Perpetual Outsiders?: Learning Race in the South Asian American Experience
Open Access
- Author:
- Gnanadass, Edith N
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 14, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Fred Michael Schied, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Fred Michael Schied, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Paul C Taylor, Committee Member
Gabeba Baderoon, Committee Member
Adnan A Qayyum, Committee Member
Mrinalini Sinha, Special Member
Ian E Baptiste, Special Member - Keywords:
- CHAT
Critical Race Theory
Desicrit
South Asian Americans
Postcolonial Theory
Adult Learning
Race
Racism
Indian Americans - Abstract:
- Following Schueller (2003), I use critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2005, 2012; Goldberg, 1993, 2009; Harpalani, 2003, 2013; I. H. F. López, 1994; Omi & Winant, 1994; Taylor, 2013) as an intervention into postcolonial theory (Chakrabarty, 2000; Chatterjee, 1993; Gandhi, 1998; Mani, 1998; U. Narayan, 1997a; Prashad, 2000; Said, 1979; Sinha, 2000a) to explore the relevance of the concept of race in the South Asian American (SAAs) experience in the U.S. and how SAAs learned to become racialized. The focus in this study was on how participants learned, understood and made sense of their racialized experience. Learning was defined from a sociocultural perspective using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987, 1999c, 2001; Sawchuk, 2003). Feminist ethnography was the approach used to capture the thick descriptions of the SAA experience. Multiple case study (Stake, 1995, 1998, 2005) was used as a process and product of analysis (Patton, 2002, p. 447). Thematic narrative analysis (Riessman, 1993, 2008) complemented by Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), postcolonial feminist theory, and critical race theory was the analytical lens used in this study. The participants in the study learned to be racialized and learned to become South Asian American, a distinct racial identity. The data suggested that religion and caste (culture) in conjunction with skin color, hair color and other physical attributes (biology) constitute the SAA racial category. This shows that SAAs are racialized differently from other minority groups, and following Goldberg’s (2009) typology, I call this this type of differential racialization (Delgado & Stefancic, 2005, 2012), Racial South Asian Americanization. This decenters the dominant American perspective on race and racism, thus calling for a radical retheorization of race as Loomba (1998) recommends. This study contributes to postcolonial theory, Desicrit (the form of critical race theory that focuses on SAAs), CHAT, race theory, South Asian American Studies, and adult learning by demonstrating the relevance of race in the SAA experience.