Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 1-19

3. Vietnamese and US Empire

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 21-45

4. Critical Theories of Racism and Asian American Identities: A Materialist Critique

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 47-66

5. “Theater of the Oppressed”: Vietnamese and Asian American Youth Violence

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 67-83

6. “No One Is Looking Into Our Shit!”: Vietnamese American Youth Gang Narratives

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 85-111

7. The Politics of Migration, Space, and Racialization: Analysis and Synthesis

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 113-134

8. Toward a Pedagogy of the Dispossessed

   • Kevin D. Lam

   Pages 135-148

9. Back Matter

   Pages 149-187

   PDF

Winner of the American Educational Studies Association 2016 Critics' Choice Book Award



Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling examines the formation of Vietnamese American youth gangs in Southern California. Lam addresses the particularities of racism, violence, and schooling in an era of anti-youth legislation and frames gang members as post-colonial subjects, offering an alternative analysis toward humanization and decolonization.

• Race and racism
• Postcolonial studies
• Youth studies
• Youth violence
• Asian American youth gangs
• Vietnamese
• American youth gangs
• Critical pedagogy
• Urban Education
• Multiculturalism
• Cultural Studies
• Inter-ethnic conflict
• Los Angeles
• Southern California
• Asian American Studies
• Asian American Education
• Sociology
• Ethnic studies
• American studies
• conflict
• education
• ethnic studies
• migration
• politics
• Presse
• schooling
• sociology
• violence

“Lam’s is an analysis that is both timely and urgent. It beckons us to look once more, with greater depth and determination into the complexities of our times, the dehumanization of those deemed expendable within them, and the role of society’s institutions in sanctioning and exacerbating these crises.” (Kamau Rashid, Educational Studies, January, 2018)

“Using empirical, evidence-based, and informed positions to synthesize the post and contemporary politics of migration, space, and racialization, [Lam’s] analysis provides a thought-provoking and stirring viewpoint of humanization and decolonization for teaching and learning.”  (James Martinez, Teachers College Record, 2017)

“Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling is a timely contribution to Asian American studies and educational research.” (Rachel Endo, Journal of Asian American Studies, Vol. 20 (2), June, 2017)

“Perhaps Lam’s greatest contribution is in combining a critical, liberationist, decolonizing lens which shows the reader how racism is a byproduct of class formation and political economy.” (David M. Lee, Multicultural Perspectives, Vol. 18 (4), 2016)

“In Fanonian fashion, Lam reminds us that the subaltern not only speaks but writes back, talks back and researches back in order to humanize the struggle for liberation associated with the U.S. foreign policies and criminalization of youth.” (Ezekiel Joubert III, Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, Vol. 20 (1), 2016)

"Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling is a pioneering book about the interplay of colonialism, racism, and the production of Vietnamese youth gangs in Southern California. Lam's narrative is moving, rigorous, and deeply compelling. Weaving his own personal experiences with the poisonous dynamics of American imperialism, diaspora, displacement and the reconfiguration of place and agency, Lam provides a searing commentary on Vietnamese American youth gang subculture and the dynamics of racism, disruption, and poverty that now mark a notable chapter and offshoot of American domestic and foreign policy. The subculture of youth gangs is understood by Lam as a way not only to analyze a politics of disposability and state racism and violence, but also to connect the related matters of empire, immigration, geopolitics, and education. This is a brilliant book which should be required reading by everyone concerned about politics, power, and what it means to take seriously learning from historical memory in order to treat youth in general as part of the project and promise of a radical democracy." (Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy, and Professor of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University, Canada)"Lam is a new voice in critical education. In this rich account, Lam provides compelling analysis of Vietnamese gang formation in a framework that combines studies of political economy, racialization, and empire. Stuck between model minority and gang-banger status, Vietnamese youth seek meaning as criminalized and perpetual strangers in the US. As Lam shows, they are neither victims of their circumstances nor freely acting subjects. We peer into a world of contradictions where hope resides as a concrete possibility through Lam's retelling of their migration and social struggle." (Zeus Leonardo, Professor and Affiliated Faculty Member of the Critical Theory Designated Emphasis, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, USA)

“This book is the best interpretation of the Vietnamese American youth experience, especially the postcolonial backdrop which played a prominent role in the rise of street gangs in the United States.” (James Diego Vigil, Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Law & Society, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, USA)

Kevin D. Lam is Assistant Professor of Urban and Diversity Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Drake University, USA

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