“No One Is Looking Into Our Shit!”: Vietnamese American Youth Gang Narratives

Abstract

In this chapter, I share the narratives of three youth gang members. I used a critical narrative methodology, which emphasizes dialogue with research subjects: “Dialogue emphasizes the living communion of a felt-sensing, embodied interplay and engagement between human beings … It keeps the meanings between and the conversations with the researcher and the Other open and ongoing.”¹ There was a sense of dialogical engagement between the interviewees and me. As much as they shared their life stories with me, I was also willing to engage them in mine—as openly and honestly as possible.