The Final Week (Sort of)

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been traveling out of state for the last couple weeks for college admit weekends. But anyway, this week is supposed to be the final week for the Senior Research Project and finals week for ASU. Slight problem: the IRB has not approved our data collection yet. Therefore, my project is going to run until the very last day, May 23rd, when I will be presenting my experience and findings at the Mustang Library (wink wink please come).

The survey itself has been completed and transferred on to Google Forms (because SurveyMonkey costs money, which we don't have). Although I would love to show you the survey, I can't because viewing the questions beforehand may influence the results of those who will take the survey, but have also read my blog.

I'm really excited that I'm finally going to see the results of all those hours of reading through previous studies, planning the variables, discussing logistics, sorting through different measures, and changing the entire project multiple times because of funding issues. Finally. I never realized how much work went in to planning a research project, not just the data collection/experiment itself. Although my SRP presentation will (hopefully) include more preliminary trends from our data, my professor intends to continue analyzing it for different relationships between different combinations of variables for the rest of the year.

Now for the more exciting part of my posts: what I've learned in class. Last week, we discussed how race crosses with gender and sexual orientation. More specifically, how the LGBT experience is unique for Asian Americans. To be honest, I don't as much about the LGBT community as I do about the Asian American community, so please excuse me if I accidentally use incorrect wording to describe something and feel free to add any comments/thoughts below.

Our class split up into four groups and took turns writing on the whiteboard all the stereotypes, associated words, and famous examples of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. Although I don't have a picture of the whiteboard that we filled up, here's a picture of some of the things we wrote down for stereotypes of gay people:

I want to make it clear that a) I am in no way trying to promote these stereotypes through this picture, rather trying to raise awareness about the fact that they are simply stereotypes and b) I did not choose a gay example as an act of discrimination against lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders (there seems to be a social hierarchy within the LGBT community, too).

After we complied the lists, we realized that race had a very prominent intersection with sexual orientation. Most of the famous examples of people who came out were White, such as Sam Smith, Ellen DeGeneres, and Anderson Cooper. This may be due to the fact that minorities are still underrepresented in the media and entertainment industry, but for Asian Americans, it also has to do with the idea of the Model Minority Myth, the idea that Asian Americans are "perfect." In terms of sexual orientation and sexuality in our society today, "perfect" means heterosexual. It's almost as if Asian Americans aren't allowed to come out because it would dishonor their family and make them less Asian, or so society says.

Regardless of what background and values you have, I want to hear anything you have to say about heterosexism in the United States, more specifically, what you think about the clash between stereotypical Asian American values and sexual orientation. Thanks for reading my extra-long post, and more updates on the project soon to come!

Is Racism Even Real?

To be honest with you, not much happened this week. I was so excited all of last week to start writing to the IRB for approval of our project. On Tuesday, I got food poisoning. When I wasn't knocked out from medication (my mother thought I had the flu and gave me some to lower my fever) or throwing up or drooling at food pictures because I didn't eat solid food for two days, I officially finished typing up the survey. I will take the survey soon, and depending on how long it takes, we might cut some of the questions.

In class last week, we watched a documentary called "The Color of Fear" (1994). It captures a dialogue between two African American, two Latino, two Asian American, and two Caucasian men regarding race and racism in the United States. I thought it was particularly interesting because I was presented with multiple perspectives of the same topic. If you have 90 minutes to spare, this documentary is worth watching 10/10, regardless of your race and current understanding on racism.

Here is short moment that I related to because I have also previously tried to explain racism to people who believe that it no longer exists in the United States. The video quality isn't too great, but what Victor Lewis says about the experience of racism definitely makes up for it:

For those that cannot watch the documentary, one of the most important points that it makes is that racism is real. It has existed in the past, and it still exists today. Every day, people of color are consciously and unconsciously discriminated against by White people–or even other people of color–because of their race. And, this discrimination is physically and psychologically harmful to every single person of color: African American, Asian American, Native American, Latino. Racism is real. It's a problem. And, we all need to understand that.

It's not just racism, however. Sexism, classism, heterosexism are also detrimental and heavily debated in today's society. All of these "-isms" derive from the idea that one group is inherently superior over another. But, aren't we all humans? Then, what makes one human better than another? Better enough that society can be controlled by them?

On that note, I'll leave you to chew this post for a little while. If you have any thoughts about "The Color of Fear" or just the general topic of race, racism, or any other -ism, please feel free to comment below! 

Adventures at ASU

One of the best parts about the Senior Research Project is the internship experience. The past couple weeks, I've been too enthusiastic about sharing what I've learned in class, so I'll change it up a bit this time. During my internship, I feel like a slightly-less-busy grad student. On a typical day at ASU, I do some work at the Hayden Library with Tina (who also kindly drives me to ASU every week, along with her sister, Vicki), meet with my professor, grab some lunch (if we want to be fancy or have something to celebrate, maybe Engrained), do some more work, then go to class.

Sometimes, however, I try to take a little more advantage of pretending to be a college student. Two weeks ago, Tina and I decided to visit Gammage, the arts auditorium at ASU Tempe, and stumbled across an art museum. Underground. Although I was too engrossed by the artwork to take any pictures, here is a picture of the art museum itself (according to Google):

It's a petite museum, but definitely one worth visiting, as I'm on the campus anyways. Maybe I'll go back once the construction is finished because I plan to make the most of my semi-college experience.

On March 24th, there was a farmers market in front of the student services center that I vowed to myself and Tina to visit. And of course, I forgot. But, I definitely will go to the next one on April 7th!

While working with Dr. Yoo, I've been introduced to many of his colleagues, such as Professor Karen Kuo. Who also happens to be my classmate Massimo's mother, once again reminding me of the significance of networks. It's a small world.

This Thursday, I was drawn to the henna tattoo booth set up in front of the Memorial Union. The artist that was decorating my hand told me a bit about henna (also called mehndi). Henna is generally used in the Middle East, Pakistan, and India to dye skin, hair, and fabrics for celebrating special occasions. It's supposed to last for a week, so it's still pretty visible on my hand.

As for the project progress, I am almost finished typing up the survey after weeks of finding and sorting through different measures and obtaining permissions to use them. Honestly, I've experienced a bit of frustration with formatting and organizing the different measures into a cohesive survey, but my professor says I have it a lot easier. He had to look everything up in books and libraries, writing things by hand, manual copy and paste. I couldn't complain after that.

In the next week or two, I'll contact the IRB (Institutional Review Board) to receive official approval for the study and create an online survey to be distributed to Asian American high school students all across Arizona. More updates on the survey coming soon (if you are an Asian American high school student living in Arizona and would like to participate, I need around 200 people)!

Measuring the Model Minority and Myself

Welcome back! Last week was spring break, so I hope you enjoyed your week off from reading my posts! There's once again a change in my project. I will still do the literature review, but the survey is back on again! Woohoo! A quick recap of the survey:

I will be administering and analyzing the results of a survey distributed to Asian American high school students across Arizona. Because of the limited research in this field, the survey will address multiple independent variables, dependent variables, and mediators. An example of one relationship we hope to find is between internalized racism (IV), mental health (DV), and different types of racial socialization (M). Which types of racial socialization exacerbate or buffer the effects of internalized racism on mental health?

This week, I've been collecting measures for possible independent variables, dependent variables, and mediators. Here's a few:

Model Minority Myth Measure
Subtle and Blatant Racism Scale
Collective Self-Esteem Scale
Quality of Life Scale
Racism-Related Coping Scale

More to come on those as I read about them throughout this week and help decide which ones to use for our survey.

In my Asian American Psychology class this week, we talked about the Model Minority Myth (see last post for more details and memes). One of the reasons why not much research on the Model Minority Myth exists is because no one thought it was harmful. Why would a positive stereotype harm anyone's mental health? Ridiculous, right?

If you would like to read the 1987 article pictured above, click here.

The Model Minority Myth, as innocent and complimenting as it sounds. is actually detrimental to both Asian Americans and other people of color. Asian Americans are labeled "The Model Minority," which implies that other groups must look up to the role models, giving them a sense of inferiority. In the Asian American perspective, many students are pressured to do well in school—elementary, high school, even college—just because of their race. Beyond education, Asian Americans are expected by everyone around them to have economic and social success as well; many Asian Americans are pressured to the point of taking their own lives.

As an Asian American myself, I've experienced the effects of the Model Minority Myth. My parents expect me to get A's. When I say that I play the violin, people expect me to be the concertmaster of an orchestra. I'll admit that I've sometimes conformed to the stereotype. I've gotten A's before, but I've also gotten B's and C's. I've been the concertmaster of my school orchestra, but I've also sat in the last chair. Whether I do or do not fit the stereotype, however, does not make me more or less Asian. More or less of a person.

The more I engage myself in my project, the more I realize that I must not define myself through stereotypes. That's the main reason why I enjoy my SRP. I'm excited for all of the quantitative analyses of the data we'll collect during the project, but I'm even more thrilled by the idea that people might read my blog and learn how to define themselves beyond their physical features.

The (Stereo)Typical Asian American

Surprise! There has been yet another change in plans! Instead of administering a survey, as written in my original proposal, I will be focusing solely on a literature review of Asian American racial socialization. For the next couple weeks, I will continue to gather publications and will start going through them to find trends and create classifications for the different types of socialization used by Asian American families.

In order to distinguish whether the socialization involves more assimilation into "American" culture, we must first define what being "American" is. According to a study by Devos and Banaji (2005), most people, when asked to list "American" characteristics, talk about democracy, individuality, equality, capitalism, the American Dream, the 4th of July, the Superbowl, hot dogs, McDonald's, etc.

America in a picture.

Almost no one, however, brings up race as a factor of being "American." This is interesting because when asked to do the same for "Korean" or "British," one of the first answers to pop up is race. Koreans are a type of Asians; British are a type of Europeans. But, since America is a melting pot of different races, there is no clear definition of what it means to be "American."

On the other hand, most people claim to know what it means to be "Asian." What kind of racial stereotypes are Asian American families up against? These are the most common stereotypes of Asian people:

Perpetual Foreigner
Asians are seen to be exotic, and alien in their own land. This stereotype usually leads to questions like "Where are you really from?" (As if the word "really" would change the fact that my Asian American friend was born in Arizona.) In the media, most Asians play ninjas or kung fu masters, further supporting this stereotype, if they're not doctors or nerds like the next category.

A rare exception from the stereotype: Minho (Ki Hong Lee) from The Maze Runner

Model Minority Myth
Most people strongly believe that Asians are naturally smart and highly motivated. This meme says it all:

However, the Model Minority Myth was created during the Civil Rights Movement to justify the unfair treatment of African Americans. The argument was that if Asian Americans were so successful despite unequal circumstances, why couldn't African Americans do the same? Although this logic is completely flawed, people today still think Asians are smarter.

Hyper/hypo-sexualization 
Asian women are presumed to be more feminine, while Asian men are seen as less masculine. Even worse, many Asian men are thought to be gay. First of all, not all Asian men are less masculine than White men. Also, masculinity and sexual orientation are two completely different subjects that have no definite correlation.

Out-group Homogeneity
Are you guys sisters? No. Just because we're both Asian, doesn't mean we're related. This picture draws from the out-group homogeneity stereotype, as well as hyper/hypo-sexualization:

Communication Style
Because of the collectivist culture of many Asian countries, Asian people are often presumed to be too quiet, passive, or indirect. This stereotype originates from the language barrier that most Asian immigrants experience when they first move to America. If a White person, born and raised in America, visited China, he might not speak as much as he does in America because of the language barrier. Communication style depends much more on personality than race.

The culmination of all of these stereotypes (except satirized and applied to a White person) can be found in this video:

Fresh Off the Boat

I finally did it. I watched Fresh Off the Boat. All five excruciating episodes. For those of you that don't know, Fresh Off the Boat is a new ABC family show inspired by famous chef Eddie Huang's book Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir. The show is about an Asian American family that recently moved from Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida.

Here is a trailer for Fresh Off the Boat:

Fresh Off the Boat originally gained lots of attention because of the abundance of racial stereotypes, not to mention that Randall Park, who plays the father, also played Kim Jong Un in The Interview: a movie about two journalists trying to assassinate Kim Jong Un (which was extremely controversial). Although these stereotypes are generally intended to be harmless humor, many people don't realize that the show is reinforcing both positive and negative stereotypes about Asian Americans.

With a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, Fresh Off the Boat seems to be the next hilarious thing. But, I couldn't laugh at the show at all. The biggest problem for me was that I could relate to many scenes on the show. When I moved to the US at the age of six, I started attending a primarily White elementary school. Like Eddie, the main character, I remember asking my mom to buy Lunchables because that's what all the cool kids had. 1995 or 2005 or 2015, Asian American children are still stereotyped and viewed differently because of what they eat for lunch.

Not only are the Asian Americans stereotyped in Fresh Off the Boat, but the White moms are, too. Eddie's tiger mom, played by Constance Wu, is juxtaposed against the blonde hair, blue-eyed rollerblading moms that only giggle and gossip all day. And people find this funny? Making jokes about their own races?

However, there are some benefits that Fresh Off the Boat brings. I can finally turn on the TV and see people that look like me; this TV show may be one of the first steps towards a future where beauty and norms aren't always set by White standards. According to the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which measures unconscious associations of "good"/"bad" with Europeans American and African American, 80% of Whites and 40% of People of Color showed a preference for European American. When I took the test, I also showed a slight preference for European American. (You can take the 5 minute test by clicking here.)

Although I have an unconscious preference for European American, I try my best not to judge or act based on race when given enough time to think the situation through. This is where the parental racial socialization comes in. Depending on how the parents taught their children about race, the children may act or not act upon their automatic judgments. In a society focused on treating people equally, you can see why parental cultural socialization must be researched more.

As for updates on my project, I am still gathering publications for the literature review. It's taking longer than I thought, but I guess that's research. Thanks for being patient with my currently uneventful journey! (Please feel free to tell me about your results on the IAT or your thoughts on Fresh Off the Boat.)

Let's Get Down to Business

"Oh, just gather all the references about racial socialization and stick them in the Dropbox." Easy, right? If by "easy" you mean searching through multiple databases to download and cite pdfs of every  single publication about racial, ethnic, and cultural socialization and sorting them by race, then yes. This week was very easy.

I had heard about the tremendous amount of reading required before and while designing a research project. And now, I've finally experienced it firsthand. Although my eyes water from staring at never-ending blocks of text, my brain is enjoying all the new information for the most part. Especially stories of how people of different races experience and cope with racial stereotypes.

On Thursday, our class watched First Person Plural, a documentary following a Korean American transracial adoptee. As a young child, Kang Okjin (renamed Deann Borshay) was adopted by a White family in California. When she spoke about her internal conflicts due to both subtle and obvious racial discrimination, I completely sympathized with her. What really interested me, however, wasn't our shared experiences, but rather Borshay's accounts of learning to accept parents who looked different from her. In the documentary, Borshay explains her sense of outcast because everyone else in her family—her mother, father, brother, and sister—had light hair and blue eyes. I can't imagine how I would feel if my family looked different from me.

Deann Borshay with her adoptive brother and sister.

When Borshay came into contact with her Korean mother, she faced yet another conflict: the existence of two mothers. Borshay states that she immediately felt like she belonged when she met her biological mother, who looked exactly like her. But, her biological mother wasn't the one who sent her to school, celebrated her birthdays, took care of her when she was sick. For a long time, Borshay struggled over who to call "mom" and eventually decided to get to know her biological mother as a person, not a mom.

Borshay's story really opened my eyes to another group of people to possibly include in my research project.While collecting references for our project, I noticed that barely any research papers have been published on the experiences of multiracial people and transracial adoptees (and trust me, I've read through a lot of publications). Although we currently don't plan on collecting data from multiracial students, I would definitely be interested in examining any trends if we end up with a reasonable pool of multiracial participants.

My research project so far doesn't follow my proposal exactly, but I think that's the fun of it. As of this week, I'll be contributing to a literature review on racial socialization to precede the collection and analysis of data. Also, I never mentioned in my proposal that I would learn how the ASU library system works or find the best study nooks at ASU, like the balcony of the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (Did I mention that a friend and I accidentally locked ourselves out on the balcony?). Who knows where the next eight weeks will take me? I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out.