Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1075/prag.19.1.03lee
Journal Title
Pragmatics
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
Schools in California have become increasingly diverse and the demographic composition of school populations has become heterogeneous in the language, nationality, and ethnicity of students. Using ethnographic and interactional analysis, the present article examines how California youth employ a variety of concepts associated with ethnicity to classify themselves and others. For youth who have peers from multiple national, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds, the criteria of citizenship, national origin, language, and phenotype are negotiated interactionally for ethnic labeling. The article further suggests that ethnicity is not a simple category, but rather a concept that youth in a multiethnic context actively construct and co-construct with the help of associated notions. Finally, it is demonstrated that ethnic labeling in interviews may be a dispreferred practice for some interviewees due to its potential connection with racism and discrimination.
Publisher Statement
Pragmatics issues are made available online as free content under a CC BY-NC license, after a 12-month embargo period.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Jung-Eun Janie. “‘She’s Hungarious so She’s Mexican but She’s Most Likely Indian’: Negotiating Ethnic Labels in a California Junior High School.” Pragmatics: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 2022, pp. 39–63, https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.1.03lee.
Comments
The definitive article is available on the publisher's website at: https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.1.03lee,