ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Race and Ethnicity
Ethnic-specific discrimination: Focus group findings of Korean American emerging adults
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
- 2University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
- 3University of California Irvine, Irvine, United States
- 4University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
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Disaggregating the Asian American category is crucial to understanding ethnic differences in discrimination. We conducted three focus groups with Korean American emerging adults (N=13) to explore perceptions of racial discrimination. After COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, we conducted a follow-up focus group. Participants described being stereotyped and conflated with other Asians, with some perceiving positive stereotypes as benign. They identified flaws in existing racism measures. Historic events appeared to heighten awareness of one's racial and ethnic identity and awareness of systemic racism impacting all people of color. Findings suggest the need to revise discrimination measures to better capture ethnic-specific experiences and their implications for health.
Keywords: Racism, Discrimination, Asian American, Korean American, Emerging adults
Received: 02 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Oh, Lee, Bañada, Goh, Kim, Jang, Huh and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hans Oh
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