Up Against Whiteness

Pushing the boundaries of Asian American educational discourse, this book explores the way a group of first- and second-generation Hmong students created their identities as new Americans in response to their school experiences. Offering an opportunity to rethink the norm, this important volume pays particular attention to how race, class, and gender informed their experiences. Revealing the complex dynamics between immigration and Americanization, this engaging volume: shows how the culture of middle-class whiteness at a public high school in Wisconsin excluded and alienated Hmong American students, and how these students responded; focuses on the ways the academic and social experience at school, including peer relationships, extracurricular participation, relationships with teachers, and academic achievement influenced identity construction; makes connections between the experiences of one ethnic group of immigrant youth and the broader issues of race in the United States, showing how schools can better serve immigrant students of colour.

Stacey J. Lee is Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.