romantic partners. Using thematic analysis, I found that participants received three forms of cultural socialization about Asian/White relationships: Promoting Ethnic-Racial Pride, White Supremacy and Racism, and Racial De-Emphasis. Cultural socialization also informed four racial tropes about Asian/White relationships: Fetishization of Multiracial Children, Ethnic-Racial Betrayal, Asian Female/White Male Couples, and Asian Male/White Female Couples. Using thematic analysis, I also identified societal narratives of Color-Blindness, Multiculturalism, and Racial Awareness that were internalized in participants’ discussions of race and racial differences in their relationships. Quantitative coding of narrative internalization found that Multiculturalism had the highest mean rating, followed by Color-Blindness and then Racial Awareness. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to determine the main effects of narrative internalization on relationship quality, psychological distress, social belonging, and ethnic-racial identity affect. None of the main effects were significant except for the Multiculturalism narrative on ethnic-racial identity affect (B = .10, SE = .05, p = .04); however, this effect was no longer significant when analyses were repeated with a subsample (n = 186) that excluded inattentive responders (n = 3). Overall, results demonstrate that participants receive multiple, conflicting messages about race and interraciality that complicate how they perceive and discuss race and racial differences in their relationships.

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Browsing by Subject "Asian American"