From Alienated to Activists

This study investigates Asian American activist group consciousness to advance understandings of complex racial positioning and political engagement beyond extant frameworks of ethnic/pan-ethnic identity, demographic characteristics, and experiences of discrimination. Originally developed to understand African American political engagement, the concept of group consciousness identifies types of racial identities and ideologies that encourage political engagement. However, its relevance for Asian Americans, who have low levels of political engagement and are racialised as a model minority ostensibly facing less discrimination, remains unclear. Drawing from surveys and interviews gathered in California, I examine Asian American-specific, activist expressions of group consciousness and relevant processes. I argue for the importance of politicising mechanisms addressing Asian Americans’ specific racialisation. I demonstrate that youth organising groups encourage activist forms of Asian American group consciousness by reframing personal racialised experiences to challenge dominant racial narratives and by linking identities and ideologies to explicit political action. Accordingly, these groups cultivate activist group consciousness expressed as politicised cultural recuperation, critiques of racialised class inequalities, and devalued status both related to and distinct from other marginalised groups.