We Don't Look All the Same: Chinese and Vietnamese American Adolescents' Awareness of Marginalization and Invisibility

In the field of psychology, there have been increasing calls to address the hidden diversity among Asian American Pacific Islanders as well as their experiences with racialization and marginalization in the U.S. Utilizing qualitative methods, the present study examined the process of developing critical reflection of marginalization and invisibility among 1.5- and second-generation Chinese and Vietnamese American adolescents residing in low-income ethnic enclaves in Northeast, U.S. We explored (a) how participants recalled and interpreted critical ethnic-racial encounters as raising their awareness of being seen as different or as outsiders in the social hierarchy; (b) the extent to which they indicated evidence of critical reflection of their own invisibility or marginalized status; and (c) how they expressed their nuanced and interconnected understandings of their self-identification, critical ethnic-racial encounters, and their critical reflection of marginalization, exclusion, and invisibility. Overall, participants indicated evidence of some form of critical reflection of their own invisibility or marginalized status in the existing societal hierarchy through encounters of discrimination and/or based on observed differences in ethnic heritage practices. Furthermore, we identified two patterns of participants' interconnected understandings of their self-identification, critical ethnic-racial encounters, and their critical reflection of marginalization and invisibility. Our findings underscore the importance of understanding the different ways adolescents process their marginalization and become aware of societal inequities. We suggest these findings can inform how adolescents can best be supported to enhance this emerging critical consciousness to facilitate critical action toward social justice. What is the public significance of this article? This study provides evidence that Chinese and Vietnamese American adolescents, residing in ethnic enclaves were aware of their invisibility and resisted metanarratives that presented them as academically successful, foreign, and homogenous. Understanding the differing ways adolescents reflect on their marginalization and become aware of societal inequities can inform how they can best be supported to enhance this emerging critical consciousness to facilitate critical action toward social justice.