Introduction

This chapter unpacks some of the key frameworks surrounding the experiences of Asian Americans in and beyond educational contexts. The chapter begins by discussing research on Asian American teachers, then moves to a more general discussion of several key polarizing lenses used to relegate Asian Americans to particular roles in American society. The yellow peril and perpetual foreigner discourses exclude Asian Americans from belonging in American society by relegating them as “unassimilable aliens” to Western culture. Conversely, the Model Minority Myth, discourses of racial neutrality and white proximity for some (namely high-achieving East) Asian Americans position them as aspirational minorities who have assimilated to (white) American culture so well that they now outperform white Americans and symbolize a post-racial society free of discrimination. Refusing these problematic framings of Asian Americans, this chapter gives an overview of the book’s central framework of Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) which highlights the unique racialized experiences of Asian Americans through a critical lens.