Racial Stereotypes Of Asian-Americans

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

attention is that it is a struggle to be an Asian in America due to the fact that Asians

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.

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).

Asian-American students are often assumed to be the ones who finish on top academically. Due to the amount of high-ranking Asian-American students in schools throughout the United States, a cliché stereotype has been developed claiming all Asian students are “whiz kids.” The culture which Asian individuals practice differs by region however, majority of Asian individuals celebrate a different culture than mainstream Americans. I interviewed Susan, an Asian-American female who was born to an Asian mother, and an American father.

Individuals in this world tend to be judgmental, and judge people in groups instead of the personality. Yet, in the article, “Asian American and Stereotypes”, Denise Wong Peck claims, “As Asian American, we are too often judged not by our individual characters, but by stereotypes” (Peck). Peck explains that as Asian Americans; people do not see Asians as individuals but rather as copies; since Americans assume Asians are all good at the same thing. For example, some people assume that all African Americans are good athletes. This is a common stereotype to explain the reason

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

Over the weekend, as I was skimming through an online news publication, trying to reacquaint myself with the habit of news reading by clicking random headlines that bore a semblance of interest to me, a particular, and enticing, write-up on Huffington Post piqued my curiosity. In big, bold fonts, with cleverly capitalized letters at the start of every new word, the article’s heading happened to be titled “ ‘Ho Chi Chin’ Signs Targeting Asian Candidate Disrupt Maine Mayoral Race”. Intriguing, isn’t it? At the very least, it is from my perspective, taking into account not only the infrequent presence of the Asian-American community in the news media, but also the fact that that an Asian-American has managed to engage himself within the realm of American politics. The Huffington Post feature, in my opinion, accentuates certain salient points, for instance, highlighting how swiftly Dunne was to equate Ben Chin with Communism and Ho Chi Minh solely on the account that Chin is of Asian descent and “that his name rhymes with Chin”, despite the fact that Maine’s mayoral candidate Ben Chin is Chinese-, not Vietnamese-, American.

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 stereotypes are a product of prevailing myths propagated by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. Generally speaking, the stereotyping of Asian women often swing to extreme types: the docile, subservient sexual object, or the dragon lady. Asian Americans only make up a small percentage of the United States population and live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii. Consequently, the rest of the American population will most likely get their exposures to Asian Americans through television and movies. Popular media exposure to Asian Americans lacks one-on-one acquaintance with Asian Americans. It hinders the process

Don’t be racist, be PewDiePie. He is Swedish, looks American, lives in the UK, has an Italian girlfriend, and likes Mexican candy. The U.S. is no longer as racist as it used to be, as 200 years ago, you were likely a slave because of your skin color. However, today many Americans are being racist to Asians in a new way: stereotyping. Hello, I’m Dexter Chen, and today I will be discussing why you shouldn’t stereotype Asians because stereotypes aren’t true, are extremely discouraging, and because stereotyping is offensive in general. Before we get into this topic, let me explain what stereotyping is. Stereotyping is judging a group, religion, ethnicity, or even gender, although these stereotypes might not reflect on reality. This is caused by social media, the human tendency to reduce complex things to simple things, and prejudice. You might be thinking to yourself: Gee, how is stereotyping offensive? It’s just a playful way of describing someone! If you are thinking that doubtful thought, then pay attention, because I will show you why you shouldn’t stereotype anyone, especially Asians.