Toward a resilient, resistant, and reciprocal community: Everyday youth activism of Korean American and migrant students amidst COVID-19

Abstract

Situated in AsianCrit, which emphasizes centrality of racism among Asians in education as well as youth activism scholarship that denotes the engagement of youth in informal, communal, and everyday political spheres, the current qualitative study aims to center and uplift the voices of Korean American and migrant students who were enthusiastically involved in a Korean Student Organization (pseudonym) since the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, this study explores Korean American and migrant students’ motivations, perspectives, and aspirations to participate in the organization at a predominantly white university in the Midwest since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By highlighting how Korean American and migrant students foregrounded their experiences of racism and marginalization at a predominately white university during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating a variety of collective activities, events, and opportunities within and across the campus to survive, resist, and flourish amidst of heightened racist climates, this study will provide several implications for AsianCrit and youth activism scholarship. Together, the goal of this study is to bring attention to everyday youth activism and agency among Asian and Asian American students regarding racial justice and complicate and challenge the hegemonic representations of Asian and Asian Americans as model minorities, forever foreigners, or victims of anti-Asian hate crimes in contemporary U.S. society.

Keywords:

• AsianCrit
• youth activism
• student organization
• Korean American students
• Korean migrant students
• Asian and Asian American students
• COVID-19 pandemic

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yeji Kim

Yeji Kim is an assistant professor of social studies education in the Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include social studies and teacher education in transnational contexts and citizenship education for migrant children and communities. Her work has appeared in publications such as Theory & Research in Social Education, Race Ethnicity and Education, Critical Studies in Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education.