Up Against Whiteness

by Lee, Stacey J.; Weis, Lois

• ISBN13: 9780807745748
• ISBN10: 080774574X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-15
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

Pushing the boundaries of Asian American educational discourse, this book explores the way a group of first- and second-generation Hmong students created their identities as new Americans in response to their school experiences. Offering an opportunity to rethink the norm, this important volume pays particular attention to how race, class, and gender informed their experiences. Revealing the complex dynamics between immigration and Americanization, this engaging volume: shows how the culture of middle-class whiteness at a public high school in Wisconsin excluded and alienated Hmong American students, and how these students responded; focuses on the ways the academic and social experience at school, including peer relationships, extracurricular participation, relationships with teachers, and academic achievement influenced identity construction; makes connections between the experiences of one ethnic group of immigrant youth and the broader issues of race in the United States, showing how schools can better serve immigrant students of colour.

Author Biography

Stacey J. Lee is Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Lois Weis	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
1 Becoming Racialized Americans	1	(22)
Race and Asian American Immigrants	3	(4)
Assimilation Theories Reconsidered	7	(4)
The Hmong in the United States	11	(5)
In the Field	16	(5)
Road Map for the Book	21	(2)
2 At University Heights High School: Creating Insiders and "Others"	23	(27)
Inside the Halls of UHS	25	(16)
A Matter of "Culture": Interpretations of Hmong American Students' Experiences	41	(9)
3 "Traditional" and "Americanized" Hmong Students	50	(37)
"Two Groups of Hmong Students"	51	(2)
Constructing Identities Against Each Other	53	(2)
"Traditional" Hmong Youth: The 1.5 Generation	55	(10)
"Americanized" Hmong Youth: The Second Generation	65	(21)
Conclusion	86	(1)
4 Wimps, Gangsters, Victims, and Teen Moms: The Gendered Experiences of Hmong American Youth	87	(36)
Dominant Messages About Gender	88	(1)
Ideal Masculinities and Femininities at UHS	89	(1)
Wimps, Gangsters, Victims, and Teen Moms: Perceptions of Hmong Youth	90	(5)
Messages About Gender from the Hmong American Community	95	(3)
Constructing Hmong Femininities in the United States	98	(15)
Constructing Hmong Masculinities in the United States	113	(8)
Conclusion	121	(2)
5 Race and the "Good" School	123	(8)
Revisiting Theories of Segmented Assimilation	124	(2)
Making "Good" Schools	126	(5)
References	131	(12)
Index	143	(10)
About the Author	153