Exploring how colorism operates in the Asian American community yields important insights about how anti-Black prejudice is formed and deployed. As many Asian American groups arguably fall into an intermediary category labeled “Honorary White,” under this system of pigmentocracy, inequality will actually worsen but creation of the intermediary category allows Whites to remain at the top of the social structure, and insulates them from race-based challenges to the equality gap. The paper investigates some ways in which Asian American groups assert agency both in constructing their own identities and also in, as Taunya Lovell Banks has said, “redeploy[ing] structures of racial oppression against others.” Using the case study of affirmative action and movements for police accountability in the face of racialized violence targeting Black bodies, the paper explores opportunities for interracial coalition work for social justice.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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