Sociology Undergraduates Present their Research at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting.

Duke Students, Kristen Lee and Simon Ho,  present their paper at ASA.

"The Pretty White Lies of Asian American Undergraduates at the Elite University" 

 abs References to Tiger Mothers and "reverse affirmative action" portray Asian American undergraduates as a successful model minority whose problems are little more than getting in to the Ivory Tower and maintaining a 4.0 GPA. The myth of the model minority obscures the sexualized, gendered, and social racism that Asian Americans encounter at university on a daily basis. Little research has critically examined the racialized experiences of Asian American at the university level. This paper offers qualitative research of Asian American female and male undergraduates (n=14) at an elite southern university to explore the intersectionality of race and gender and understand the (limited) social spaces of educational university life. It highlights the extent to which Asian Americans have adopted colorblindness in white normative spaces and how such practices leave Asian Americans ill-prepared to handle the realities of racism. Understanding the context of Asian Americans in academic institutions is critical to a well-informed picture of the American racial structure and one that has been far too often ignored.