1. 'Fresh off the Boat?' Racial Microaggressions That Target South Asian Canadian Students
- Author
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Poolokasingham, Gauthamie, Spanierman, Lisa B., Kleiman, Sela, and Houshmand, Sara
- Abstract
The present study sought to examine South Asian Canadian undergraduate students' (N = 7) experiences with racial microaggressions at a research-intensive Canadian university. Participants ranged in age from 19-23 years and comprised various ethnic groups (e.g., Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Tamil). Data were collected during a semistructured focus group interview and were analyzed using the consensual qualitative research method (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997). Eight themes emerged. Novel themes included the following: "perceived as fresh off the boat," "excluded from social life," "notion that being Brown is a liability," "assumption of ties to terrorism," and "compelled to be a cultural expert." Three additional themes were consistent with prior research on Asian Americans (Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, & Torino, 2007): "ascription of intelligence in stereotypical domains," "invalidation of interethnic and racial differences," and "treated as invisible." Implications for research and campus interventions are discussed.
- Published
- 2014
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