Stereotyping of Asian American Youth: The Effects on Performance in Academics

Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.

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

There is a phenomenon happening in most schools throughout the country. Asian students as young as seven years olds are labeled as gifted and enrolled in various accelerate programs to further develop their talents. Certainly, most of these students are deserving of the honorable recognition. However, many skeptics do question how many of them are viewed as exceptional students based upon the stereotype: they are genetically smarter than their non-Asian peers.

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

For instance, Jin is alienated due to the sole fact of his appearance, which happens to be different from the rest of the class. Moreover, Jin’s roots create assumptions, or stereotypes, rather. As stated earlier, his classmates thought he ate digs because he was Asian, resulting because of his appearance. When acting as Danny, he was not suspected for being Asian, because he looked like the typical American kid, but when Chin-Knee came he detailed Chinese stereotypes so humorously that Danny was made fun of because of his cousin, another form of racism. For example, Danny had to switch schools because he was made fun of so much, and he stated, “By the time he leaves, no one thinks of me as Danny anymore. I’m Chin-Knee’s cousin”(127). This statement shows how bad Chin-Knee has an effect on Danny and his social life. He is constantly degraded with guffaws about China and his cousin, and despite Danny’s American roots, he is faced with racism because of his cousin. Therefore, race really is the problem, for Danny is ostracized about Chinese culture, and Jin is ostracized because of his

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.

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.

This may seem beneficial for Asian Americans at first; however, the model minority myth is actually detrimental to many segments of the population. This is especially true of recent immigrant Asian Americans. These individuals become deprived of resources because they are expected to have the same level of success as Asian Americans who have already lived in the U.S. for generations. Even in academia, the model minority myth causes Asian Americans to be understudied and misunderstood. Because Asian Americans are perceived to be successful and well-integrated individuals, Lee et al. (2001) show how there is “not enough research” that investigates Asian American mental health (160). In other words, even though some current data show higher rates of mental illness among Asian Americans, the model minority myth has distracted scholars from studying Asian American mental health. Thus, to ensure that Asian

The murder of Vincent Chin’s influence also had a nation-wide influence on the Asian American civil rights movement. Never before had such an influence from one event had such an impact on uniting Asian Americans. Many incidents relevant to Asian American history are taught in schools, such as anti-Chinese legislation, Japanese Internment camps, or even the multiple wars against Asian countries such as the Philippines, Korea, or Vietnam (Wu). However, none of them caused a pan-Asian movement like the Vincent Chin case was able to, and the Vincent Chin case isn’t taught in schools (Wu). The Vincent Chin case united Asian Americans from multi-ethnic background and gave them something to rally against- the killing of innocent Asian Americans (Wu).

Statistics that support this model minority theory can be found in many areas, the first being education. Fifty percent of Asian Americans 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree compared to twenty-nine percent of the white population. Many studies have used standardized tests and school records, such as SAT, GPA, and other measures to compare the academic performance of Asian American students with non-Asian American students. Several studies have indicated that the outstanding academic performance of Asian students might be attributed to their cultural and family values. Another area of model minority success is found in the professional workforce. Asian Americans as a group work in the same place of employment as whites. This alone suggests that they have succeeded. A high percent of Asians are found at the top of professional and managerial positions. This success in the workforce has also lead Asians to hold one of the highest income figures per family by race. On the other hand, the model minority label is also seen as a myth. This label suggests that Asian Americans conform to the norms of society, do well in school and careers, are hardworking and self-sufficient. It follows that Asian Americans are a model for all groups, especially other minority groups. However, a closer look uncovers

A huge majority of Asian Americans were coming to the United States and working for less money than the workers already making a living there. The auto industry managers were hiring these Asians which caused them to lay off many Detroit workers. The anger that arose from these circumstances was present in many of these laid off workers. Vincent Chin, a young soon to be married man, went out one summer night at the Fancy Pants, a local topless bar. His mother, Lily Chin, insisted that he not go out, but her son assured her that it would be his “last time” going to Fancy Pants (Who Killed Vincent Chin?). Ironically, this was his last time attending the bar due to his tragic murder that same night. The murder of Vincent Chin was a controversial issue that brought plenty of attention at the time of its happening. The Asian-American community were distraught that Ronald Ebens and his step-son Michael Nitz were given lesser penalties than they deserved. Many of the Asians and even the Americans believed that this murder was due to the fact of racist behavior by the two auto workers. In the 1980’s, the United States auto industry was involved in a terrible recession that impacted many

Frank Chin has been the most vocal critic of Kingston's who accused her "of reinforcing white fantasies about Chinese Americans" (Chin, 1991) and claimed that writers like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and David Henry Hwang who won approval of the American white readers deliberately distorted the image of Chinese American to reinforce stereotypes and cater to the fantasies of American readers about a traditionalist Chinese culture. (Frank Chin, 1991, pp. 3-29)

“One dancer heard Ebens say explicitly ’It’s because of you motherfu*kers that we’re out of work’” was the accusation he made. Vincent was a young man who was about to get married in a few weeks before he was murdered. His father was a Chinese immigrant who worked hard and owned laundry mats, and later served in the military for his citizenship and was later able to bring his wife and adopted son, Vincent, to the free land (Yung). Hung Liu worked hard with extensive research to find that her fellow Chinese people who had been living in America before her had owned many laundry mats and were very involved in the laundry business. When asked by a college in South Carolina to create a piece for them, she designed clothing and had her family create them and this piece later turned into a memorial for the laundry businesses in the South (Riechart).

To some people this is not be viewed as a stereotype due to the fact it is not instantly perceived as “negative”; for those readers who delve in deeper, this stereotype outlines the educational daily hidden pressure of people from Chinese descent whom do not fit this “positive” stereotype. Every day, especially in American society, classmates look to their Asian counterparts to provide the answers to questions they do not know in every subject they take. Nonetheless, this ridiculous assumption hurts the Asian students that do not feel comfortable with their intellectual abilities. Placing Asian students as the “model student” excludes the students who actually have problems and need help that other classmates are reluctant to give the students simply because their classmates do not view helping their struggling Asian classmates as an actual necessity. By “poking” fun and bringing into light both Asian stereotypes, Yang enforces view that stereotypes are in use today.

     A further stereotype that is used in this film is that Asian people make good managers, but are never good leaders. What this tells use is that while a person of Asian descent might know the best possible way to accomplish a goal they will never have the force or strong enough personality to get others to get the goal accomplished. The film has Asian men taking over an American plant and trying to incorporate work ethics that are highly successful over in