A Postmodern Psychology of Asian Americans: Creating Knowledge of a Racial Minority (review)

Laura Uba's A Postmodern Psychology of Asian Americans: Creating Knowledge of a Racial Minority uses a deconstructionist, postmodernist viewpoint to challenge traditional views of both Asian American psychology and modernist, empirical psychology in general. Traditional models and theories, research techniques, concepts, assumptions, and terminology are all reviewed within the text, asking the reader to question many of the basic tenets long held in the aforementioned disciplines. Yet the audience for this book extends to many other academic fields in which the study of ethnicity and minority American populations figures.

The first chapter of the book, "Modernist Epistemology," discusses the shortcomings of what normally is referred to as empirical research techniques and theories. Present studies utilizing the scientific method, emphasizing parsimonious, universal, and orderly explanations of behavior based on claims of scientific objectivity are critically—and sometimes scathingly—reviewed. Uba's second chapter on "Postmodernism" introduces the reader to many of the tenets of a deconstructionist view of human behavior. She presents a table comparing modernist and postmodernist dimensions as it applies to various premises of the different philosophies. Uba lauds the deconstruction of psychology as "a step toward a broadened awareness that can lead to social action" (45).

The second half of the book directly tackles what she believes are the shortcomings perpetuated as "truths" within studies of Asian Americans. Uba cites the various objections resulting from definitions of race, saying that such definitions often ignore the instability inherent in deciding who to include in the grouping known as Asian Americans. She asks if Bharatiya Americans, whose descendants originated from Asian Indians, are to be included or excluded from the study of "Asian Americans." Likewise, Uba, citing the work of Tanaka, Ebero, Linn, and Morera (1998), asks after the propriety of the inclusion of Pacific Islanders in discussions of Asian Americans. She believes that many mainstream psychologists, in rejecting race as a valid scientific concept, also dismiss valuable information contained in racial narratives—particularly in studying the social variables of race and racism. Uba further asks the provocative question of whether or not "celebrating diversity" includes racism, poverty, and unequal access to opportunities, rather than focusing on different types of cuisine or the irrelevance of physical features. She refers to the concept of "saving face," prevalent as an explanatory construct for the nonassertive behavior observed among Asian Americans, as an example of an inappropriate elucidation based on "Orientalizing narratives," a cultural portrayal based on presumed values and traditions of some distant Asian past. By comparison, Uba asks if certain racial behavior patterns are passed from generation to generation based upon long-standing discrimination.

The chapter entitled "Acculturation and Assimilation" also introduces the term "Americanization," which Uba states refers to "codes for being indistinguishable from white Americans" (98). Uba is dissatisfied with "simplistic" bicultural theories based on "dichotomous portrayals of two opposing cultures, one Asian and one American, (that) are reductionist and overlook the multiple aspects of each" (106)(see Kitano & Daniels, 1996; Sue & Sue, 1971; Berry, 1997). She cites the shortcomings of acculturation instruments which assume culture "is one, testable entity composed of the same central characteristics for all people and that a single test will be equally valid for them" (110), and argues that acculturation is often ignored as an uneven process. Uba thus provides insight about the difficulties with popular bicultural models. Part of Uba's argument is based on her objections against trying to isolate "distinctive" characteristics supposedly common to all Asian Americans, ignoring heterogeneity inherent in any ethnic or cultural group. She further states that many theories of Asian Americans ignore the instability of the meanings of race in favor of static models of fixed, stable characteristics. "Acculturation is not just a variable mediating how Asian Americans behave," she states, adding that modernist classifications and...