Nerds, Normal People, and Homeboys: Accommodation and Resistance among Chinese American Students

Abstract

This article examines how peer interaction may influence Chinese American high‐school students to adopt strategies of accommodation or resistance. The choice of strategy arises not only from the group's voluntary minority status, as Ogbu (1978,1983) contends, but also from more local factors. This analysis of the immediate social setting adds detail to cultural ecological theory, allowing the observer to explain changing and contradictory behavior in a given minority group.