Reppin' 4 life: The formation and racialization of Vietnamese American youth gangs in Southern California

The Asian American youth gang phenomenon has been a major concern the last three decades. This dissertation is on the formation and racialization of Vietnamese American youth gangs in Southern California: Why did these gangs emerge at a particular time? Under what social, historical, political, and economic contexts did they emerge? In addition, how are these youth racialized?;Using critical narrative methodology, I examine the emergence of "1.5" and second-generation Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese youth in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The narratives of three former and current Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese gang members are presented in this research project. Themes that reoccurred in the narratives include the politics of migration; questions of space, labor, and class; racialization and representation; and contesting the urban/suburban divide. These themes lead to understanding new and different articulations of youth gangs in U.S contemporary life.;Yet the lives of Vietnamese American youth cannot be discussed apart from larger Southeast Asian and Asian American contexts, namely Vietnamese exodus to the diaspora and Vietnamese migration patterns within the U.S. In addition, this research situates Vietnamese American youth in relation to U.S. empire and racialized class formations/inequalities in Southern California. I engage the theoretical analysis of "race" and racism and describe the historical and contemporary context for the racialization of U.S. Asians, with a focus on Asian American identity, identity politics, and the limitations of pan-ethnicity and "race relations" paradigm.;The experiences of Vietnamese American youth gang members need to be considered in order to theorize racialization and clans formation in a changing world. There are material and ideological consequences for Vietnamese and Asian American youth gang formation in Southern California, including local, state, and national policy implications. A major concern is around the politics of deportation and question of citizenship. By understanding the political economy of racism, migration, and schooling---historically, contextually, and comparatively---this project, fundamentally, attempts to restore and recover our collective humanity.