“Sounds about White!”: countering the erasure of Asian American scholars in critical Whiteness studies

Abstract

As the field of critical whiteness studies (CWS) grows, some white scholars argue that only whites should undertake the study of whiteness. Other white scholars acknowledge the contributions of scholars of Color to the academy, yet rarely draw on the scholarship of authors of Color to push the field to grow. This commentary critiques these phenomena by tracing the scholarly lineage of CWS and highlighting Asian American scholars’ theorizing of whiteness. It concludes with a bilingual poem to illustrate how Asian American scholars can counter both the exclusion of their voices in CWS and the ongoing violence against the Asian Diasporas as escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• Critical race theory
• critical Whiteness studies
• Whiteness
• Asian American scholars

Acknowledgments

I appreciate Dr. Cheryl Matias and Dr. Jim Scheurich for their mentorship and invitation to contribute to this special issue. I am also grateful to Dr. Matias, Dr. Geneva Gay, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback on earlier drafts of this commentary. Any remaining shortcomings are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

吴林 Lin Wu

Lin Wu is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Western Oregon University. A first-generation Chinese male immigrant and college student, Lin’s research focuses on culturally responsive pedagogy (with a particular interest in Chinese American teachers working with Mexican American students), multicultural teacher education, and critical race theory.