Minority Discourse Research Articles

Language, culture, and race: an AsianCrit perspective on newcomer Chinese transnational adolescents’ navigation of intersectional discourses in Canadian schools

ABSTRACT Asian students are often rendered voiceless and invisible in mainstream schools and society in North America due to prevailing racialized model minority discourses. This qualitative inquiry aims to center 16 recently arrived Chinese transnational youths’ (ages 10–16) experiences of negotiating multiple sociocultural, sociohistorical, and sociolinguistic discourses surrounding Asians in Canadian schools using Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit) as a theoretical lens. Thematic analyses of interviews with the youths reveal they were subjected to the intersectional harms of transnational school and home discourses, such as transnational differences in curriculum and instruction, double bind of the Asian model minority and forever foreigner stereotypes, racism, linguicism, social isolation in school, and high academic pressure and expectations from home. Central to their experiences was the perceived importance of English proficiency, which the youths strategically tried to gain by exiting and avoiding the stigmatized English as a second language programs and losing their first language, Chinese. The findings illuminate the struggles and compromises experienced by transnational students as they negotiate the multiple constraining discourses in Canadian schools, and that the flexible global citizenship they sought through transnational education may be unattainable in this climate of othering and without genuine multilingualism.

The Misbegotten Critique of the Model Minority Myth

Abstract: I argue in this article that Asian Americanists' standard critique of the "model minority myth" does more harm than good and should therefore be abandoned. I show that the critique misses the forest for the trees, disavowing structural anti-Blackness and the differentiated positioning of Asian Americans and Black people that it produces, thereby misconceiving the stakes and function of model minority discourse. What I offer here, then, is a critique of the critique of model minority discourse—as well as suggestions for how to re-assess such discourse in relation to anti-Blackness.

``We Walk on the Same Corridors of Our University'': Contemporary Reflections of Sinhala--Tamil Relations in Sri Lankan Public Universities

Inter-ethnic relations amongst students in public higher education institutes (HEIs) in Sri Lanka are weak. This deficit deprives students of experiencing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to be productive citizens the country demands. Considering the violent history both Sinhalese and Tamils share, there is a dearth of minority discourse in Sri Lanka. As a consequence, research that explores inter-ethnic dynamics within public HEIs in the island nation is also minimal. Similarly, being mindful of the fragileness of Sri Lanka’s race relations, it is unclear how responsible local authorities should facilitate educational reforms to foster student success. To address this literature gap, the present inquiry conducted a document review to identify contemporary student and instructor perspectives associated with learning in state-run universities. A total of nine newspapers and blog posts by students, journalists, and academics that critically discuss learner experiences in minority-dominant Jaffna University were chosen after a careful evaluation. Using thematic analysis, three key themes were generated. As per the obtained results, inclusiveness and appreciation between Tamils and Sinhalese learners remain a challenge. Moreover, local security forces continue to suppress minority student voices, leadership, and civic engagement. Further, there is a need for governmental interventions to systematically implement DEI policies to improve the quality of learning spheres for students. Overall, this interpretative research lays out key observations associated with race relations in Sri Lankan HEIs.
 Keywords: diversity, inclusion, minority groups, interethnic relations, multiculturalism, cultural awareness

Reframing German Cultural Studies: Displacement, Temporality, and Minority Discourses

Reframing German Cultural Studies: Displacement, Temporality, and Minority Discourses

The Talented Tenth Meets the Twenty-First Century: Young, Gifted and Diverse in the Post-Affirmative Action Era

Abstract In the wake of the Supreme Court's dismantling of affirmative action policies in higher education in its SFFA v. Harvard ruling, this review essay offers a detailed explication of the relevant themes Camille Z. Charles, Rory Kramer, Douglas Massey, and Kimberly C. Torres analyze in “Young, Gifted, and Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite.” Taking DuBois's conceptualization of the “Talented Tenth” as their starting point, the authors present a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to examine the experiences and aspirations of Black students who matriculated to elite colleges over a decades-long period. This analysis expands Charles et al.'s intersecting themes of social mobility, colorism, and model minority discourses, situating them within a broader discursive field that includes the relevant historical and contemporary sociopolitical contexts as reflected in the Court's majority and dissenting opinions.

Afro-diasporan racial discourse in Germany

This paper investigates the racial discourse in the Afro-diaspora group in Germany. It uses the ‘discourse-historical approach’ – a strand of Critical Discourse Analysis – for the three-dimensional analysis of language biographical data of 67 African migrants in Germany. The study provides African migrants’ accounts of racism, identifies four discursive strategies, and then examines the semantics of a counter-racialisation term developed to cope with racism. The study finds Afro-diaspora racial discourse as a site for confronting the racism problem, legitimising the race idea, and contingent on migrants’ access to material resources in Germany. Furthermore, the term ‘fake-oyinbo’ indicates an ability to use simple linguistic terms in an intended way of racial categorisation within race relations thinking. The paper concludes that Afro-diasporans’ racial discourse is a ‘grassroots’ minority discourse revealing a counter-racialisation linguistic action while explaining and justifying the condition of the ordinary black minority.

Display of Islamic Conflictual Discourses through Logics of Film Discourse Interpretation

In the past few decades, Islamic discourse in Indonesia was turning more problematic, leaving some issues to the conflict between majority and minority discourses (the Muslims’ conception) of Islam. Some of the manifestations of discursive conflict were captured in popular work, such as the movie Ayat-Ayat Adinda. This research tries to unpack the movie using Wildfeuer's Logics of Film Discourse Interpretation (FDI) theory and combine it with the concept of Halliday's ideational metafunction to track the Islamic signs emanated by the movie. FDI is chosen to fill the area which has not been studied by previous research. This study found some rhetorical segment relations: Result, Elaboration, Contrast, Background, Parallel, and Narration, presenting two Islamic discourses being contested. However, the interesting point is indicated at the end of the resolution of the movie that none of the discourses wins. This study interpretation is somehow implicitly parallel to the spirit of 'moderation' of religion when the movie maker hopes that it can stop violence and discrimination which degrade religious practices in Indonesia.

W poszukiwaniu kobiecej narracji historycznej. Małgorzata Radkiewicz, Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Fundacja Okonakino, Warszawa, Kraków 2022, ss. 264.

The review is devoted to the book by Małgorzata Radkiewicz Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej [Reflections from behind the Camera: Women Directors on Cinema and Film Form]. The publication showcases a deeply feminist frame of reference not only in its theme which is women directors’ theoretical oeuvre, from Alice Guy-Blaché to Alexandra Juhasz, but also in its concept. The author presents their reflections on cinema in the broader context of changing social norms, cinematic language, feminist philosophy and other minority discourses. The review highlights the importance of translating and publishing those reflections in Polish, however it pays particular attention to the author’s proposal of alternative form of scientific discourse and historical narrative. Radkiewicz changes traditional structure – which, typically, is linear, final, unified and focus on progress and hierarchization – for more open, horizontal and activating. That approach led to placing the book as a parallel to feminist, avant-garde endeavors of presented women directors. It could be positioned as a new narrative mode in the process of (re)writing film history by women and other minorities and inspire future relocations.

Online Strategies of Nonreligious and Atheistic Organizations in Croatia

Abstract Croatian society is traditionally and dominantly religious (Catholic), and there are few organizations that gather together nonreligious people and atheists. Starting from three theoretical perspectives on organized nonreligiosity (identity theory, cultural approach to social movements theory, and mediatization theory) this article’s aim is to analyze various strategies these organizations employ in the context of their online activities. The observed strategies function inwardly (forming identity and strengthening the intragroup solidarity) and outwardly (trying to attract new members and sympathizers and to ‘demystify’ nonreligiosity and atheism). The study is based on the content analysis (deductive and inductive) that included materials posted on web pages and official Facebook pages of nonreligious and atheistic organizations in Croatia. In the first phase materials were analyzed with respect to four predetermined strategies (competitiveness/ cooperation, minority discourse, religious mimicry, exposing religion), while in the second phase inductive analysis revealed three additional strategies (inversion, reclaiming patriotism, and reclaiming spirituality).

Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990 ed. by Ela Gezen, Priscilla Layne, and Jonathan Skolnik

Reviewed by: Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990 ed. by Ela Gezen, Priscilla Layne, and Jonathan Skolnik Patricia Anne Simpson Minority Discourses in Germany since 1990. Edited by Ela Gezen, Priscilla Layne, and Jonathan Skolnik. New York: Berghahn Books, 2022. Pp. vi + 286. Cloth $145.00. ISBN 978-1800734272. Both scholarly and popularized examinations of Germany during the 1990s hotly debated the "new normal" of its national politics and cultures, from the so-called "Leitkultur" (guiding culture) of the late 1990s to the plural, intersectional identities within the Federal Republic, among them "Ossis," "Wessis," and the multiple minoritized groups negotiating various points on the peripheries. The publication of Jürgen Habermas's interventions under the title: Die Normalität einer Berliner Republik (A Berlin Republic: Writings on Germany, 1997) raised further questions about democracy, anti-democratic potentials, and problematic patriotisms. With a legitimate sense of unease, Habermas cautioned against the normalizing of extreme nationalism and its German-specific legacy. By the time the Federal Republic hosted the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the official motto emphasized a sense of sports-inspired unity: "Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden"—the slogan was translated into a number of languages as well as dialects (English: "A time to make friends"). The sports event contributed to a national branding in the early 2000s that expanded the repertory of ways to claim Germanness; expressions of national sentiment could take the leap from constitutional patriotism to "party patriotism." Still, even as the outward-facing image of the new Germany projected inclusion and unity, deep divisions remained. Yet another new historical beginning, the year of unification under the West German constitution was not the rising tide presumed to lift all boats. On the contrary, alleged normalization released repressed political id: acts of violence toward visible minorities increased, driven by hatred and anger in slogans like "Das Boot ist voll" (the boat is full). Frequently invoked but not the subject of extended analysis, May Ayim's poem "blues in Schwarzweiß" (blues in black and white) calls out the euphoria of the newly unified country: "das wieder vereinigte deutschland / feiert sich wieder 1990 / ohne immigrantInnen flüchtlinge jüdische und schwarze menschen … / es feiert in intimem kreis" (Orlando, 2003; "a reunited germany / celebrates itself in 1990 / without its immigrants, refugees, jewish and black people / it celebrates in its intimate circle / it celebrates in white," trans. Anne V. Adams, Africa World Press, [End Page 181] 2003). Her enumeration of those left out could serve as a literary antecedent for this collection of essays. The 2017 conference that preceded this collection set out to explore the "since" of minority discourses; their "intersections (and divergences) regarding cultural, political, and theoretical interventions by different minorities into German public and political discourse on issues of memory, racism, citizenship, immigration, and history" (2). The ten essays in the volume, published in the Spektrum Series (volume 23), engage the discursive plurals of intersectional identities and their positions visà-vis dominant whiteness in German-speaking Europe since German unification and the later founding of the European Union in 1993. To achieve a kind of coherence or common cause across the essays, the editors focus the discussions on Black Germans, Turkish Germans, and Jews in Germany. Without making any claims to being comprehensive in scope nor intention to exclude other minoritized groups, such as the Sinti and Roma or Asian and Arab Germans, Minority Discourses advances a coherent thesis about the urgent need for including multiple subject positions and vocal registers in the effort to refocus the projection of a "German" image as hegemonic. The collective impact of this volume makes strides toward dismantling the binary oppositions between white Germans and all others. The strengths of the volume are based in the depth and breadth of the analyses. The volume opens with an essay by Esther Dischereit, the award-winning, Berlin-based writer and activist whose work forges connections across genres and generations. The following chapters feature astute readings of literary interventions by Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoğlu, and Elizabeth Blonzen. These three form a cluster of sorts: Turkish German imaginative archive, Günter Senkel and Zaimoğlu's use of Jewish and Muslim material in an Oberammergau...

The mediated life of (Ajit) Pai: Disciplining ‘model minorities’ in neoliberal times

ABSTRACT The last several years has seen an incredible rise in the visibility of right wing South Asian American politicians. This essay examines the unprecedented media battle waged by and against one such figure, Ajit Pai, the Trump-appointed Chair of the Federal Communications Commission who led a charge to repeal net neutrality. This battle, which took place through promotional videos that Pai produced and a racist meme-driven backlash, is a rich archive for exploring the shifting racial constructions of the ‘model minority’ in neoliberal times. It reveals new ways in which the ‘model minority’ is performing race and in turn being racialized. It thereby extends our understanding of how model minority discourse works as a strategy of state governance and of disciplining people of color. Pai enacts what I call ‘model minority cool’, a subject position that insidiously deploys race: while it performs ‘cool’ to identify as a person of color who experiences racism, it perpetuates white supremacy. In turn, the backlash against Pai reveals that the model minority is now fungible with the intersecting, abject categories of terrorist, fag, and Black, extending the disciplining reach of model minority ideology.

#BLM Insurgent Discourse, White Structures of Feeling and the Fate of the 2020 "Racial Awakening"

Working with Twitter data, this paper offers new findings on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and "racial awakening" of summer 2020. Framing methods to address this important moment, this paper contends that cultural studies and critical race studies can be enriched through an engagement with new computational approaches. We analyze how white and racial minority voices talked about race and track their fraught contestation for leadership of racial discourse over the summer of 2020. We uncover a surprising story of white colorblindness even in the midst of a "racial awakening," a story that questions claims that the Trump presidency and the summer of 2020 ushered in a new era of US racial consciousness. And we show how a Black and minority discourse with transformative potential surged and receded. For cultural studies, our data and analysis revise Raymond Williams's influential model of cultural evolution by introducing a new concept: the insurgent, a long-building minority cultural strain that surges to contest the dominant culture in a moment of crisis. For critical race studies, our findings revise prominent theorizations of colorblindness, racial ideology, and hegemony. By revealing the messy and unconscious feelings characterizing colorblindness, our data contest theorizations of colorblindness as an ideology and counter the focus on articulate beliefs in theories of racial hegemony. Ultimately, this paper shows that bringing data methods focused on moments of cultural contestation and mass communication into dialogue with field-specific theory and qualitative analyses can expand our models of how race, discourse, and culture operate.

‘Defending Religious Rights’: The Critical Analysis of Religious Minority Discourse in Indonesia

Freedom of religion, as the main part of human rights, has been one of the main discourses in traditional and modern Indonesia. However, its current development reveals that such a freedom is still far from its final agreement, especially in guaranteeing the religious right of minority. By using the approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA), this article investigates the religious freedom discourse as defended and disseminated by one of the NGOs in Indonesia, namely the Setara Institute, to identify how the Indonesia Ahmadiyya sect is discursively discriminated against. The study is carried out by analysing multiple texts in various genres produced and disseminated by this NGO when defending the Ahmadiyya minority sect. The sect has been the target of religious discrimination and violent attacks perpetrated by Islamic majority groups in the country. The data used in this study are annual reports, books, interviews, and public debates. The analysis reveals that freedom of religion is still not properly established and Ahhamdiyya followers are not treated equally both in religious or political matters. This can be seen in four discourse constructions, namely discourses of democracy, unrestricted freedom of religion, impartiality and the weakness of leadership.

Negotiating Racialized Discourses and Navigating Racism in U.S. Schools: Understanding Chinese Immigrants’ Parenting Identities and Practices Through an AsianCrit Lens

This article draws on Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit) and racial literacy to examine how Chinese immigrant parents in one U.S. metropolitan area negotiated their parenting identity, and how they addressed racism faced by their children at school. Our analysis of interview data indicated that while some parents internalized “Tiger Mom” and model minority discourses and focused exclusively on their children's academic success, others countered such discourses to value their children's emotional and mental well-being. Parents adopted a range of strategies to navigate racism and to counter or reframe racialized discourses. This study highlights the importance of developing racial literacy among immigrant parents and institutional responses from schoools to address issues of racism and discrimination.

The Emergence of the Asian American Sporting Body: Michael Chang and Model Minority Discourse in the Post-Reagan Era

This research stems from an interest in the sudden rise of Asian American athletes' crossover appeal, both as athletes and as celebrities, within the conservative backlash climate of the post-Reagan United States. In this article, I examine the cultural meanings attributed to former professional U.S. tennis player Michael Chang (from 1988 to 2003) and offer counternarratives to tropes of American diversity and inclusiveness commonly found in stories about him. I first discuss the model minority discourse and its implications. Then I examine how the model minority discourse was embodied through the media's Orientalist representation of Chang's Asian American body and how his model minority identity was used to make sense of the Asian American athletic body's success in the White-centered tennis field. Finally, I examine Chang's images in television advertisements and explore how these images satisfied the New Right's conservative desire to create a rugged-individual persona to prove that the American dream remained a possibility without state intervention, even for minorities.

Women's Liberty Consciousness in the Stories of Mehrunissa Parvez

The life of every living being in the world is full of diversities in which man is entitled to live the best life of all. He is also different and superior to others because of his consciousness of sensation. The nature of man became his nature, which in time got fame by becoming an identity. Freedom emerged not only as a human nature but as a right, which today has become the cause of struggle and synonymous with necessity. There have been many struggles for independence since ancient times. It would not be wrong to call the twenty-first century the century of discussions. In which many discussions are present in front of us like Dalit discourse, women discourse, tribal discourse, minority discourse etc. With the passage of time, the echoes of women's discourse also started to be heard. Even though India is included in the category of prosperous developing country, but women are still seen cut off from the mainstream of the society. Even today the woman is situated on the margins of her own house. The creators have tried to bring these marginalized tribals at the center of their creations. In which he has expressed the exploitation done by the society in the name of superstition, the poverty and helplessness of the women society, their ironic life etc. The stories of writer Mehrunnisa Parvez have the material to prepare the background of women's rights and her freedom life.
 
 Abstract in Hindi Language: स्वातंत्र्य चेतना, अल्पसंख्यक, विमर्श, कुरीतियाँ, त्रासदी।

THE BLACK MODEL MINORITY

Abstract This paper interrogates the fundamental anti-Blackness of model minority discourses and how they are embedded in structures of anti-Blackness and settler colonialism through a genealogical examination of the contradictory history of the “Black model minority” within the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute’s Indian Program. This program educated both Black and Indigenous students throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and purposefully made racialized comparisons between groups. I read this history through present day scholarship on the model minority myth in relation to anti-Blackness and settler colonialism. I argue that the “Black model minority” at Hampton was predicated on upholding slavery through defining it as an educational project and that slavery and settler colonialism are intimately linked through pedagogy. This narrative of the Black model minority demonstrates that slavery and land dispossession were framed as pedagogic by industrial education institutions. Ultimately, this work questions the idea of “valuing education,” which is present in model minority discourses across many contexts, and how it is complicated by this history.

Reppin’ and Rice: How Asian and Pacific Islander American Hip Hop Fans Negotiate Their Racial Identities and Make Meaning of Their Experiences in the US Hip Hop Community

The US hip hop fan community maintains stereotypical representations of Asian American and Pacific Islander American (AAPI) communities that were created from the Yellow Peril and Model Minority discourses (2017, Sociological Inquiry 87(4):634). AAPI rap and hip hop fans present an image that is in opposition to the stereotypes of what fans learned and believe about AAPI communities (2017, Sociological Inquiry 87(4):634). My experiences have inspired me to seek answers to the pressing research questions: (1) how do Asian American and Pacific Islander American hip hop fans negotiate their racial identities in the hip hop community when it is an artform and culture that is historically and socially tied to Black and Brown communities? and (2) how do AAPI hip hop fans make meaning of their experiences in the multi‐racial U.S. hip hop community?

Rocking the Boat: A Call for Asian American and Pacific Islander Counselors to Make Waves

Rocking the Boat: A Call for Asian American and Pacific Islander Counselors to Make Waves

Israel, Turkey, and the Turkish Jewish community in light of Operation Protective Edge

ABSTRACT This article examines developments within the Jewish community in Turkey during and after the Israeli operation in Gaza in 2014 and describes the political relations between Israel and Turkey and its impact on local Turkish Jews. It depicts Operation Protective Edge as one of the peaks of antisemitism in Turkey and considers the question of whether antisemitism in Turkey is related to Turkish-Israeli relations. This study contributes to the scholarship on the perception of Jews in Turkey in light of Turkish-Israeli relations. The paper begins by introducing minority discourse, and then describes the historical background of Turkish-Israeli relations, the perception of Jews, and the effects of the Protective Edge on the Jewish community in particular and on Israeli-Turkish relations in general during that period. Subsequently, the main findings are presented.