Though Asians make up the largest portion of the world’s population, Asian-Americans are one of the least represented minority groups within the United States. Out of an estimated 318 million people living in the U.S., Asians account for 5.2%, or approximately 17 million people. Compared to Hispanics at 54 million and African-Americans at 42 million, Asians and/or Asian-Americans are vastly outnumbered by the two other major minority groups and even more so by the majority, European-Americans. Even though Asians are typically considered the “model minority”, they are faced with the same issues that plague many other minority groups within the U.S. today to include stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and ethnocentrism. There has been a history of discriminatory national policies directed at the immigration of Asians to the U.S. and in times of duress, the labeling and targeted institutional discrimination of specific ethnicities of Asian-Americans as traitors based solely on country of origin and not on the deeds and actions of said U.S. citizens (Japanese internment camps of World War II). The label Asian-American represents over 40 different subgroups, with each having their own customs, values, and languages. Very rarely does one stop and think of the diversity that the label Asian-American represents. It can sometimes be easy to fall into the practice of believing that all Asian-Americans are the same, unless of course you deal with a variety of different ethnicities
Of all the problems Asian Americans face that Ronald Takaki mentioned, it seems that the “Yellow Peril”, “Bamboo Ceiling”, and “Model Minority” are the major issues. The hysteria of Asians are going to takeover the United States is such arrogance. In addition, the notion that Asian Americans are having the most success in America is completely overblown. Moreover, the misrepresentations that all Asian Americans are not leaders or have poor communication tendencies are wrong. These stereotypes have negatively affected Asian Americans and it still being used today. Ronald Takaki believes that those three major issues “Yellow Peril”, “Bamboo Ceiling”, and “Model Minority” are cause of Asian Americans discrimination.
America has come a long way since the Reagan era, because “twenty-five years ago, the greatest strength of the Asian American movement was the ability of activist to organize the unorganized and bring new political players in community politics” (Omatsu). During a current era there are problems with lack of knowledge of what happened to Asian Americans, because those who were not around to see the struggles with racism. “However, by stimulating the discussion over how Asian American define community problems, the neoconservatives bring a vibrancy to community issues by contributing a different viewpoint” (Omatsu). Young political activists voices are the solution to end the struggle against racism for as long as there is activism that thrives our voices will be heard in
In the selected readings that we were asked to do as a class, the most pertinent and interesting chapter that stood out to me was Chapter 38, “The Model Minority Myth”. In this chapter, the main subject of discussion is Asian Americans. In this discussion, the chapter tackles the discrimination that Asian Americans face due to the perception of media caricatures of them in the past as many other minorities have also had to unjustly endure. This in turn has made it harder for honest, hardworking minorities to shed the giant bullseye known as stereotyping from their backs. It can be noted that this model perception is in fact a stereotype that has easily hindered Asian Americans.
The history of Hispanic/Latino Americans extends the whole way back to 400 years ago and differs between the regions in the United States. Their existence is the second longest, right behind Native Americans. It is not unusual to hear Spanish being spoken while walking down the roads of an American city. Less than 4 million U.S. citizens were from Spanish-speaking countries in 1950. If we look at this number today, it has gone up to 45 million people. About 50 percent of Hispanics have backgrounds in Mexico, while the other 50 percent come from an assortment of countries. These countries include Colombia, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic. About 36 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. live in California. Many Hispanics populate states including
Also I am including recent immigrants from Asia in defining the terms Asian American Japanese American, for the sake of simplicity due to resource and time constraints.
Asian Americans are a diverse group of people who are among the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Despite their minority status, they often surpass Whites in America and do so while holding on to their cultural values regarding family, education, and success.
Supporters of affirmative action argue that discrimination and racism have held down minorities in the U.S., and that affirmative action is needed to correct it. In response, critics ask: "If blacks and Mexicans are being held down by discrimination, then why do Asians come to this country and do so well for themselves?" According to this myth, Asians immigrate to America with little or nothing, often as boat people fleeing communism, and through hard study and work become even more successful than European-Americans. Their success would suggest that the U.S. does not really discriminate against minorities.
Asian Americans may also face the realities of racism and discrimination in the United States. Institutional racism, like initiatives to speak English only, as well as individual racism that includes “differential treatment, verbal insults, and racial slurs” are a reality that some Asian
Latinos/ Hispanics are one of the races that have a background with the higher risk to get diabetes type 2, but in what way does being Latino affect the course of the illness and what roll does culture takes in this problematic? There is a considerable difference between Hispanic and Non-Hispanics. Many factors can be the reasons for this difference in numbers, but the most influential factors are culture, acculturation and, the medical cultural competence.
Classed in fictional novels, television, and Hollywood, all Asians are math wizards, kung-fu artists, class presidents, engineers, wealthy, honorable, critical, poor socializers, sneaky, terrorists, Chinese or Japanese, straight black hair, slit-eyed, out to steal your job, or some combination of all those commonly thought traits with no regards to the true humanity each Asian American individual has. Asian Americans have become invisible to the American populace until they are threatened with rivalry, as are all minority races. However, due to the myth, Asian Americans are treated like a majority to other minorities. The model minority myth is a poisonous stereotype that brings harm and conflict to Asian Americans, social activism, and the entirely livelihood of the American population. Aid against the stereotype benefits not only its primary topic, but all races who live with the idea that the immigrants from across the Atlantic is a possible enemy.
The experiences of African-American and Asian-American women mirrored each other’s in many ways, seen through the filters of their varied experiences during different time periods in the last hundred years. While at this point, freed African-American women had been on American soil for a hundred years’ plus prior to that, Asian-American immigrants were just beginning to move into the United States, looking for an improved quality of life and the opportunity to make their fortune.
I must disagree with your comment about “model minority” regarding Asian Americans, this places a major pressure on them including people around the world. The model minority sends a wrong message saying, “I am better than you are” this is not only affecting Asian cultures but also to other cultures around the world. Each culture has strength and weakness, so I believe using model minority sets the tone Asian Americans must not fail. Same for the majority, white privilege and among many other stereotypes, every culture has something good bring to the table no one is better than the other, this is where cultural competence come to play. I also believe people around the world need to stop using labels.
The Asian American immigrants are part of the ethnic and racial groups in the United States who lives in the continent of Asia. Asian have lived in the United States for a long time. Throughout the history, Asian Americans have encountered segragation and discrimination during the periods of changes in demographics, economic recession, and war. They have been discriminated by school policies and practices due to beign different. Paul Spickard (2007) has said that Asian Americans was an idea invented in the 1960s to bring together Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for political purposes. Later, other
First and foremost, Asian Americans are typically seen as the model minority, meaning we’re the ones who are the most likely to succeed, and society tends to put AAPI or Asian American Pacific Islanders, on a pedestal in comparison to other marginalized groups. This concept is inherently racist and undermines smaller Asian American neighborhoods that still struggle with high rates of poverty and unemployment. The idea of the model minority is often used as a wedge between other minorities and gives into the systematic racism that’s built into American civilization. Systematic racism is the idea that America was founded on racist principles and
With all the discord going on around the word today, it is quite easy for us to forget that at the end of the day, we are very much similar to each other. When we hear of the Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans living in America today, not often do we see a connection between the two except for the fact that they come from Asia or have descendants from Asia. If we dive deeper into history, we will see that when the Chinese and the Filipinos first came to America, they had very similar purposes and goals in mind; one of them being make money and go back home. They were both determined to work hard for a country quite foreign to them but both were also targeted as the “other side” and a majority of them suffered from ill treatments like assault and blatant discrimination.