Resisting Asian American Invisibility: The Politics of Race and Education

"Resisting Asian American Invisibility" highlights one group's struggle for educational justice. Based on in-depth ethnographic research in formal and informal educational spaces, this book argues that Hmong American youth are rendered invisible by dominant racial discourses and current educational policies and practices. The book illustrates the way that Hmong American students are erased by the Black and White racial paradigm and the Asian American pan-ethnic category that perpetuates the model minority stereotype. Furthermore, Lee and a team of Southeast Asian American graduate student researchers explore how current educational policies around English learners marginalize Hmong youth. Far from being passive or silent victims, Hmong American communities actively resist their invisibility through various forms of educational advocacy and community-based education. In the tradition of critical ethnography, the author and her research team also look at what these individual and local stories expose about larger social forces, norms, and institutions. This book: (1) Focuses on a Southeast Asian American group that has gotten little attention in education literature; (2) Highlights the unique histories and educational experiences, concerns, and challenges facing Hmong American students in a Midwest city; (3) Examines both school and community-based educational spaces; and (4) Draws on research conducted as a follow-up study to the author's book, "Up Against Whiteness: Race, School, and Immigrant Youth." [For the first book, see ED622571.]