The Model Minority Myth
mo·del mi·nor·i·ty
1. a minority demographic whose members are perceived to achieve a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average, thus serving as a reference group to outgroups.
The concept is painted across every Asian-American household in America. On the faces of pressured students and written into everyday media we consume.
How it came to be.
Throughout the decades, when incessant racism had Asian-Americans across the country on the ropes, we ignored racial and ethnic differences out of fear. Regional prejudices faded away, as we stood in solidarity with one another. As Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer prize winner states,
“We take what white people hate about us, and we convert stigmata into pride, community, and power. If being an Oriental gets us mocked and being a gook can get us killed, being an Asian American might save us. Our strength in numbers, in solidarity across our many differences of language, ethnicity, culture, religion, national ancestry, and more, is the basis of being Asian American.”
Asian Activism in the 70s.
source: Visual Communications
We stood together, erasing our unique ethnic struggles. While this helped us survive against prejudice and racism, it also effectively melted the Asian-American community into a singular generalized group. A group where disadvantaged Asian communities like the Hmong people, get shoved under the rug. While, more typically successful Asian groups became the face of what it meant to be Asian-American.
The rural Hmong people fled the war-ravaged Laos, fleeing to a supposed better life in the US. There was no such life waiting for them. Hmong refugees unknowingly settled amidst poverty in an era of blatant racial oppression. Yet the only examples of Asian-Americans that come to mind are the successful doctors and devoted engineers, who mostly hail from India, China, and Hong Kong. A small part of the Asian-American community as a whole.
Koreatown burning to the ground in Los Angeles. (1922)
source: KYCC
Koreatown in Los Angeles was burnt to the ground, in 1922, by black and brown looters and rioters. Korean-Americans grew frustrated with the city’s refusal to integrate Koreans into white neighborhoods. This refusal meant Korean-Americans bore the brunt of the valid pent-up rage of black and brown residents caused by decades of segregation and police brutality. America’s attitude towards Korean-Americans soon changed. South Korea was becoming an entertainment and economic powerhouse. So it became cool to be Korean-American. As Nguyen puts it:
“Even if economic struggle still defined a good deal of Korean immigrant life, it was overshadowed by the overall American perception of Asian-American success, and by the new factor of Asian capital and competition.”
Asian-American success has become the poster child for the success of American capitalism. Sadly, when the markets go south, and unemployment rises, the model-minority becomes the Asian-invasion. Plotting immigrants waiting to steal American taxpayers’ dollars and jobs.
Asian-Americans tried to assimilate to mainstream American culture by pointing to their regional advantages. Chinese immigrants pushed stories of their obedient children and educational prowess in order to earn American respect. Japanese immigrants pointed to war service, in order to establish their “Americanness”. This is what it truly means to be a “model minority” in America’s eyes. To be successful to the point of being invisible. To be complicit rather than bothersome. To be blind rather than acknowledge the truth.
The bigger issue.
By generalizing and distorting the Asian-American community’s success, it is used as an invalid point of comparison against all other minorities.
source: Chelsea Beck for NPR
The mere concept of a model minority gives America a stick to beat Black and Indigenous peoples with. Take Andrew Sullivan’s (a writer for New York magazine) usage of a common model minority trope:
"Today, Asian-Americans are among the most prosperous, well-educated, and successful ethnic groups in America. What gives? It couldn't possibly be that they maintained solid two-parent family structures, had social networks that looked after one another, placed enormous emphasis on education and hard work, and thereby turned false, negative stereotypes into true, positive ones, could it? It couldn't be that all whites are not racists or that the American dream still lives?"
As we discussed before, generalized statements like these fail to take into account other Asian-American groups who are less monetarily successful than their wealthier counterparts. For example, in 2015, the average median household income for Indians was $100,000, as opposed to $36,000 for Burmese people.
The big problem with Sullivan’s claim is the rooted belief that black “failure” can be compared to Asian “success”. Janelle Wong, a professor of Asian-American studies at the University of Maryland, explains Sullivan’s strategy well:
“Sullivan’s comments showcase a classic and tenacious conservative strategy: It involves 1) ignoring the role that selective recruitment of highly educated Asian immigrants has played in Asian American success followed by 2) making a flawed comparison between Asian Americans and other groups, particularly Black Americans, to argue that racism, including more than two centuries of black enslavement, can be overcome by hard work and strong family values.”
Reclaiming Our Responsibility.
Youa Vang Lee, the mother of Fong Lee, speaks at a rally for George Floyd at the Minnesota State Capitol. She states “The same thing happened to my son.” Her son, Fong Lee, was a 19-year-old who was shot 8 times by officer Jason Andersen. Andersen was acquitted in front of an all-white jury.
source: Brooklynn Kascel for Polaris
By accepting our role as the model minority, we are complicit in a system that actively puts other races like Black and Indigenous peoples at a constant disadvantage. When faced with injustice and mercilessness the Asian-American community tends to do nothing. The community acts as a bystander when other communities are hurting.
The Asian-American community has two choices. Nguyen phrases these choices effectively:
“Solidarity or complicity. Rise against abusive power or stand with our back turned to the abuse of power. If we as Asian Americans choose the latter, we are indeed the model minority, and we deserve both its privileges and its perils.”
If we as Asian-Americans participate in the specific fantasy of the American Dream, we must not cherry-pick. We must not choose to ignore the injustice and merciless violence that comes along with it.