Asian American Racial Identity

I read the two articles in our reader on Asian American racial identity last night. The first article was by Alvin N. Alvarez and the second was by Corinne Maekawa Kodama, Marylu K. McEwen, Christopher T.H. Liang and Sunny Lee.

The article by Alvarez basically takes Helms' model and applies it to Asian American students. After reading the article, I took a bunch of notes that I will present to you here:

The article seemed only to try to validate that yes, Asian American students have needs relating to their Asian American identities that are important and need consideration. The article touches on some issues that are common (i.e. cultural variables) but fails to take these into account through the remainder of the article. I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water but it really was just taking Helms' model as a blanket and throwing it over Asian Americans. This could (arguably) be done for any race as long as the model can be generalized that much. Granted, even putting all Asians together is complicated as is defining exactly what Asian American is. Different groups of Asians will have different challenges because of the in-group diversity.
--Overall, I wasn't a fan of this article - it really was just taking Helms' model and putting it in an Asian American context. In my opinion, this just wasn't sufficient. (Its heart was in the right place, though - arguing for the needs of Asian American students.)

The second Asian American reading (by Kodama et al) was a much more satisfying read. They basically dismantle Chickering and Reisser's vectors and reconstruct their psychosocial model taking into account both the Asian value system from family and community and the Western values from the U.S. They discuss the strong Asian link between identity and purpose, which is closely related to academic achievement. There is also discussion about sort of a "reverse" cycle of moving from interdependence to independence for Asian American students, as well as the complexity of the idea of integrity, which must be defined for the self as well as for the family. Overall, I thought this model did a great job at examining cultural variables that Asian American students typically experience. Now, it's true that not all Asian American students will fit this model. This model is really most applicable to students whose families carry a traditional Asian value system. Asian American students that were raised with typical American values whose parents don't speak their native language at home will likely not fit into this model.
--Two thumbs up from me for this one. The only caution is that it is primarily applicable to students whose family carries an Asian values system.