This ethnographic study is based on in-depth participant observation with five American-Born Asian Indian college students (hereafter referred to as ABCDs) in their early 20s. This term, ABCD is one that is normally used within the United States-based South Asian community but is used here in place of Second-Generation Asian Indian American because it more directly underscores the state of in-between-ness that the subjects studied expressed as applicable to their experiences. This study provides a partial portrait of the ways that ABCDs manage the tension between their families expectations and the dominant hostile mindset towards people who look Middle Eastern in Post-9/11 America. Indians in the U.S. are sometimes unfairly perceived to have divided loyalties in an era where patriotism and nativism have increased among the mainstream American middle-class. This thesis posits that the public treatment of ABCD individuals as both Model Minorities and stigmatized suspicious persons prejudice erroneously assumed against people who look middle-eastern results in angst that each of the informants navigates in different ways.
The data analysis suggests that the physical separation from parents and the freedom of college creates space and time for a relatively unmonitored lifestyle. However, life at this stage is complicated for ABCDs who, since 9/11 have experienced prejudice based on misidentification. This post-9/11 hostile environment has created a complicated and contradictory space in which ABCDs have to negotiate their identity. Combined with parental pressure to excel, this produces anxiety and ambivalence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04222011-014501 |
| Date | 09 May 2011 |
| Creators | Schaffer, Jacqueline Luisa |
| Contributors | Marie Norman, Neepa Majumdar, Milica Bakic Hayden, Joseph S. Alter |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04222011-014501/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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