“Are You Really Asian?”: Exploring the Racialization of Southeast Asian American Community College Students

ABSTRACT Southeast Asian American (e.g., Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese; SEAA) community college students experience systemic inequities that affect their college success, resulting in lower educational attainment rates than the national average. Using an AsianCrit framework, and guided by the overarching research question, “What are the racialized experiences of SEAA community college students?” the current investigation sought to understand the racialized processes that shape SEAA students’ educational experiences and their positioning in education. In this phenomenological study, 10 SEAA community college students describe salient educational experiences shaped by racial narratives that significantly impact their community college experiences. The findings underscore three processes that illuminate the complex interplay between (1) racialized academic assumptions constraining academic identity, (2) misidentification and erasure leading to heightened (in)visibility, and (3) decontextualization and denial of struggle (re)produces racial isolation. The findings highlight the intersections between the model minority myth and the deviant minority myth, which work insidiously to reinforce systems and structures that constrain SEAA community college experiences.