Asian Americans on Campus

Rosalind S. Chou, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgia State University, is the author of Asian American Sexual Politics and co-author with Joe Feagin of The Myth of the Model Minority. Kristen Lee, a second-generation Chinese American from Chicago, holds a degree in sociology from Duke University. Simon Ho is an American-born Chinese from the Washington, DC area. He is currently an MD candidate at the University of Central Florida School of Medicine.

• 1. Introduction: Asian Americans on Campus 2. White Space, White Campus 3. Color-blind Discourse and Asian American Sexual Politics 4. Intraracial and Interracial Relationships 5. Conclusion: Resign or Resist? Disengage or Engage?

"According to data available from the US Census Bureau, Asian Americans on average have higher median incomes, more prestigious occupations, and higher levels of educational attainment than do non-Hispanic whites. Some of the largest Asian American groups, such as Asian Indians and Chinese, enjoy far higher rankings than non-Hispanic whites on all of these objective indicators of socioeconomic advantage. Asian American students are vastly overrepresented in the most elite institutions of higher education in the US. Chou (sociology, Georgia State Univ.), Lee, and Ho reject the use of such objective indicators of status as reflections of a pernicious model minority view. Instead, they draw on anecdotes from interviews with 70 students at an elite university to support their preconceived notion of Asian Americans as an oppressed minority suffering from unrelenting discrimination and hostility in institutions dominated by powerful white people. It may not be surprising that they find what they are looking for. In the end, they argue that young Asian Americans should reject racial disengagement in favor of racial engagement, in which young Asians draw on racial identities to recognize and reject racist, sexist, and homophobic constructions. This book will mainly interest academics who share its ideological convictions and seek reaffirmation of their opinions. Summing Up: Optional. Specialists only." --C. L. Bankston, Tulane University in CHOICE