New issue of UCLA’s AAPI Nexus explores the other side of model minority myth with new Senior Editor
May 24, 2009
Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, melanyd@ucla.edu
For Immediate Use
(310) 206-7738
The Asian American Pacific Islander Nexus Journal: Policy, Practice and Community (AAPI Nexus) is pleased to announce its newest Senior Editor, Professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health. In Kagawa-Singer’s first special issue, vol. 6.1, the journal presents five articles that explore the diversity within these communities, including the disparities that continue to mark some of their experiences. The issue begins with the inaugural note from Kagawa-Singer that highlights a new vision for the journal, which works to bring visibility and attention to marginalized experiences within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations through research and policy.
Paul M. Ong, Melany dela Cruz-Viesca, and Don T. Nakanishi explore in the first article how to provide these communities with agency through voting. In discussing the potential political power of the AA/NH/PI population, Ong et al. provide insight into how to create policy changes that can benefit these communities.
This issue also explores three pervasive difficulties that challenge the model minority myth, including:
Su Yeong Kim and colleagues, in “‘It’s like we’re just renting from here’: The Pervasive Experiences of Discrimination of Filipino Immigrant Youth Gang Members in Hawai’i,” which examines these youth gang members and their challenges in Hawai’i. This piece also includes avenues to help with intervention for these youth who join gangs in order to have agency and protection from discrimination.
Robyn Greenfield Matloff et al. explore in “The Obesity Epidemic in Chinese American Youth?: A Literature Review and Pilot Study” Chinese American youth and possible risk factors for the growing epidemic of obesity in Boston’s Chinatown. The study also discusses the role of acculturation and changing lifestyles that result from immigration experiences.
Jeanne Shimatsu and colleagues include data about the rates of alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors with their piece, “Sex and Alcohol on the College Campus: An Assessment of HIV-Risk Behaviors among AAPI College Students.” This paper also includes ways that can help intervene and address the alarmingly high number of unprotected sex and alcohol use found in their study.
These articles address the diversity within the AAPI communities that are often dismissed due to the model minority myth. These informative pieces help to develop new ways to intervene and prevent other pervasive problems from increasing in these communities.
AAPI Nexus copies are $13.00 plus $4.00 for shipping and handling and 8.75% sales tax for California residents. Make checks payable to “Regents of U.C.” VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546. Phone: 310-825-2968. Email: aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu
Annual subscriptions for APPI Nexus are $35.00 for individuals and $175.00 for libraries and other institutions. AAPI Nexus is published twice a year: Winter/Spring, and Summer/Fall.