Toward a Radical Asian American Studies Pedagogy

Toward a Radical Asian American Studies Pedagogy Jocyl Sacramento (bio), Edward R. Curammeng (bio), Ray San Diego (bio), and Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales (bio) For the past few years, things have been rough. In San Leandro, CA, white supremacist group, The Proud Boys, disrupted the library's public story hour as Asian American drag queen Panda Dulce read to young children and their families. In Wisconsin, the novel, When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka was dismissed as not having "balance" by opponents arguing for an "American telling" of Japanese incarceration during WWII. Across the US, Asian Americans are terrified of becoming an additional anti-Asian violence statistic. In Florida, anti–critical race theory and anti–trans youth bills are being passed, with sanctions intended to support neoliberal processes bent on defunding public education. Conservative Asian American organizing fueled and funded by right-wing think tanks aiming to end affirmative action is fracturing solidarities built with other Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) communities. These scattered irruptions connect ongoing histories of violence and structures of invidious power that demonstrate the disorienting and enervating toll pressed upon Asian Americans for centuries. At the same time as these assaults on public education are taking place, approximately twenty states have supported Ethnic Studies policies, including bills signed into law in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to teach Asian American Studies (AAS) in K–12 schools with growing debate over how and who will implement this curriculum, how to operationalize "Asian American" without flattening difference, and the necessary skepticism of representational legislation without material impact. [End Page 207] In light of these ongoing attacks and simultaneous support for AAS, what constitutes the purpose of AAS pedagogy? Is it to advocate for an AAS lens that informs curriculum and instruction, especially given the influx of K–12 Ethnic Studies in public schools?1 We collectively and unapologetically say yes and take to task what a radical Asian American Studies pedagogy (RAASP) can offer: more exacting analyses of power, structures, and systems. The current predicaments demand more than superficial calls to learn about oneself; they demand that we be expansive, responsible, and accountable for the worlds we build. We offer pathways toward a RAASP to fortify the tools, strategies, and practices necessary to meet the alarming increase of racialized and gendered violence. We propose an AAS pedagogical praxis with a radical approach, not as a means to delimit the field. Rather, our proposal reflects a commitment to demonstrating how acts of teaching, analysis, reflection, and joy constitute the education that we demand and how they are intimately tied to eliminating heteropatriarchy, colonialisms, empire, and white supremacy. THE RADICAL ROOTS OF ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES Our intention with taking a radical approach to pedagogies within AAS is to reveal the roots that made way for the legacies and liminality of a liberatory education for and about Asian Americans. We operationalize radical to refer to historicizing and identifying an originating point. However, radical also designates how something is progressive, innovative, and goes against tradition. In this essay, we strive to address both. AAS has developed a unique pedagogical approach that is guided by the values sparked during the 1960s movement that sought to bridge students' critical consciousness through political and community engagement.2 The historical context of the field and pedagogy is tied to antiwar, anticolonial, and anti-imperialist movements that were shaped by and in community with Black leadership and activism.3 In fact, Asian American members of the Third World Liberation Front worked in coalition to demand Black Studies and a Third World College, or what became the College of Ethnic Studies, during a time when Third World youth were recruited into the military to fight in the ongoing Vietnam War rather than admitted into colleges and universities like their white counterparts.4 AAS scholars' critiques of war, colonialism, and imperialism came with an underlying goal of social transformation and developing students as agents of change. Over time, however, AAS has experienced shifts in curriculum and pedagogy, where the roots of social movement and solidarity [End Page 208] may be buried due to institutionalization.5 The consequence of neglecting the origins of

Asian americans · Criminology · Ethnic group · Political science · Sociology · White (mutation · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Law

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