Navigating double marginalization: narratives of Asian (American) educators teaching and building solidarity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines Asian (American) teachers’ racialized experiences teaching and building solidarity with predominantly Black and Latinx students. Adopting tenets of Asian Critical Theory, the findings reveal participants’ paradoxical experiences of ‘double marginalization’: On one hand, they are broadly excluded from the Black-White racial paradigm and made invisible as racial outsiders and ‘forever foreigners’; on the other hand, they report feeling marginalized within the communities of Color due to the prevailing ‘model minority’ and ‘honorary White’ tropes. In resisting the ‘double marginalization’, participants strategically utilize their Asian (American) identities and experiences to challenge stereotypes about Asian (American) people and foster relationships with students and parents based on their shared struggles against White supremacy. This study has implications to reject Asian (American) invisibility in education research and practice by reclaiming the legacies of cross-racial solidarity-building among communities of Color and supporting the development of collective critical consciousness against racial division.