Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling: Vietnamese American Youth in a Postcolonial Context, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 202pp.

Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Contents Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Theorizing Vietnamese American Youth Gang Formation in Southern California ix xiii 1 1 Vietnamese and US Empire 21 2 Critical Theories of Racism and Asian American Identities: A Materialist Critique 47 “Theater of the Oppressed”: Vietnamese and Asian American Youth Violence 67 “No One Is Looking Into Our Shit!”: Vietnamese American Youth Gang Narratives 85 The Politics of Migration, Space, and Racialization: Analysis and Synthesis 113 Toward a Pedagogy of the Dispossessed 135 3 4 5 6 Notes 149 Bibliography 169 Index 179 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 YOUTH GANGS, RACISM, AND SCHOOLING Copyright © Kevin D. Lam, 2015. All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–1–137–47558–9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lam, Kevin D. Youth gangs, racism, and schooling : Vietnamese American youth in a postcolonial context / Kevin D. Lam. pages cm.—(Postcolonial studies in education) Summary: “Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling examines Vietnamese American youth gang formation in Southern California, with an emphasis on the experiences of those heavily involved in the 1990s. Lam traces the genealogy of the Vietnamese American youth gang phenomenon as part of the conflict in Southeast Asia. He describes the consequences of war and migration for youth as well as their racialization as “Asian-American” subjects. Grounded in the critical narratives of three gang members, Lam addresses themes of racism, violence, class struggle, style, and schooling in an era of anti-youth and anti-immigration legislation in the state and nationally. In this dehumanizing context, Lam frames Vietnamese and Southeast American gang members as post-colonial subjects, offering an alternative analysis toward humanization and decolonization”—Provided by publisher. Summary: “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. In this dehumanizing context, he frames gang members as postcolonial subjects, offering an alternative analysis toward humanization and decolonization”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–137–47558–9 (hardback) 1. Vietnamese American gangs—California. 2. Vietnamese American youth—California—Social conditions. 3. Vietnamese American youth— Education—California. 4. Youth and violence—California. I. Title. HV6439.U7C345 2015 364.106⬘6083509794—dc23 2015010479 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction Theorizing Vietnamese American Youth Gang Formation in Southern California The American War in Vietnam was the longest military conflict in US history. As we observe the fortieth anniversary of the “Fall of Saigon” and its ensuing mass exodus in April of 1975, we cannot help but think of the impact of the war on the Vietnamese people, and subsequently, Vietnamese in the US diaspora. This book traces the genealogy of the Vietnamese American youth gang phenomenon as part and parcel of the conflict in Southeast Asia. Indeed, Vietnamese American youth gangs are informed by US imperialism and state-sanctioned racism—first in the homeland and then in the US diaspora. I examine Vietnamese American youth gang formation in Southern California from 1979–2009—with an emphasis on the experiences of those heavily involved in the 1990s. I attempt to capture a historical moment for Vietnamese American youth gang formation: Why did these gangs emerge at this particular moment—under what social, historical, political, economic, and educational contexts? What were the impact and consequences of various laws and legal statutes on marginalized youth of color in California? How are Vietnamese American youth racialized, and what are the implications for the study of racism as it relates to youth, subculture, and schooling? Grounded in critical narratives of three gang members, I address the particularities of racialization, violence, style, and schooling in an era of anti-youth legislation. It is in this dehumanizing context Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 2 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling that I frame “1.5” and second-generation Vietnamese American gang members as postcolonial subjects, offering an alternative analysis toward humanization and decolonization. In some ways, what I hope in writing this book is to recover and reclaim my own history because I come from similar political and economic conditions. I hope to give testimony to the voice, dignity, and humanity of those who have been racialized and colonized in different ways. Recovering Our History I am a boat person. I am a colonized subject. I am postcolonial residue. American involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia is the only reason why I am here in the United States. As a result of this history and part of the “second wave” that hit the South China Sea to different refugee camps in Southeast Asia, my family and I resettled in Los Angeles in September of 1979 after spending six months in the Sam Shui Bo refugee camp in Kowloon, Hong Kong—at the time a colony of Great Britain. Although I was very young, I still have vivid memories of the camp: the cramped spaces shared with other Vietnamese refugees; the triple-bunked beds to accommodate the overcrowding; the countless beat-up boats of different sizes that were cast along the water after their journey across treacherous waters; the stench from the restrooms; the nasty unkempt showers; the tar-covered rooftops with all types of debris; the big mac trucks with mass-produced food to feed hundreds (if not thousands) of people at a time; the different dialects spoken by Northerners and Southerners (and tension and distrust between the two groups); the Saigon-Cantonese spoken by Hoa Kieu (ethnic-Chinese people); the beautiful views of the ocean from our shared quarters; the night sky that lit up the city; the double-decker buses in the congested Kowloon streets; the heat; the humidity. As a young boy, this was an exciting time—filled with anticipation for a new world, a new beginning. I was going along for the ride. This was all I knew. We were surely not going back. We were safe, together as a family, and that is all that mattered—after some tense moments with the overflooding of the boat engine that delayed our journey for a few days and scary moments at sea. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 3 Through the Family Unification Act, we resettled in Los Angeles. A cousin (my father’s sister’s son) had left for the United States in 1977—a couple of years before we left. We stayed in a dilapidated building that was a former hotel (demolished sometime in the 1980s) on Sunset and Beaudry, between Echo Park and Chinatown. We shared an apartment with so many family members that I lost count—sleeping on a rat- and roach-infested floor. After a short time there, we moved to a two-bedroom apartment with ten family members off on Bunker Hill and Alpine in Chinatown. As a young boy growing up in the 1980s, I was aware of the streets. I knew not to walk down certain streets and areas, regardless of the time of day, because they were perceived as “unsafe.” I knew to avoid the house up the street from my apartment building because that was where the cholos1 (Chicano/Latino gang members) lived. Although I did not have the language to make sense of what or how I was feeling, I knew I was scared. There was a certain racialization that happened in the context of my “Mexican” neighbor: the Pendleton shirts buttoned to the top, oversized white tees usually tucked in over creased Dickies khakis, Three Flowersbrand hair gel (sometime with a hair net), tattoos that adorned their bodies—signifiers that told me they were different. I remember my old neighborhood like it was yesterday: up on the intersection of Alpine and Figueroa is Evans Adult School—where my father, mother, aunts, and uncles took ESL (English as Second Language) classes with other recently arrived refugees and immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Across the street from Evans is the Sing Lee movie theater. It was a place where they showed martial arts and gangster-inspired flicks from Hong Kong. Before they started to show porn a few years later, my father would take me to watch movies there. On one occasion, we left the movie theater abruptly after ducking our heads beneath the seats because there was a shooting. Across the street from the theater, there was a convenience store—right by the 110 Freeway heading toward Dodger Stadium. Right next to the store was a Vietnamese café (coffee shop) where some gangsters hung out. In elementary school, my friends and I would frequent the café to play one of the 1980s arcade classics like Pac-Man, Galaga, Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 4 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling Centipede, and Donkey Kong up in the front. We knew not to go there when it got dark. I grew up at the park on Alpine and Yale and played basketball out on the asphalt. This park was where a few youth gangs hung out: both the established Chinese and Chicano gangs in the 1970s, and the addition of Vietnamese and Cambodian youth gangs in the 1980s and 1990s. To be sure, there was much tension throughout these three decades. Fights and shootings among racialized youth were common occurrences. 2 As I labor on this book 30 years later sitting in the comfort of a university library in the Midwest and working as a professor and paid intellectual, I still got mad love for my “hood.” I always will. For some, me included, this love is tied to where one grows up—inextricably connected to one’s classed, racialized, and social identity. Others never get to leave the neighborhood. It is all you know. It is all you have. In this sense, I can understand and relate to the need and desire to “rep” your neighborhood or barrio. For some, it becomes life and death. Asian American and Vietnamese American Youth Gangs Existing research suggests that certain Asian American ethnic groups, including Vietnamese, face serious issues with poverty, school dropouts, and juvenile delinquency.3 Compared to other racialized youth groups, however, very little is known about Asian American youth and students and even less about those who are gang members. Although there is some good work in ethnic studies, mainstream educational scholarship and critical educational thought on Asian American youth and students are limited. It is by no means accidental that there is not more research on Asian American youth—as they are racialized and stereotyped as quiet, submissive, apolitical, and studious, who do not get into trouble with the law. Hence, Asian Americans are not perceived as worthy theoretical and political subjects of inquiry, due to where they are located in the US racialized hierarchy. To put it more clearly, Asian Americans are not considered “marginalized enough” in their marginal status as a minority population in the United States Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 5 to warrant critical examination. In our attempts to create a truly progressive politics of difference in these times, it is fundamental that we rethink how marginalized populations are racialized and represented, in particular urban youth of color. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the estimated number of youth gangs nationally was over 30,000, and the number of gang members was over 800,000. The Los Angeles area, being the “gang capital of the United States,” tops the list with close to 8,000 gangs and 200,000 gang members. Asian American youth gangs account for 3 to 6 percent of the entire gang population, as reported by the National Youth Gang Center.4 These statistics provide a general sense of Asian American youth gang formation; however, it is oftentimes difficult to account for the various degrees of gang involvement. While Asian American youth gangs make up a relatively small percentage of youth gangs nationally, it is estimated that there are 20,000 Asian American gang members in Los Angeles County alone.5 Vietnamese and Asian American youth gangs are overwhelmingly concentrated in Los Angeles County as well as Orange County and in cities like San Jose, San Francisco/ Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, and the New York/New Jersey area, where there are sizeable Asian American populations, particularly Vietnamese and Vietnamese Chinese.6 Gang formation and violence have always been part of urban/ suburban life and immigrant communities, and the Vietnamese/ Asian American youth gang phenomenon is very much part and parcel of that history. Here, I make a distinction in the labeling of Asian American youth gangs—between Vietnamese/Southeast Asian youth gangs and Chinese/Taiwanese and some Filipino American youth gangs. The latter two migrated under very different contexts, as a number of these youth (though certainly not all) settled in more “suburban” middle-class areas. Historically, Vietnamese and Vietnamese Chinese community leaders and politicians have not acknowledged the existence of youth gangs, or when they do, they deem it an aberration. These realities are overshadowed by stories of economic success, selfsufficiency, and educational attainment. Often the focus is on Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 6 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling Vietnamese American youth who have made successful adjustments academically and financially. The educational achievements of Vietnamese American youth are highly publicized and lauded in Vietnamese-language newspapers. The nation-building from within and rhetoric of reconciliation speaks to the Vietnamese refugee discourse on “success” in the United States. Undoubtedly, a significant number go on to graduate from major US universities and colleges, become part of the managerial and intellectual class, and assimilate into American middle-class life. Nevertheless, it is important to note that unemployment and underemployment have been and remain a major problem for Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians in the United States. The average family income for Asians Americans and Vietnamese is deceptively higher because they have more workers in each family and tend to live in metropolitan areas where incomes might be higher, but with even higher standards of living.7 For many working-class Vietnamese American families, they pool their low-wage incomes together to make workable households. For many youth who come from this history, these are the material realities with which they have to contend. The stereotypes of Asian Americans as “model minority” and Vietnamese as the “good refugee” have been harmful and dangerous in understanding complex issues that exist in immigrant and racialized communities. The emergence of a Vietnamese American youth gang subculture materialized in the context of US military and economic intervention in Southeast Asia, beginning in the 1940s. The effects and traumas of war, poverty, racism, and negative educational experiences drove some Vietnamese youth to the margins, and further fueled the formation of gang subculture. Gang subculture moved quickly from fundamental concerns regarding protection, self-preservation, and ethnic pride to potentially lucrative, and oftentimes, illegal means. The rise of materialism in late US capitalist society and first-hand accounts of economic struggle in their own families, in many ways, accelerated the desire for working-class immigrant subjects to achieve material wealth and status (e.g., “street rep”) by any means and to get “a piece of the American pie.” In the context of schooling, early Vietnamese arrivals in the 1980s faced the negative effects of a fairly recent and highly divisive Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 7 war. They were reminders of the enemy, the “yellow peril” who moved next door, both literally and metaphorically. As shared in my personal narrative, many (certainly not all) of these youth grew up in poor and working-class neighborhoods with other Asians and Latinos, in areas where there has been a long history of gangs. Growing up in these neighborhoods, I have always been intrigued, but not surprised, that these youth pick up certain characteristics that are associated with Chicano gangs. The cholo aesthetic has become part of the representations that are uniquely Southern California. Inevitably, these youth come into conflict because they have to share the same spaces and go to the same schools. Some Vietnamese and Southeast Asian youth got picked on when they were younger by more established Chicano gangs in the area. They were often targets of physical and verbal attacks from other youth due to their comparatively smaller stature, different physical characteristics, refugee status, limited English language proficiency, and distinct hairstyle and dress.8 They had to battle with Chicano youth in their neighborhoods and schools. As a way to protect themselves, establish their own sense of identity, and find ways to deal with their families’ material conditions, these youth formed their own gangs. A prime example of this is the Black Dragons, comprised of first-generation Vietnamese Chinese youth. Emerging from Los Angeles’s Lincoln Heights in 1984, many attended Lincoln High School and Nightingale Middle School.9 Movement to the San Gabriel Valley followed not too long afterward, where many Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese Vietnamese youth went to high schools like Alhambra, Keppel, and San Gabriel and middle schools like Garvey and Fern.10 Not coincidentally, the emergence of Vietnamese American “street” gangs coincides with California’s (and the nation’s) increasing racialization of youth and, in particular, gang members of all hues.11 Such criminalization is usually associated with black and Chicano/Latino youth; as a result, discussions of youth of color impacted by the juvenile justice system often overlook Asian American and Pacific Islander youth. However, the arrest rate for Asian and Pacific Islander youth has increased dramatically, while the national arrest rates for black and white youth Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 8 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling have declined in the last 20 years.12 Since Asian American youth (including Vietnamese Americans) are racialized as model minorities and presumably nonviolent, they are not given the same kind of legitimacy by their peers, policy makers, scholars, and educators when discussing gang violence and historical/personal struggles. In California’s metropoles, however, they are racialized as both model minority and gang-banger because of the substantial number of Asian American youth gangs. Even though immigration has subsided from Southeast Asia, we see and feel the lasting effects of war and displacements. As a result, there is a permanence of Asian American youth gangs, given the convergences of populations in a globalizing world. Due to different residential patterns and demographic shifts for US Asians the last few decades, they do not necessarily claim “turf” or territory, as it is traditionally defined and understood.13 Perhaps the exception might be Cambodian American youth gangs in Long Beach at one point. Vietnamese and Asian American youth gangs, especially those in the San Gabriel Valley, are not spatially bound. If anything, Vietnamese/Asian American youth gangs complicate our commonsense (in the Gramscian sense) notions of “urban” and “street” gangs. The political economy of gang formation then begins to have national and diasporic effects as gangs are connected to the larger patterns of people moving out to other areas of California and the United States. For this reason, one sees similar groups (with the same monikers) in various parts of the United States with sizeable Vietnamese/Asian American populations. “Moral Panic” in the Southland Not surprisingly, the formation of youth gangs in Southern California is inextricably linked to migration patterns to the region. For example, Chicano gangs began to take shape with large-scale migration from Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s.14 Many of these youth were products of working-class families who left Mexico after the war, looking for work and a better life. This can also be said for black families coming from the US South after the Second World War in the 1940s and 1950s, as many looked Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 9 for opportunities and prosperity out West and to get away from the overt racism of the Jim Crow South.15 The Asian American “street” gang phenomenon emerged at a time when various Asian groups (especially Chinese and Japanese American) began to take root in urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles—beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s.16 One can argue that initial Asian American gang formation occurred during the first large-scale migration of Asian Americans in the latter part of the nineteenth century. When Asian Americans, predominantly Chinese men, arrived to the United States as cheap labor and workers, they formed social organizations and tongs.17 However, contemporary Asian American gang formation is relatively recent due to selective immigration policies and the aftermath of the US war in Southeast Asia over the last five decades. The rise of youth gangs in Southern California can be attributed to continuous waves of immigration, both historically and in contemporary times, from Central America, Mexico, and Southeast Asia as a result of US imperialism and geopolitics. Moreover, the political context of the late 1980s and 1990s also serves as a historical backdrop to the proliferation of “youth gangs” in the state of California. Not coincidentally, this rise had much to do with the waves of propositions imposed on the state’s youth, and in particular, youth from working-class and marginalized communities. Certain laws like Proposition 21 (Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act), STEP (Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention) Act of 1988, and Proposition 184 (passed in 1994), also known as the “three strikes” law, directly impacted gang members and non-gang members alike. Many youth who were perceived as “gang members” were pulled over, photographed, and accordingly placed in the state’s gang database, known as Cal-Gang.18 These youth were labeled as “core” or “associate” members of particular gangs. In addition, to fight against the increasing gang violence— or rather due to the moral panic19 in the state—certain gangs were handed gang enhancements and injunctions. 20 One can receive a longer sentence if one is associated with specific gangs on the list. The notorious Asian Boyz, with its multiple cliques in Long Beach, San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, Los Angeles, and other parts of the state were placed on the list for “puttin’ in work” for much of the 1990s. They continue to be on the list. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 10 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling Given the changing terrain, we need to redefine “urban” youth gangs. Traditionally, youth gangs have been associated with the “inner city.” According to Robin D. G. Kelley, inner-city pathologizing has its roots in the rise of the liberal university as a result of the War on Poverty campaign during the Johnson administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Sociologists and anthropologists began to saturate poor and working-class areas that were spatially bound. Certain territories were marked and racialized, a consequence of social science research that attempted to make sense of the poor and urban political economy.21 As such, analyses and findings on the inner city have been objectified and framed within a traditional black/white paradigm. As diverse immigrant populations have relocated to US urban centers like Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, New York City, and Chicago, there has to be a rearticulation and retheorization of youth gangs, spatial relations, and class formations. Given the pathologizing of “the barrio,” “the ghetto,” and “the hood,” youth gang violence has become synonymous with inner-city discord. Undoubtedly, these areas are greatly impacted by gang violence and the continued criminalization of youth. However, there is a need to problematize liberal social science and even “progressive” research that comes from these historical and methodological traditions. Much of this literature continues to mark, racialize, categorize, and divide populations within a black/white lens—when, in fact, the inner city and the poor have always been multiethnic. 22 Youth Gangs: Connecting Empire, Racism, and Education This project is grounded in liberatory, pedagogical, and transformative notions of youth culture, identity, and education. Following Georg Lukacs, this book is inherently a political, ideological, and pedagogical intervention.23 I critically examine the dialectical relationship between large-scale forces like empire, immigration, war, and geopolitics with the particularities of youth gang formation— with US imperialism and critical theories of racism at the center of analysis. I was guided by three questions: (1) How are Vietnamese American youth impacted by the legacies of US imperialism? Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 11 (2) How are Vietnamese American youth gangs racialized in a postcolonial context? (3) What is the relationship between racism and education for Vietnamese American youth gang members in the postcolonial context? First, how are Vietnamese American youth impacted by the legacies of US imperialism? Using postcolonial theory, I center the role of US imperialism and its relationship to Vietnamese American youth gang formation. Following the recently released (after over 20 years of captivity) imprisoned intellectual Viet Mike Ngo, I argue that Vietnamese youth gang formation and criminality emerged much before their arrival on US soil. 24 Such formation is tied to the US (and before that, French) military apparatus that had been a presence in Vietnam since the 1940s.25 As the United States recovered from the war in Vietnam, Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians, including Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians, on both sides of the ocean are still feeling (and living) the residues of such destruction more than four decades later. It is important to note that the emergence of Vietnamese American youth gangs coincides with the second wave that came from Vietnam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which exacerbated the “boat people” crisis in their escape from Vietnam. A significant number of boat people (over 50 percent) were young children or teenagers, and some came without parents or other family members. 26 Unlike “first wave” families that arrived mostly intact, a significant number of second-wave youth came on their own because their parents could not pay for their own escape. Oftentimes, these youth would make the journey with a relative or family friend. The second-wave refugees were also comprised of more rural and working-class Vietnamese and ethnic-Chinese, which made up 70 percent of these refugees.27 As a group, they were less educated and less familiar with Western ideology and values, compared to the first wave that had the resources to migrate immediately after the Fall of Saigon in April of 1975. The first generation of Vietnamese American youth who became involved in gangs in the early- and mid-1980s are now dead, in prison, or grew out of “the game.” Building on the work of James Diego Vigil and his associates, 28 I have found a prominent phenomenon of second-generation, Vietnamese American Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 12 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling youth gangs—products of US youth gang culture that emerged in major cities across the United States. By all accounts, gang violence can be attributed to the consequences of war and migration, class inequalities, demographic shifts, and interethnic relations amongst racialized youth in a changing US political economy. I closely examine the specificities of racism and a by-product of racism, violence—drawing on critical theories, postcolonial studies, and decolonizing methodologies. I ground this work by using critical narrative methodology and support the critical narratives with discussion of the context for the Vietnamese and Asian American youth gang phenomenon in Southern California, focusing on the Los Angeles area and the San Gabriel Valley, in particular beginning in the late 1980s through much of the 1990s. Second, how are Vietnamese American youth gangs racialized in a postcolonial context? I begin by discussing the racialization of Vietnamese Americans as “Asian American.” The rhetoric of Asian Americans as model minority and Vietnamese as the good refugee has been harmful in its distortion of the complex issues that take place in immigrant and racialized communities.29 The simplistic representation of Asian American youth as “whiz kids”;30 their “overrepresentation” in higher education;31 and the ability of Asian Americans to overcome any obstacle to excel and flourish, reinforced the idea of America as the “land of opportunity” and “refuge for democracy.”32 Such one-dimensional distortions have definitely cast a shadow over those who have not done as well, including Asian American youth who drop out of school, get caught up in the juvenile system, and struggle with adolescent life.33 I trace the genealogy of a Marxist-informed analysis of racism and postcolonial studies set forth by Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, and others to a more contemporary and specific inquiry on critical theories of racism—advanced most notably by British sociologist Robert Miles and US education scholars Antonia Darder and Rodolfo D. Torres.34 Using the political economy of racism and migration paradigm as an analytical framework (as opposed to the “race relations” paradigm in mainstream sociological discourse), I argue that Vietnamese American gang members are Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 13 racialized differently, on multiple fronts—including their location as Asian American subjects, gang members, immigrants/refugees, and Southern Californians. Finally, what is the relationship between racism and education for Vietnamese American youth gang members in the postcolonial context? I examine the ways in which Vietnamese American youth gang members in Southern California experience schooling. Schools have become a space for interethnic conflict with other youth of color. I frame schools as institutions of the larger state apparatus—institutions that work in the same manner as the “the streets” and prisons—to racialize Vietnamese American youth gang members. Their stories are part of a larger narrative of the state’s impact on youth, particularly youth of color—marked by surveillance, criminalization, and dehumanization. Following historians George Lipsitz, Elliot West, and Paula Petrik, due to a dearth of sources highlighting the point of view of young people, “reconstructing their story is an extremely frustrating business.”35 This is evident in the research on youth gang members whose stories are always painful; oftentimes they do not wish to revisit that history. In addition, they face the risk of implicating themselves as current or even former members. I argue that schools and schooling need to be understood in relation to questions of racism, migration, and class. These factors are interconnected, and they speak to why it is important to frame the subject matter within larger social, political, and economic contexts. I engage Paulo Freire’s notion of humanization to offer a pedagogy of the dispossessed. What we see with Vietnamese and Southeast Asian youth can also be said for other immigrant and refugee youth (e.g., Salvadoran) who come from similar social and geopolitical histories. In that sense, we can think about a pedagogy of the dispossessed historically and comparatively. Gang formation for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian youth has both diasporic and transnational effects. Since the mid- to late1990s, the deportation of “criminal” youth to their countries of origin has been a major human rights concern. Consequently, US youth gang culture gets imported to countries like El Salvador and Cambodia36 where there is a long history of war and genocide. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 14 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling Vietnamese American youth gang members are very aware that they might be next in line to get deported, as the United States and Vietnam continue to normalize diplomatic relations. Note on Methodology Maori indigenous and critical educational scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith described the possibilities of theory for indigenous people: I am proposing that theory at its most simple level is important for indigenous people. At the very least it helps make sense of reality. It enables us to make assumptions and predictions about the world in which we live. It contains within it a method or methods for selecting and arranging, for prioritizing, and legitimating what we see and do. Theory enables us to deal with contradictions and uncertainties. Perhaps more significantly, it gives us space to plan, to strategize, and to take greater control over our resistances.37 Drawing on Smith’s understanding of theory, I theorize Vietnamese (and Southeast Asian) American youth gangs in Southern California and employ a materialist cultural studies approach to the study of youth subculture, racialized identities, and urban/ suburban schooling. My intellectual and political work is framed within the critical traditions in education, US ethnic studies (especially Asian American studies), and cultural studies—inspired by the Birmingham School and its Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in their studies of working-class youth in Britain. Instead of postwar Britain, I am looking at post-Vietnam War and specifically at working-class Vietnamese American youth in the US diaspora. In line with the Marxist-inspired Birmingham School and other critical scholars of youth, identity, and schooling, I connect theoretical understandings of “macro trans(formations)” with the “micro-politics” of racialized youth in a particular time and space. 38 This project seeks to critically analyze the dialectical relationship between “large-scale” forces like migration, war, and geopolitics with the specificities of youth gang formation. Hence it is necessary to connect the cultural and historical with the material. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 15 The Birmingham School has been a great source of theoretical innovation; yet they have their share of criticism. These criticisms, warranted or not, include a lack of engagement with questions of “race,” gender, and sexuality.39 In addition, their seminal collaborative work, Resistance through Rituals (1975),40 has long been criticized for being thorough in its theoretical analysis but lacking empirical studies. For the Birmingham School, the focus on youth subcultures was derived from visual representation, press reports, historical, and secondary sources.41 Undoubtedly, there were some scholars at the CCCS who were involved with ethnographic research. Paul Willis’s Learning to Labor (1977) is likely the most well-known scholarship in this method of inquiry.42 He attempted to understand the processes of schooling by engaging interethnic/ community relations and the local political economy.43 I follow this tradition in theorizing the Vietnamese American youth gang phenomenon in Southern California. As is evident in their work, the Birmingham School was critical of the positivist tradition that has its origins in the Chicago School of Sociology. Norman K. Denzin outlined the following assumptions within the positivist tradition: first, there is a reality that can be interpreted; second, the researcher as a subject must be separate from any representation of the object researched; third, generalizations about the object of research are “free from situational and temporal constraints: that is, they are universally generalizable”;44 fourth, there is a cause and effect for all phenomena; and fifth, our analyses are objective and “value-free.”45 In articulating Vietnamese American youth gangs, my methodological interventions are political and deliberate. I write against the positivist tradition. I conducted in-depth interviews with three subjects from a particular time and place in order to bring specificity to the research. In accordance with a critical narrative methodology, it was never my goal to get a “representative” sample, but rather, to allow these interview subjects to stand and speak on their own. These narratives bring much life, depth, and analytical rigor to the discussion on youth gangs. Moreover, as a researcher from similar contexts, my analyses of these youth are by no means “objective” and certainly not value-free. I asked what I hope are highly political questions. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 16 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling It was not easy getting interviews for this project. In fact, some potential interview subjects decided not to participate because it, presumably, would conjure up much pain and anguish. In addition, they did not necessarily want to share information that might implicate them. I was fortunate to conduct the interviews I did largely because of my relationship with key “cultural brokers.” Hence, the last thing I want to do is objectify my research subjects—for they have been objectified, labeled, and racialized enough on the streets and in their communities. Much of the US youth gang literature suggests the importance of ethnographic and qualitative research; however, this approach may lack analytical depth at certain critical junctures. British cultural studies scholar Dick Hebdige described the limitations of participant observation, in particular: Participant observation continues to produce some of the most interesting and evocative accounts of subculture, but the method also suffers from a number of significant flaws . . . The absence of any analytical or explanatory framework . . . has ensured that while accounts based upon a participant observation approach provide a wealth of descriptive detail, the significance of class and power relations is consistently neglected or at least underestimated. In such accounts, the subculture tends to be presented as an independent organism functioning outside the larger social, political, and economic contexts. As a result the picture of subculture is often incomplete.46 The “larger contexts” for youth gangs in Southern California over the last five decades include demographic, social, political, and economic changes, and the political economy of racism and migration. In effect, the politics of imperialism, globalization of capital and labor, and theorizing of racialization are generally not a part of the discussion on youth gangs. And if it is, it plays a marginal role. To be sure, most of the literature on gangs and racialized youth is presented in the context of criminality and deviancy. It is my intent to paint a more complete picture of subculture, racialized schooling, and identities for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian youth gang formation over the last five decades. I do so by providing a detailed sociohistorical analysis of Vietnamese Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 17 migration and diaspora, direct results of US foreign policies and interventions in Southeast Asia. I trace the Vietnamese refugee experience in different parts of the United States, with emphasis on resettlement in Southern California. To provide greater context and specificity, I focus on Vietnamese Chinese youth gangs in the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles’s Chinatown/Lincoln Heights. To borrow from Malcolm’s critique of US imperialism and state violence, indeed “chickens are coming home to roost.”47 Overview The first chapter, “Vietnamese and US Empire,” examines the role of empire for the United States and Vietnam. In order to understand Vietnamese American youth gang formation, it is necessary to trace the history of the American conflict in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. I provide a detailed analysis of the American War in Vietnam. This conflict led to the exodus of refugees, as the boat people crisis emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I then look specifically at the Vietnamese diaspora, resettlement in Southern California, and questions of space, racism, and class formation. The second chapter, “Critical Theories of Racism and Asian American Identities: A Materialist Critique,” discusses the history of Asian American racialization as “good” and “bad” subjects, beginning with the yellow peril and the model minority myth to post-1965 immigration policy. With the premise that Vietnamese American youth gang members are impacted by both US imperialism and racism, the chapter discusses ways in which Vietnamese and Asian American subjects are signified through the process of racialization. I discuss a critical theory of racism, which emphasizes the multiple forms of racism, and specificities of oppressions and lived experiences that impact marginalized populations in the United States. The third chapter, “‘Theater of the Oppressed’: Vietnamese and Asian American Youth Violence,” engages violence in that Fanonian sense, both the bodily and psychic, as a way to examine the particularities of Asian American gang violence in the midst of “moral panic” during the 1990s. This chapter considers critical Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 18 Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling moments that precipitated extreme violence for youth who were caught up in gang life. Using case studies from both intraethnic (among Asian American groups) and interethnic (Asian and Chicano/Latino) tensions, I argue that there is a dialectical relationship between the streets and other institutions like prisons and schools. One can argue that the street, for example, is an extension of the school. One can also argue that the school is an extension of the street. The fourth chapter, “‘No One is Looking Into Our Shit!’: Vietnamese American Youth Gang Narratives,” gives voice to Vietnamese American youth gang members. Three critical narratives are provided in this chapter. These Vietnamese American youth speak to the heterogeneity of Vietnamese American experiences, including racialization, class formation, space, resettlement patterns, gender roles, identity formation, and educational experiences—and the impact that gang involvement has on their lives. I frame the narratives within the larger context of the emergence of second-generation youth gang formation in Southern California, in particular the San Gabriel Valley, during the earlyand mid-1990s. The fifth chapter, “The Politics of Migration, Space, and Racialization: Analysis and Synthesis,” is an articulation of central ideas emerging from the narratives in Chapter 4. I identify three themes: the politics of migration from Vietnam; the question of space and labor in a changing California political economy; and the process of racialization and representation, both historical and contemporary, for Asian American youth. In my discussion of racialization and representation, I also address subthemes of style, violence, and schooling; racism on the streets; and racialization from within (among Asian American youth gang members). This chapter brings specificities and complexities to the Asian American experience, youth culture, and Vietnamese American gang subculture—all inextricably linked to US imperialism, state violence, and racism. The sixth chapter, “Toward a Pedagogy of the Dispossessed,” engages critical educational theorist Paulo Freire’s notion of humanization for Asian American youth—especially those who are products of war, genocide, and violence. By situating Vietnamese and Southeast Asian American youth gang members as the oppressed Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Introduction 19 and subjects of history, this chapter offers an analysis for a pedagogy of the dispossessed. I use critical theories and decolonizing methodologies to examine the lived experiences of Vietnamese and Asian American youth gang members—in a theoretical and practical attempt to decolonize our bodies, minds, and souls. Finally, I also discuss the educational implications for Asian American youth and a materialist critical pedagogy. Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Index African Americans, 43, 44, 49, 51, 55, 59–62, 79, 145 Agent Orange, 24, 26 Alhambra, California, 69–70, 115, 123, 126–7 Alhambra High School, 7, 79–80, 119, 127 Alsaybar, Bangele D., 122 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 82 Asian American Studies, 14, 28, 63 Asian American youth gangs, 4–14 Cambodian, 4, 8, 77, 99, 117, 118, 132–3 Chinese/Taiwanese, 4–5, 7, 71–4, 89, 121, 125–6, 132–3 cliques, 9, 72, 77, 89, 100, 105–6, 108–9, 115, 117–18, 120–1, 132–3 and criminalization, 7–8, 10, 13, 81–3, 129, 137, 139–40 and ethnic enclaves, 36 Filipino American, 5, 63–5, 71–2, 76, 86, 105, 116–17, 120, 122– 3, 126, 132 and identity politics, 64–5, 68, 75–8, 99, 145 and racialization, 124–34 and racism, 129–32 research and scholarship, 4–5 and schools, 79–81, 126–8 statistics, 5 and street conflict, 118–19 and street racism, 129–31 and urban/suburban divide, 121–4 See also Asian Boyz; narratives of youth gang members; style; Vietnamese American youth gang formation; youth gangs; Wah Ching Asian Americans and Asian American Movement, 56–63 diversity of, 65–6 and “economic success” stereotype, 5, 37 employment, 43–4 income, 6, 65 and “model minority” stereotype, 6, 8, 12, 17, 37–8, 48, 58, 59–62, 68, 143 and pan-ethnicity, 62–6 and poverty, 65 racialization of, 58–66 See also diaspora; refugees Asian Boyz, 9, 76, 88–90 cliques, 116–17 and “Kicker” incident, 71–4, 133 Melo, 85–6, 95–103, 113–34, 138, 140, 142 P-Dog, 85–6, 87–95, 113–21, 123–32, 134, 138, 140–2 and San Marino shooting, 73–4, 133 Westside, 116–18 Asian Gang Task Force, 90, 129 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 180 Index Banton, Michael, 53 barrio, 4, 10 Birmingham School, 14–15, 136. See also Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies black power movement, 58–60, 63 black/white paradigm, 10, 48–52, 58–9, 122 Boal, Augusto, 68 “boat people,” 11, 17, 27, 30–2, 74, 86, 117. See also refugees Bush, George W., 41 Cambodia, 3, 13, 23, 28, 124, 139, 140 Cambodian American youth gangs, 4, 8, 77, 99, 117, 118, 132–3 Cambodians, 11, 65, 72, 78, 117–18, 132–3 capitalism, 6, 33, 38, 42–5, 47, 50, 55, 57–8, 60–1, 63, 121, 137–8, 145–8 Carmichael, Stokely, 51 Catholic schools, 86, 104, 107, 114–16, 128 Catholics, 28–9, 114, 116 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), 14–15. See also Birmingham School Chan, Sucheng, 22, 27 Chang, Jeff, 129 Chicago School of Sociology, 15 Chicano/Latino youth gangs, 3–4, 7–8, 18, 71, 73–4, 76–9, 89, 91, 97–8, 118, 123–8, 142 Chin, Frank, 62 China, 28–9, 32, 41, 70, 80 Chinatown/Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles, California), 3, 17, 35, 40, 72, 115, 118–19, 122–3, 125–6, 132–3 Chinese Americans, 9, 60, 62–3, 69, 71, 80, 125 Chinese/Taiwanese American youth gangs, 4–5, 7, 71–4, 89, 121, 125–6, 132–3 chinos, 91, 125 cholos (Chicano/Latino gang members), 3 cholo aesthetic, 7, 101, 124–6 Chomsky, Noam, 24–5 civil rights movement, 58–61, 63, 145 class analysis, 44–5, 48, 50–1, 55, 57–8, 146 class formation, 10, 17, 18, 41–5, 50, 137–8, 144–5, 147 class struggle, 6, 33, 58–9, 119–21, 138–9, 141–2, 145–7 clothing. See style Cold War, 27, 63 colonialism, 29, 37, 50–1, 56–7, 60, 71, 76, 79, 135–7, 139, 141, 148. See also postcolonialism Cox, Oliver Cromwell, 57 criminalization, 7–8, 10, 13, 81–3, 129, 137, 139–40 “gang problem,” 68, 138–9, 141 critical narrative methodology, 1–2, 12, 15, 18, 85, 113, 135. See also narratives of youth gang members critical pedagogy and critical pedagogical approaches, 13, 18–19, 61, 135–48 critical theories of racism, 10–13, 48–59, 137–8, 141, 144–8 Cuba, 31, 32, 33, 40, 44, 87–8 Darder, Antonia, 12, 43, 50–1, 56, 137, 145–6 Davis, Mike, 43 decolonization, 2, 12, 19, 22, 53, 135, 137 decolonizing methodologies, 12, 17, 19, 53, 76, 135–7, 141–2, 148 dehumanization, 13, 138, 141. See also humanization Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Index Denzin, Norman K., 15 deportation, 13–14, 27, 92–3, 102, 140 diaspora Chinese, 30, 33 and ethnic communities, 36–7 and gang formation, 8, 13 use of the term, 33–4 Vietnamese, 1, 17, 22, 26, 33–8 Dien Binh Phu, 22 dress. See style Eastside Longos, 76–7, 99 education. See schools and schooling El Salvador, 3, 13, 116, 124, 140 emblematic victim, 37–8, 144 empire, 1, 9–11, 16–18, 21–7, 33, 41, 48, 67–8, 137–9, 141–2, 144, 147–8 eses, 89, 91, 97, 124–5, 128 Espiritu, Yen Le, 21, 25–6, 27, 38, 65–6 ethnic communities, 35–7, 39, 123, 144 Chinatown/Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles, California), 3, 17, 35, 40, 72, 115, 118–19, 122–3, 125–6, 132–3 Little Saigon (Orange County, California), 35, 39–40, 79, 82, 104, 114–16, 118, 123–7 See also San Gabriel Valley, California) ethnic studies, 4, 14, 143, 147 ethnicities, 35–7, 39–45, 50–1, 55, 58–66, 118–19, 123–5, 129–34, 138–9, 142 Fall of Saigon, 1, 11, 21–2, 26, 28, 86, 103, 139 Family Unification Act, 3 Fanon, Frantz, 12, 17, 53, 76, 135–7, 141–2, 148 181 Filipino Americans, 64, 86, 116 youth gangs, 5, 65, 71, 122, 126 First Indochina War, 22 France, 11, 22, 29, 31, 135 Freire, Paulo, 13, 18–19, 138, 141 Gang Reporting, Evaluation, and Tracking System (GREAT) database, 9, 129–30 Garvey Intermediate School, 7, 96 gender, 15, 18, 43, 50, 61, 145–6 genocide, 13, 18, 33, 47, 71, 116–17 Gilroy, Paul, 57–8 global restructuring, 8, 16, 40, 42–3, 48 graffiti, 90, 126 Gramsci, Antonio, 8, 59, 62 “green light,” 77–9, 99. See also violence: in prisons Haines, David, 36 Hall, Stuart, 9, 15, 68 Hamilton, Charles V., 51 Hebdige, Dick, 16 hegemony, 38, 61–2, 65, 143 Herman, Edward, 24–5 “Hi-Tek” incident (Little Saigon, 1999), 40 Hmong, 11, 65, 117 Hoa Kieu (ethnic-Chinese Vietnamese), 2 homeboys, 88–93, 97–8, 101, 108, 117–18, 121, 124–6, 128–9, 133 homegirls, 107 Hong Kong, 3, 30, 70, 78, 93, 133 refugee camps, 2, 32, 78, 87, 114 humanization, 2, 13, 138–42, 147 identity politics, 58–9, 64–5, 68, 75–8, 99, 145 ideology, 11, 25–8, 38, 49–50, 53–4, 56, 59–63, 126, 143–4 Immigration and Naturalization Act (1965), 28, 41, 47 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 182 Index immigration legislation and policy, 1, 17, 27–8, 41, 44, 47, 54, 65, 82, 118, 135, 138, 144. See also diaspora; refugees imperialism. See US imperialism Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance (1975), 34 Japanese Americans, 9, 60, 63, 71, 77 Johnson, Lyndon B., 10 juvenile delinquency, 4, 60 juvenile justice system, 7, 12, 91, 98–100, 140, 143. See also law enforcement Kelley, Robin D. G., 10 Kennedy, John F., 23–4 Khmer Rouge, 117 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 58 Lam, Andrew, 27, 32 Laos, 23, 28, 139 Laotians, 11, 65, 117, 132 Latino. See Chicano/Latino youth law enforcement, 7–8, 44, 73–5, 78, 81–3, 142 Cal-Gang (database), 9, 129 and criminalization, 7–8, 10, 13, 81–3, 129, 137, 139–40 GREAT (Gang Reporting, Evaluation, and Tracking System) database, 9, 129–30 juvenile justice system, 7, 12, 91, 98–100, 140, 143 in narratives of youth gang members, 90, 92–5, 98–101, 108, 113, 128–32 photographing, 9, 81–2 police, 75, 78, 81–2, 90, 100–1, 128–32, 142 prisons, 18, 68, 75–9, 92, 94, 103, 109, 117, 138, 139 Proposition 21 (Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act), 9 Proposition 184 (three strikes law), 9, 131, 139 STEP (Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention) Act of 1988, 9, 131, 139 Leonardo, Zeus, 64 Lipsitz, George, 13 Little Saigon (Orange County, California), 35, 39–40, 79, 82, 104, 114–16, 118, 123–7 Liu, John, 42 Lomas, 76, 77, 97, 126, 128 Long Beach, California, 8–9, 39, 76–7, 79, 86, 99, 100, 105–6, 108–9, 117–18, 120, 122–3, 127, 129, 132–3, 140 Los Angeles, California, 2, 5, 9, 12 Chinatown/Lincoln Heights, 3, 17, 35, 40, 72, 115, 118–19, 122–3, 125–6, 132–3 and class formation, 41–5 and global restructuring, 42 Vietnamese in, 39–40 uprisings of 1992, 44 Lowe, Lisa, 43, 47, 48 Lukacs, Georg, 10 Malcolm X, 17, 58, 139 marginalization and marginalized populations and cholo aesthetics, 124 and colonialism, 136 and criminalization of youth, 129 and dehumanization, 138, 141 and model minority myth, 60, 62 and pedagogy, 143 and research, 4–5, 28, 142, 145 Mark Keppel High School, 7, 80–1, 96–8, 119, 126–8 Marx, Karl, 121 Marxist theory, 12, 14, 15, 44, 55–9, 147 materialist critical pedagogy, 59–66, 145–7 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Index materialist cultural studies approach, 14, 57 McLaren, Peter, 146–7 Memmi, Albert, 137 methodology, 14–17. See also critical narrative methodology; narratives of youth gang members Mexico, 3, 8–9, 42, 115, 119 migration, 8–9, 12–13, 54, 144 “new” Asian, 47 political economy of, 57–8, 61, 65–6, 69, 137, 145 politics of, 113–18 secondary and chain, 35, 39, 114 and war, 27–33 Miles, Robert, 12, 50–8, 137 “model minority” myth, 6, 8, 12, 17, 37–8, 48, 58, 59–62, 68, 143, 129–30 Monterey Park, California, 69–70, 74, 85–6, 96, 115, 123, 127 “moral panic,” 8–10, 17, 68, 82 napalm, 23–4 narratives of youth gang members and drug use, 91, 100–3, 109, 114, 140 and education, 90–2, 94–9, 102–9, 113, 115–16, 118–21, 124, 126–9 and labor, 115, 119–21 and law enforcement, 90, 92–5, 98–101, 108, 113, 128–32 Linh, 86, 103–11, 113–16, 119– 20, 122–3, 126, 128–9, 134, 138, 140, 142 Melo, 85–6, 95–103, 113–34, 138, 140, 142 and migration and resettlement, 113–18 P-Dog, 85–6, 87–95, 113–21, 123–32, 134, 138, 140–2 and racialization, 124–34 and racism, 129–32 183 and street conflict, 118–19 and style, 89–90, 95, 97, 99, 101, 107, 109, 124–6, 130 and urban/suburban space, 121–2 and violence, 126–8 National Youth Gang Center, 5 Nayak, Anoop, 86 Ngin, ChorSwang, 43, 54–5, 65, 130 Ngo, Viet Mike, 11 Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 25, 37, 62–3 Omatsu, Glenn, 58, 60 Omi, Michael, 48–9, 53, 55 Ong, Aihwa, 33 Ong, Paul, 42–3, 65–6 Otherness, 33, 52–4, 85 pedagogy of the dispossessed, 13, 18–19, 134, 142–7 Petrik, Paula, 13 Phan Van Khai, 40–1 Philippines, 29–30, 41, 64, 87, 114 police. See law enforcement political economy of migration, 57–8, 61, 65–6, 69, 137, 145 political economy of racism, 56–8, 137, 144–7 positivism, 15 postcolonial studies, 12–13, 136–7 postcolonialism, 2, 11–13, 135–6 prisons, 18, 68, 75–9, 92, 94, 103, 109, 117, 138, 139 “race” and black/white paradigm, 10, 48–52, 58–9, 122 concept of, 48–62 “enemy race,” 63 “good” and “bad” race, 60 Marxist critiques, 57–8 and Nazi Germany, 53 and “people of color” paradigm, 59 and racial formation, 48–9 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 184 Index “race”—Continued and racialization, 52–8 and racism, 50–8 and white supremacy, 49–51 “race fights,” 79–80, 91, 127–8 “race relations” paradigm, 12, 44–5, 48–50, 55–9, 78, 145–7 racialization, 1, 3, 8, 12–13 of Asian Americans, 58–66 as emblematic victim, 37–8, 144 and ethnic disidentification, 63 from within, 18, 113, 132–4 as gang members, 8, 13 and “good” and “bad” subjects, 17, 60 as “good refugees,” 6, 12, 38–9, 38, 68, 143 as “model minorities,” 6, 8, 12, 17, 37–8, 48, 58, 59–62, 68, 143 “practical” and “ideological,” 53 and race/racism, 52–8, 124–34 as racialized categorization, 53–4 and schooling, 126–8 and style, 3, 124–6, 130–1 as subaltern, 37, 144 use of the term, 53 of Vietnamese bodies, 37–9 racism and “color-blind” discourse, 55–6 critical theory of, 17, 51, 137 and “divide and conquer” strategies, 44, 137–8 forms of, 17, 51 institutional, 51–2 Marxist critiques, 57–8 political economy of, 12, 16, 56–8, 137, 144–7 and racialization, 52–8, 124–34 state-sanctioned, 1, 67–8 and Vietnamese American gang formation, 67–8 Refugee Act (1980), 34 refugees “1.5” Vietnamese (born in Vietnam and came to US as toddlers), 2, 73, 125 “boat people,” 11, 17, 27, 30–2, 74, 86, 117 and chain migration, 35, 39 as distinct from immigrants, 28 first wave, 11, 28–9, 40, 86–7, 113, 119 refugee camps, 2, 22, 29–32, 78, 87–8, 103, 114 resettlement, 2–3, 17–18, 22, 29, 31–6, 39, 85–7, 95–6, 113–18, 122, 134 second wave, 2, 11, 29–31, 40, 86, 113, 119 and secondary migration, 35, 39, 114 third wave, 31–3, 40 repatriation, 32 forced, 32, 78 Resistance through Rituals (Hall and Jefferson), 15 Rizvi, Fazal, 51 Rodriguez, Luis, 128 Rohrabacher, Dana, 38 San Gabriel, California, 69–70, 115, 123, 127 San Gabriel High School, 7, 79–80, 91, 97, 119 San Gabriel Valley, California, 18 and Arcadia High kidnappings, 74–5 and Asian Boyz, 9, 71–3, 76, 88–90, 96–101, 115–18, 121, 125–8, 131–3 and class formation, 70 demographics, 69–70 and “Kicker” incident, 71–3 and San Marino shooting, 73–4 settlement patterns, 70 and youth violence, 69–77, 79–80 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Index and Wah Ching, 71–4, 76, 98–9, 121, 126, 133–4 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 12, 67, 70, 136–8, 141 schools and schooling, 13 Alhambra High School, 7, 79–80, 119, 127 Catholic schools, 86, 104, 107, 114–16, 128 Mark Keppel High School, 7, 80–1, 96–8, 119, 126–8 and racialization, 126–8 San Gabriel High School, 7, 79–80, 91, 97, 119 and violence, 79–81, 126–8 Second Indochina War. See Vietnam War Sino-Vietnamese (Chinese) conflict, 29 Sivanandan, Ambalavaner, 58 Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, 14, 136–7 social death, 138 Southeast Asia, 1–2, 6, 8–9, 22–3, 27–33, 41, 67, 70, 80, 114–15, 117, 119, 135–6, 139. See also Cambodia; Laos; Vietnam War Southeast Asians, 6, 11, 23, 28–35, 44, 70, 114, 117, 144 youth, 5, 7, 13, 16, 61, 67, 73, 87, 122, 135 See also Cambodians; Hmong; Laotians; refugees Southern California, 7–10, 14–18, 39–41, 43. See also Los Angeles, California; San Gabriel Valley space, 17, 118–24 stereotypes economic success, 5, 37 good refugee, 6, 12, 38–9, 38, 68, 143 model minority, 6, 8, 12, 17, 37–8, 48, 58, 59–62, 68, 143 yellow peril, 7, 17, 48 185 style cholo aesthetic, 7, 101, 124–6 clothing, 82, 89–90, 95, 97, 99, 101, 107, 109, 124–6 graffiti, 90, 126 hair, 3, 7, 97, 130 tattoos, 3, 90, 95, 126, 129–30 subaltern, 37, 144 subculture, 6, 14–16, 18, 86, 113, 122, 148 suburbs, 5, 69–70, 74–5, 120–3 Taiwan, 70, 80 tattoos, 3, 90, 95, 126, 129–30 theater of the oppressed, 17–18, 67–75 Tiny Rascal Gang, 76–7, 99, 117, 132 Torres, Rodolfo D., 12, 43, 50, 54–6, 65, 137, 145, 146 Troyna, Barry, 51 Tsang, Daniel, 130 unemployment, 6, 34, 44, 65, 137 United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 31–2 urban political economy, 8–10, 34, 39–40, 42–3, 69–70, 115 schools and schooling, 7, 14, 79–80, 91, 96–8, 119, 126–8 urban/suburban divide, 121–4 youth gangs, 5, 8–10, 12, 117, 122–3 US imperialism, 17 and class formations in Los Angeles, 41–4 and migration, 27–33 and political economy of Southern California, 39–41 and racialization of Vietnamese bodies, 22, 37–9 and Vietnamese American gang formation, 67–8, 138–9, 141–2, 147–8 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 186 Index US imperialism—Continued and Vietnamese diaspora, 26, 33–7 and Vietnamese refugee experience, 22–3 See also Vietnam War Van Nuys, California, 77, 100, 117, 118, 123, 133, 140 Vietnam War anti-war movement, 57 chemical warfare, 23–4, 6 deaths, 21, 23 and diaspora, 33–4 Fall of Saigon (April, 1975), 1, 11, 21–2, 26, 28, 86, 103, 139 and First Indochina War (AntiFrench Resistance War), 22 as “good” war, 38 and Iraq War, 41 land destruction, 23–4 media coverage and propaganda, 24–5 National Liberation Front, 26 public opinion of, 34–5 and US economy, 48 and US embargo, 25–7 use of napalm, 23–4 Vietnam War Memorial (Washington DC), 25–6 Vietnamese American youth gang formation, 1, 5, 67–9, 135–48 and “divide and conquer” strategies, 137–8 effects of, 13–14 and ethnic enclaves, 70 history of, 8–9 and political economy, 69–70, 137 and racism, 67–8, 137–8 and US imperialism, 11, 67–8, 138–9, 141–2, 147–8 and Vietnam War, 17, 27, 115, 135, 139 and violence of the colonized, 70–83 See also Asian American youth gangs Vietnamese Americans diversity of, 35–7 educational achievements, 5–6 ethnic Chinese, 2, 7, 11, 28–30, 35, 40, 72, 87, 114–15, 133 ethnic communities, 35–7, 39–41 and “good refugees” stereotype, 6, 12, 38–9, 38, 68, 143 and heterogeneity, 18 income, 6 occupational distribution, 36 politics, 40 and poverty, 37 schooling, 36, 143–4 students, 82, 102, 105–10, 127–30, 142–4 youth, 6, 10–14, 118, 125 Vigil, James Diego, 11 violence and Arcadia High kidnappings, 74–5 and colonialism, 135–6 and criminalization as an act of violence, 81–3 and gangster nationalism, 68, 75–83 and humanization, 138–41 and identity politics, 68, 75–8 and “Kicker” incident, 71–3, 133 and political economy, 69–70 in prisons, 76–9 and San Marino shooting, 73–4 and schools, 79–81, 126–8 state violence, 17–18, 68, 113, 134 violence of the colonized, 67, 70–5 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589 Index Wah Ching, 76, 98–9, 121, 126, 133–4 and “Kicker” incident, 71–4 and San Marino shooting, 73–4 war of maneuver, 59 war of position, 59 War on Poverty (Johnson administration), 10 war on terror, 83 West, Elliot, 13 white supremacy, 49–51 Willis, Paul, 15 Winant, Howard, 48–9, 53, 55 World War II, 8–9, 23, 27, 41–2, 63, 71 “yellow peril” stereotype, 7, 17, 48 Young, Robert J. C., 136 youth, use of the term, 86. See also Asian American youth gangs; Cambodian American youth gangs; Chicano/Latino youth gangs; narratives of youth 187 gang members; schools and schooling; Southeast Asians: youth; Vietnamese American youth gang formation; Vietnamese Americans: youth youth gangs Asian Boyz, 9, 71–4, 76, 88–90, 96–101, 115–18, 121, 125–8, 131–3 Black Dragons, 7, 72, 115 Born to Kill, 72 Crips, 76, 101 Eastside Longos, 76–7, 99 Jackson Street Boys, 72 Lomas, 76, 77, 97, 126, 128 Red Door, 75 Tiny Rascal Gang, 76–7, 99, 117, 132 Viet Ching, 72, 87, 115, 133 Vietnamese Boyz, 115 Wah Ching, 71–4, 76, 98–9, 121, 126, 133–4 Westside Islanders, 105–11 Copyrighted material – 9781137475589