Asian American Stereotype

Today, when society talks about diversity, often times, Asian-Americans are brought into the conversation and are talked about as highly looked up to individuals, but they haven’t always been this way. On television, many times, Asian-Americans are represented as “nerdy” and “socially incapable/awkward”, Asian-American males are mostly shown as being weak and stereotypically awkward, while Asian-American females are either shown as “exotic” or also stereotypically awkward and nerdy, as stated by Takaki in his book Strangers from a Different Shore on page 479,

Among the stereotypes of Asian Americans, the myth of the Model Minority and Panethnic Identity are among the easiest to attribute to Asian Americans. What exactly are these stereotypes? How did they come about? Whose responsible for perpetuating these terms? And what harm are they are they doing to Asian Americans anyway?

In his essay “Paper Tigers,” Wesley Yang discusses his own experiences as an Asian American, tying them into the larger picture of Asians functioning in American society today. Yang’s argument is that even though Asian Americans are one of the most successful ethnicities in the country, stereotypes that Asian Americans are exposed to affect the way other Americans view them. Because of personal bias and racism, human society fails to see other people for who they are and put too much emphasis on what they are supposed to or not supposed to be in America today. Stereotypes cloud people’s vision and judgment and keep some from achieving their goals because others have a pre-created

Western portrayals of Asian women in media have often been stereotypical, one-dimensional characters such as the submissive and docile Lotus Blossom, the strong and domineering, but deceitful Dragon Lady, or the Asian hooker who is used as nothing more than a mere prop for the male gaze (Kuo, Rachel). However, the Western audience has also been exposed to other portrayals of Asian women through another form of entertainment called anime. Anime, or Japanese animation, has many genres that are named according to the target audience it is made for. For shounen, meaning male adolescents, is largely about action-packed adventures and accomplishing a goal or defeating an enemy (Eisenbeis, Richard). The shounen genre, however, despite its target audience that is

Combined with the cultural stereotype of Asian Americans as quiet, weak, and powerless, more and more Asian Americans are victimized, solely for being Asian American. Especially since the attacks on Pearl Harbor during the events of World War II, the Japanese specifically have been singled out by American Hatred.

Throughout the day, many of us use stereotypes some noticed able than others; yet we do not know the affects they have on the person said to. The issue I want to get through is that we all go through most racial stereotypes every day not knowing it effects our health. People most affected racial stereotypes are Hispanics, Africans and Asian Americans, but how did they get those. Out of all the races in the United States Asian American have higher expectations compared to any other ethnics. Why are Asian American expectations so high? The positive stereotypes can make them stress even more than a negative stereotypes. Many race live up to stereotypes thinking that they have to be the stereotype even if it is negative because that is what people expect. Asians Americans are labeled minority model causing them stress that pressures them, to achieve higher expectations.

About 18% of asian american students reported being bullied or judged for their race and ethnic background. This is because many people judge asians by stereotypes. Its not only asians that get judged, but every ethnic group gets bullied or judged as well.

In his essay “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority”, Ronald Takaki comments on how the Asian race is perceived. He believes that the Asian race is viewed as a “model minority” and he discusses how this perception is both false and harmful. Takaki supports his stance by providing statistical facts about the Asian population in the United States. He further discusses the media’s involvement in the perpetuation (and likely, the genesis) of this perception. Takaki provides statistics that he then compared to other ethnicities in the United States to further solidify his stance. While I tend to agree with most of Takaki’s general thesis, I disagree with how he makes his points.

For 20 years, Asian Americans have been portrayed by the press and the media as a successful minority. Asian Americans are believed to benefit from astounding achievements in education, rising occupational statuses, increasing income, and are problem-fee in mental health and crime. The idea of Asian Americans as a model minority has become the central theme in media portrayal of Asian Americans since the middle 1960s. The term model minority is given to a minority group that exhibits middle class characteristics, and attains some measure of success on its own without special programs or welfare. Asian Americans are seen as a model minority because even though they have faced prejudice and

Throughout American history, the United States has been a cauldron where different diversities mix and mingle. In this hot pot of diversity, all of the ingredients (ethnicities) will not always conform to one and other; this could possibly lead to discrimination. This paper will be primarily focus on the discrimination towards Asian American youth of the 21st century and how it affects their academics. The research question guiding this investigation is “To what extent does the stereotyping of Asian American high school students as the model minority impact their performance on standardized tests such as ACT?” The focus will lead towards the stereotyping of Asian American students such as smart, math geniuses, or good at

American's success is exaggerated to a great extent, and does not fit the "model minority" most

We’ve spent so much time in our class on various racial issues seen in the United States of America. It’s our national sport, in a way, it’s always as if there is only one side: nonwhites. But this is one of those binaries where you need both sides to make sense of it. When comparing Asian Americans in America during mid-19th century and the turn of the 20th century, there were many similarities and differences. One way in which they were similar was most Asian Americans intended to work hard, make a lot of money, and then return to their families and villages as wealthy men or stay and fulfill the American dream because this goal didn’t differ from Asian Americans from many immigrants who came to the United States. One way in which they were different was that many white/ European Americans looked down on all immigrants, but Asian Americans were considered racially as well as culturally inferior because most Americans believed that Asian Americans were too different to ever assimilate successfully into American culture. This view was expressed and reinforced by the stereotypical “imaginations” and “images” of Asian immigrants in the 19th and 20th century.

Asians have migrated to and have lived in the Americas since the days of our founding fathers. The first to come from the Eastern Hemisphere were a small group of Filipinos in the early 18th century that settled in present day Louisiana. The first major influx of Asian Americans was Chinese Americans who came in the 1800’s to find financial opportunity during the California gold rush. They settled in the Golden State and eventually spread out all over the United States, creating the now-famous Chinatowns that millions of Americans visit every year. There is a continual migration of well educated South Asians and East Asians for job and education opportunities and their success has formed the basis for the “myth of the model minority” (MMM). This is the idea that all people who are Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are successful both socioeconomically and educationally. This does have a logical basis rooted in statistics—AAPI students are reported to have higher grade point averages, math scores, and overall standardized tests scores on tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing Exam (ACT). Other studies often use a racialized rhetoric comparing Asian Americans to white Americans in terms of education and socioeconomic status while contrasting them to the so-called “lazy” and “incapable” Hispanic and African Americans.

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.

I am the definition of an stereotypical Asian person. I play piano, I eat rice, and I do martial arts. At first I didn't want to do martial arts, but my mom, mama, is also a stereotypical Asian, so she felt the urge to use the one free month of taekwondo that showed up in our mailbox. There's no point in arguing Mama, after all, she's the only one who can drive me to school. The month flew by and I wanted to continue. So I did. Then a year flew by and I couldn't give up now. As they say, a black belt is a white belt that never quit. By then, I'd made a second family. Now two years have passed and I was about to test for my black belt. There were four things you had to do. First was forms. It was more of the pretty, relaxed side of taekwondo;