GVPT Professor and Director of Asian American Studies Janelle Wong was recently featured in an article in the Daily Trojan, titled “We Can’t Keep Our Head Down Anymore.” In the article, Wong, along with colleague Karthick Ramakrishnan, discusses the complexities of Asian American identity and voting behavior.

Wong and Ramakrishnan define "Asian American" as a social construct rooted in the exclusion of Asian immigrants from Whiteness as a qualification for U.S. citizenship. They note that Asian Americans are not a monolith, emphasizing the broad diversity within the community, including differences in socioeconomic status, racial identity, and more.

Wong and Ramakrishnan also explore the “racial prism” of the U.S., where Asian Americans have been subject to discriminatory exclusions but are immunized from anti-Blackness, benefiting from not being Black in an anti-Black society. These dynamics influence Asian American identity and political experiences in the U.S.

Read the full article here