Racial Formations & Asian American IdentityWhat does it mean to be Asian American?

race (n):1. a local geographic or global human population

distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics

2. humanity as a whole3. a group of people united or classified together on

the basis of common history, nationality or geographic distribution

race as a modern phenomenon Renaissance colonialism

solidification of the concepts of racial difference and hierarchy

Drawing on previous European encounters with Asia and Africa

Questioning of full humanity of natives of the Americas

Assumption of European proximity to divinity = racial superiority

race as biology? there are no scientific grounds to

prove that there are multiple human races with naturally different capacities; there is only one human race

if racial difference is not real in a scientific sense, then how come we associate certain races with certain characteristics that can come to justify how whole groups of people are treated? Biological determinism vs social

construction!

19th century graph comparing European and African skulls

race as a social concept

“Race is indeed a pre-eminently socio-historical concept. Racial categories

and the meaning of race are given concrete expressions by specific social relations and historical context in

which they are embedded. Racial meanings have varied tremendously over time and between different societies”

(Omi and Winant, 11)

External physical differenc

es

Power relations

in society

Race is constructed in society through relationships of power and privilege, and

power and privilege in society are made possible

through the construction of race.

racialization“We employ the term racialization to signify the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social practice or group. Racialization is an ideological process, an historically specific one. Racial ideology is constructed from pre-existing conceptual (or, if one prefers, discursive) elements and emerges from the struggles of competing political projects and ideas seeking to articulate similar elements differently” (14) What is an ideology? a systematic

body of concepts or ideas believed to truthfully explain how the world operates or should operate ex: capitalist versus communist

ideology

ideologyracial differenc

e

racial formations“The meaning of race is

defined and contested throughout society, in both

collective action and personal practice. In the process, racial categories themselves are formed,

transformed, destroyed and reformed. We use the term racial formation to refer to

the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the

content and importance of racial categories, and by

which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings.”

(12)

racial meaning

s

social, political, economic forces

Chattel Slavery

Post-EmancipationJim Crow

Post- Race Society?

Legacies of Civil Rights Movement

Tracking

Racial Formations

final pointsAccording to Omi and Winant: ideas of racial difference are not biologically

determined; they are social constructions these ideas of racial difference strengthen and are

strengthened by social, economic and political forces the feedback loop

race is an unstable formation that is constantly challenged but still has serious consequences on the lives of people who are racialized racial formations

race vs ethnicity = imposing of categories vs self-identification Ethnicity can be synonymous with culture

So what does it mean to Asian American then?

If nothing naturally or biologically determines who is an Asian American, then what does?

“it might properly be viewed as a means of achieving political integration. For some, this may simply be situational political mobilization” (Hing 32) A racial formation!

“A less flexible view of Asian American identity is dangerous” (Hing 32) Exclusivity, loss, & dominance

Asian American Racial Formations