Asian American And Pacific Islanders Essay

You would probably be very disappointed if you were rejected from your dream school and a kid who scored significantly lower than you did on standardized tests got your spot. Asian Americans are treated unfairly in many elite college admissions such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They score higher and achieve higher on average compared to other races and are forced to outperform them by a significant margin to gain acceptance into the same college. They are also fairly underrepresented at top colleges as a larger percentage of them that have the required test scores are denied spots than any other race. They are also now pitted against each other for a certain spot as they will only take a “specific” amount of Asians which causes a significant amount of stress. To truly provide fair access to education and opportunity, universities should accept people based mainly on their abilities rather than their ethnicity.

To be young and Asian in America is a special brand of torture. There is an unspoken dictum of silence that grips Asian youth, a denial of our place in popular culture. Asian youth walk in America not quite sure where we fit in-black children have a particular brotherhood, Hispanic children have a particular brotherhood, white children own everything else. We cannot lay claim to jazz or salsa or swing; we cannot say our ancestors fought for equality against an oppressive government or roamed the great hallways of power across the globe. We do not have a music, a common hero, a lexicon of slang. Asian youth experience personal diasporas every day.

Have you ever heard the statement that all Asian Americans are good at math and science and they excel educationally? This paper defines the model minority myth, provides historical context in perspective of the Chinese Americans and explains how these Chinese American’s experiences do not fit the model minority myth. The model minority stereotype has various negative assumptions towards Asian Americans and one of them is that it assumes all Asian Americans are a homogenous ethnic group. There are several ways how Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans do not fit the model minority myth. Specifically, the historical context of these Chinese Americans contradicts the model minority stereotype.

Despite the fact that Asian Americans have been in Hollywood for decades, there are very few positive representations of them in film. More often than not, they’ve been depicted as stereotypical caricatures, and more specifically, as foreigners who can’t speak grammatically correct English. Moreover, the negative representations of Asian Americans in film has perpetuated certain misconceptions about their culture. Chan is Missing (1982) calls for more genuine representations of Asian American identities through its cast of complex characters and defiance of Asian stereotypes. The film also urges its viewers to critically think about their own notions of identity through the use of several recurring themes and filmmaking techniques.

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

My grandmother sent me a letter from home, telling the success story of her old Chinese tenants who, through hard work, had become very wealthy in the 9 short years they lived in America. My grandmother embraces the belief that "with hard work, patience and a little help from the model minority stereotype, someday Asians will gain full approval of white America". She believes that Asian Americans are inherently smarter, more diligent and thrifty than other racial minorities of our time. I, on the other hand, am skeptical towards this assumed advantage that other minorities have perceived as "elevators to the ladder of success" in American

“Hey you’re good at math”, “Hey you’re dumb for an Asian”, “Well of course he’s good at that, he’s Asian”. These are the phrases that defined my childhood and still are relevant to my daily life. These are phrases are a part of what society calls today “The Model Minority Myth”. This all started during World War II, where Chinese and Japanese Americans adopted a plan to promote assimilation with the American people. With this plan, they succeeded in proving to America, that they worked harder, were more focused on education to gain their success. While the other minorities protest to get civil rights, the Asians gained their rights by just

All Asian Americans are good at math, or at least that’s what I heard. They are also good at anything involving technology, science, and medicine. They study all the time, work really hard and live a version of the American dream I never thought to dream of. Afterall they’re Asian, their parents wouldn’t allow for anything less. In his article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority” the ethnic studies expert Ronald Takaki writes about the idea that Asian Americans are more successful than other American minority groups. Takaki refutes this idea using reason and statistics to show that Asian Americans still face some of the same hardships and barriers as every other racially defined group in America.

Asian-American students from widely divergent backgrounds have tended to be grouped together under the “model minority” stereotype. In result, a misconception that Asian students are conscientious, brainy and successful made teachers became in unattentive to those Asian-Americans who we may label them as unsuccessful groups.

The source of this discourse can be attributed to global biases and stereotypes of Asian American students. Asian American students are stereotyped for being model students when it comes to education. Most of this academic achievement has been attributed to Asian cultural values that promote educational endeavors. Culture is a major explanation for achievement differences. The article,” Asian-American educational achievements: A phenomenon in search of an explanation” states, “demands and expectations for achievement and upward mobility, induction of guilt about parental sacrifice and the need to fulfill obligations” (Sue, S., & Okazaki, S., 2009), implying that those are key contributors to why Asian families promote educational achievements.

Who are actually regarded as Asian Americans in the United States (U.S.)? Asian Americans as the public living in the United States are who self-distinguish as having Asian, in entire or in part, regardless of whether they are the U.S. or foreign born, a U.S. citizen or not, length of living residence, or in the U.S. legitimately and lawfully. Some people may say that all Asian Americans are same as just being Asians, but Asian Americans are not same as being Asians, at all. Asian Americans have totally distinctive point of view of life and they have their own lifestyles, values, ethics, norms and languages, compared to simple Asians living in their countries with a native language. In general, there

Asian Americans face constant subjection to what has become referred to as the “model minority” myth. This myth enforces both a false narrative and broad generalization upon all Asian Americans as the ethnic embodiment of an idealistic work ethic and outstanding academic and socioeconomic success. The deconstruction of this “single story” requires the introduction of new perspectives and proper representation of the intersectional spectrum of Asian Americans, who oftentimes do not fit this typecast. Perpetuating this single story, is the lack of understanding of how Asian Americans can stem from 51 different Asian countries, struggle from the effects of poverty, and also remain unrepresented in popular media.

The previous success of other Asians in the U.S. has helped with Asians being able to achieve their American Dream. Asian are the largest immigration group in the U.S. (Pew Research Center). Over half of all the immigrants in the U.S. are from Asia, around 18.2 million (Kieu). Asia is also now the largest sending region for immigrants. Since 1971-2004 Asians have the highest total immigration (Le). Today many of the Asians who come to the United States as immigrants are highly educated. This led to many of the Asian immigrants to acquire high paying jobs when they entered the country. Many of the Asians who come to America go straight into being doctors, physicists and other high paying careers (Lee). Also “Asian immigrants do well in the United States largely because of ‘ethnic capital’ -- institutions such as info-sharing networks and tutoring” which allow Asians

ASAM 4 Section: F. 12:00 – 12:50 pm Meilin Shi Asian American Model Minority in Culture Assimilation Among Robert Lee’s “The Six Faces of the Oriental”, ‘model minority’ is the one that seems most benevolent compared to others. The term ‘model minority’ refers to minority groups that have ostensibly achieved a high level of success in contemporary US society [ ]. It has been heavily associated with Asian Americans. According to Robert Lee, the term came from 1950s:

From 1990 to 2000, the Asian American population has continuously grown by 72%. This 72% growth rate is significantly higher than the 58% growth rate of Latinos, 22% growth rate of blacks, and the 5% growth of