Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Okabe, Jan Harumi

Titel

Whitewashed, banana, and twinkie: The experience of Asian Americans as targets of intraethnic othering

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This qualitative study focuses on the phenomenon of intraethnic othering within the Asian American community. Intraethnic othering is the act of labeling a subgroup of other members of one's racial or ethnic group (Pyke & Dang, 2003). For instance, the labels FOB and Whitewashed are sometimes used by some Asian Americans to describe other Asian Americans on the basis of the targets' level of assimilation. In my study, I specifically focused on the experiences of Asian Americans who are or have been seen by other Asian Americans as Whitewashed. Twelve self-identified Asian Americans participated in digitally recorded semi-structured interviews, which were then analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis. Participants reported various factors that may have contributed to their being targets of intraethnic othering, as well as their exposure to Asian stereotypes and family members' perspectives on Asian and U.S. cultures which may have affected their identity development. I found that emotional reactions to intraethnic othering comments about being Whitewashed varied; many participants reported feeling hurt or offended in certain instances of being targeted by intraethnic othering, but all participants reported at least one experience of intraethnic othering that they were not upset by. The nature of participants' relationship with the perpetrator of intraethnic othering, participants' relative level of identification with their Asian identity, and participants' understandings of the othering terms and connotations all seemed to influence how participants interpreted the intraethnic othering incidents. Contrary to expectations based on previous research that suggested Asian Americans tend to respond less directly to discrimination (Lee, Soto, Swim, & Bernstein, 2012), reported behavioral responses to intraethnic othering tended towards direct conversation with the perpetrators about the comments, sometimes brief or humor-laced and sometimes more drawn out and serious. Most participants claimed that they have started to or would like to learn more about their Asian heritage, and were in the process of developing a more bicultural identity. I also discuss clinical implications and directions for future research.