Asian American Stereotypes Essay

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,

The lack of representation for struggling students further infused the misconception of the stereotype. Since the majority of students do not understand their Asian classmates’ family dynamic and appreciate their dedication in school work, many non-Asians assumed academic achievements for Asian students happen effortlessly. While they labeled their Asian classmates as “model minority”, such compliment can evoke jealousy and resentment. To examine the relationship between positive stereotypes and negative feelings, researchers William Maddux, Adam Galinsky, Amy Cuddy and

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

Asian Americans have been considered as the “model minority” and research shows that this minority is achieving “the American Dream”. With a good education, earning a good living, being “hardworking, patient” and earning the highest college degree attainment rate in the US, Asian Americans fit the stereotype very well. They even fit

“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

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.

Asian Americans are, as is the widely held belief, the “model minority” for their perceived

“Model minority” is a term first used by sociologist William Petersen in a 1966 New York Times article that applauded Asian-Americans as an example that other minorities should follow based on their academic and economic success. 8 Although there are numerous Asians that achieve great success in the United States, the term and concept of “model minority” is a myth because as mentioned before, there are many Asian immigrants that live under poverty line, especially lowest success rate in Southeast Asians. 1 The stereotype of model minority has a detrimental effect on health of the Asian immigrant children because it encourages Asian American students to be silent and discrete about their mental problems. This is because they are afraid to be seen as failures to the society and disappoint their parents. Asian American children are known to succeed academically but parents and health providers must attend to and properly assess them for their mental health needs,

In her Special Section on Asian American Leadership, Chin (2013) explained that Asian Americans as a group exceed all others academically and obtain more higher education degrees, but are underrepresented in leadership positions. For example, Asian Americans make up approximately 5% of the population, but only approximately 1% of leadership positions (Chin, 2013). A commonly held stereotype of Asian Americans congruent with their high achievement, is the myth of the model minority (Chin, 2013). In Cabrera’s (2014) qualitative study evaluating the perceptions Caucasian male, college students had about Asian Americans, participants recognized the model minority stereotype as being representative of hard work, high achievement,

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.

The Dangers of the Model Minority Myth: An in-depth look, conducted by Rasmine Campbell, Albert Fragoso, Helen Lam, Alan Lau, Molly Lubin-Fosha & Gloria Tam for Professor Erica Chutuape 's Asians in the U.S. class (Asian 210.02) at Hunter College

After reading Min Zhou and Jennifer Lee’s article From Unassimilable to Exceptional: the Rise of Asian Americans and “Stereotype Promise,” I think about my own experience as an Asian American student within a predominately white school and how the stereotype promise plays a big part in my life.

“Model minority” originates back to when Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. Discovering that the act damaged its trans-Pacific Alliances, the Chinese were redeemed as “law-abiding, peace-loving, courteous people living quietly among us” (Wu, 2014). Writers and policymakers noted and praised Asians’ Confucianism, and contrasted it to the violent black community that demanded for substantial change in civil rights. It became a back-and-forth comparison between the two races for who was the best minority, and thus, the racial stereotype of the “obedient” race is created and

Even know that the result of the American based on an untruth of a model minority, the truth is telling a different story. Consequently Asian Americans are twice as likely to be poor as non-Hispanic whites. They also have an incapacity of reading and writing rate that is five times over those non-Hispanic. So that, how could they say that Asian Americans are hard-working, Well-educated, successfully minority race by looking at this situation. It’s a stereotyping that hurting people by looking down on the background, but exactly they don’t.

The population of Asian Americans has gradually increased and it is easy to see Asian Americans on streets in nowadays. However, it is really hard to see Asian Americans in media. Although Asian American people have lived in the United States since 1800s, Asian Americans are often portrayed as perpetual foreigners and they get treated like they do not belong here. In the past, the images of Asian Americans were “aliens” and this affected the media to show negative images of Asian Americans. Asian women often played a female witch in dramas and movies and Asian men played a funny role in dramas and movies. Things got better in nowadays, but the media still shows many stereotypes of Asian Americans.