Asian Americans And African Americans

Asians are one of fastest growing minority groups in America today. During this century, various factors at home and abroad have caused people from Asia to immigrate to the United States for better or for worse. Due to these factors, Americans and American teachers, in particular, need to educate themselves and become aware of the Asian American students’ needs in terms of success and happiness. Before beginning my research, I felt I had an easy subject: studying Asian Americans in relation to their education in public schools. How simple! Everyone knows they are smart, hard working, driven to succeed in spite of their nerdish, geeky, non-athletic, broken-English stereotype. Of course they are

In Streets of Gold: The Myth of the Model Minority by Curtis Chang, he discusses the stereotypes labeled against Asian-Americans and explains how the U.S. Society sees them as the “model minority”. He goes to the core of the “model minority” assumption, and shows the reader how the media heavily influences these ideas. He shows how cultural patterns within the Asian-American society fuel these ideas. Chang uses very interesting ways of presenting evidence by putting quotes within his piece thoughtfully, so that the quotes blend in with the paragraph. The author also has a humorous voice throughout the essay, which connects to the reader with the subject as if it were a one on one

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

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.

There is a model minority group called “Combating the stereotype,” which is based on ethnicity, race, or religion whose members are to achieve a higher degree on socioeconomic success than the population average. There is a myth that other races should not counted for and the Asian Americans are successful in life. Asian Americans are usually denied assistance if they need help in some ways. When Asian Americans are discriminated their society and their achievements are undstandable and ignored. Asian Americans are percepted of high income level and

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.

Although the model minority and yellow peril stereotypes appear to be diametrically opposed, they may instead be closely interrelated.37 For example, a post-modem deconstruction of the term "model minority" demonstrates the inherent relationship between the two stereotypes. Asian Americans are "model" insofar as they conform to white values and norms. Asian men are model as long as they are productive members of society and reinforce the status quo. However, the term "minority" emphasizes their continual "other"-status in society. During difficult economic times, the industrious Asian becomes scapegoated as a foreign enemy who threatens the jobs of "real" Americans. 38 In conclusion, both the yellow peril and model minority stereotypes reinforce

The author, Ronald Takaki, wishes to illustrate that the perceptions of Asian Americans as a "model minority" are not entirely accurate. Takaki writes that the facts and figures used to compare Asian-Americans to other, less successful minority groups are misleading. For example, the author writes that although Japanese Americans are seen as upwardly mobile, they have not yet achieved equality. The essay states that "while Japanese American men in California earned an average income comparable to Caucasian men in 1980, they did so only by acquiring more education and working more hours." In addition, the author found that while some Asian American groups do have higher family incomes than Caucasians, at the same time

And on a daily basis, they still face the same types of racism and social inequality that other minority groups face. Under the assumption that all Asian are smart, many struggle because they cannot follow this unrealistic expectation; and in fact, they have the highest school dropout rates in the country. Another fact is that a typical Asian American has to study more years in order to make the same amount of money that a typical White make with less education. Likewise, they are underrepresented when it comes to polity and leadership positions, which make it hard for them to get the social programs that are needed to help their

Takaki’s word choice allows him manipulate statistics for his purpose of disproving the myth of model minority. The words Takaki choses to use in his article both strengthen his ethos as an educated Japanese American writer and weaken his argument against the model minority in terms of both logos and pathos.

Going back to the topic of the model minority, the fact that the white community is calling Asians the model minority means that the rest of the minorities are not seen as ideal minorities. It knocks them down even more in a defeating way because not only are they minorities compared to the white race, they are minorities amongst the minorities. African Americans had a huge civil rights movement in the United States in order to fight for the rights of human beings. They were not polite or docile about it. They were outspoken and fought for their beliefs.

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,

It might be hard for most people to believe that Vietnamese Americans are discriminated in the United States; however, this fact is regularly reflected especially in working places through Vietnamese wages or job opportunities and at schools through relationships between Vietnamese Americans and teachers as well as classmates. “Vietnamese men earn 7-9% less than comparable East European men, with more discrimination among the less educated” and “Vietnamese immigrants, male and female, are much less likely to hold managerial and supervisory positions than comparable East European immigrants” (Yamane, 2012). If Vietnamese Americans are really the model minority, they should not be discriminated and such differences between Vietnamese immigrants and White immigrants should not exist. At schools, according to findings of a study conducted in 2000 by Santa Clara County, California Vietnamese Americans account for 11.5% out of the total number of students feeling teachers discriminate against them; it is estimated that 11.5% is “the highest for any refugee or immigrant group studied, and was more than twice the percentage for Asian Americans overall (at 5.0%)” (Yang).

In my second week of Asian American Studies, I got to learn about how the reality of Asian Americans being in poverty level are often overlooked by popular myths about how Asian Americans are best educated, high income, and very successful. The common theme through all the readings in class is that Asians are commonly discriminated as one monolithic group and are often judged by their race and culture. In fact, I used to face such discrimination during my childhood from other kids assuming I am Chinese and have small eyes as well as any other common Asian stereotypes. Asian Americans do not resemble just the high end of the spectrum to being very successful and intelligent, but they also resemble the lower end of the spectrum to those living in poverty and do not have a good chance of a good future.

The model minority myth was created in 1966 by sociologist William Petersen in an article, “Success Story: Japanese American Style”,  that was published in the New York Times Magazine. In this article, it talks about the reasons why Japanese Americans have been successful in the United States even after being condemned into internment camps. The timing of this article, however, was very convenient in timing because it was released only a year after the Moynihan report, which stated that the reasons that African Americans were faltering in their own socio-economic status was because they weren’t doing what the model minority, Japanese Americans, were doing (Wang 2016).