Relative Racialization and Asian American College Student Activism

Abstract

In this qualitative study, Samuel D. Museus analyzes how relative racialization processes and their dynamics shape Asian American college students’ racial justice activism. The findings from his qualitative interviews with activist Asian American undergraduates reveal how these students perceived relative racialization processes as raising barriers to their racial justice efforts. Specifically, they saw these forms of racialization as promoting racialized comparisons and competition among communities of color involved in racial justice activism and as leading to the marginalization of Asian Americans in racial justice agendas—which reinforced internalized racism that inhibited racial justice work within this population.