Integrative anti-racism: experiences of South Asian students in academe

In Canada, plausible considerations of tensions between South Asian and mainstream students in academe have only partially portrayed the enigma of racism. I investigate how discourses of racism are historically produced and have come to possess purposeful, dogmatic and ideological significances in the ivory tower. I argue that racism, more than being an representation of tension, is programmed in the powerful postmodern discourse of integrative anti-racism. In this thesis I draw from interviews with South Asian university students, faculty and staff in a Canadian university and an analyses of dominant representations of the South Asian ethos to examine the construction and negotiation of the meaning of racism. International and second-generation South Asian students struggle to integrate into Canadian academe that speaks to their experience of being “South Asian” in Canada. In so doing they often unsettle, contest and resist normative constructions of the “model minority stereotype.” I explore how South Asian students racially negotiate their positions and space in relation to faculty, peers and the curriculum. I, further, argue that in the process South Asian students are impacted psychosocially. As well, articulations, challenges and resistance to dominant discourses sets South Asian students apart and/or excludes them from the mainstream group in Canadian academe. This thesis focuses on South Asian students to contribute to the scarce literature in the area. Recognizing racial diversity as well as the complex and interesting ways that dimensions of difference intersect are significant to anti-racism scholarship and the social sciences. This study allows anti-racism research to examine how different aspects of social structure work together and interact to create inequalities and how systems of oppression produce different choices, opportunities and lifestyles for South Asian students. This dissertation, further, explores the ways in which gender, class, history and culture work together in constructing and reconstructing narratives on racism. I argue that an integrative anti-racism theory is necessary to interrogate and rupture prevailing practices of racism in academe. I maintain that as a mode of understanding tensions of racism for South Asian students, discourses of anti-racism are also a way of managing and contesting white privilege within the Canadian social, political and economic power hierarchy. I conclude that South Asian students are not stereotypically uni-dimensional but are complex, composite and multifaceted subjects. This thesis examines frictions and conflicts that emerge with racism and strategies that are employed to offset the repercussions of the immigration process and sexism within the South Asian student community. Indeed, the educational experiences of South Asian university students that have long been inadequately investigated need to be incorporated into anti-racism scholarship. And it is critical that an integrative anti-racism approach be used to scrutinize how dimensions of difference are interconnected and make sense within the specificities of social, political and historical processes and structures.

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