Final Paper
Final Paper
Final Paper
Model Minority Myth and Racism Against Asian American College students
Racism is a word with a very broad meaning worldwide, given the definition of
discrimination against people based on their skin color, culture, and country. Scientists have
given diversified causes of racism ranging from social to political and economical interests.
Surprisingly, selfishness and self-interest seem to be the primary cause of racism. Individuals
consider themselves special due to different qualities, and thus mistreat others. Some scientists
support that children from certain races have poor health, even some policies support racism, and
thus some scholars believe that racism can be used to maintain the status quo (“Racism and the
Status Quo”). Good people are said not to talk against racism, and media houses unconsciously
support the same by posing some races like blacks to be “violent”. In the United States, the
Model Minority Myth (MMM) poses some potential dangers that cause further racism against
Asian Americans. This model is based on stereotypes of which Asian Americans are said to be
geniuses occupying the most prestigious positions in medicine, engineering and accounting.
Asian Americans are branded to be polite, law-abiding and integrate talent and hard work to
succeed in life (Jo and Mast). The model minority theory can be positive to Asian Americans,
but it comes with numerous disadvantages that turn out to be racial discrimination(Soken-
Huberty). They believe that all Asian Americans are sharp-minded makes other people view you
as lazy and not hardworking when you fail to be successful. For instance, the help you are
supposed to get from your teachers becomes minimal, leads to further drop in class and social
performance. Not many students overcome the image, which has been the main cause of many
suicides in colleges. However, those who overcome the image hold high degrees and get
employed with higher salaries than the Americans (Burrell). This has been proven with statistical
data; when an American makes a dollar, an Asian American makes 1.2 dollars. This comes as a
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result of the family view point of education and its value. Asian Americans are usually viewed as
foreigners and assigned features depending on their gender. For instance, men are seen as
KungFu masters and women as sex objects. As a result, there are many harassments and
mishandling, which lower the group’s confidence and self-esteem. Although the model depicts
America as a very welcoming country since many races live in the country and do well, Asian
Americans are said to take advantage of the warm welcome and to suppress Americans' success,
make them ranked the topmost in the hierarchy. This makes the people from different races view
it as a competition, leading to a lack of unity for fighting for equal rights and justice.
Model Minority Myth directly or indirectly leads to racism cases in the U.S.A colleges.
Racism takes different forms, such as biased results and ill comments. Asians in America were
considered exotic, unwelcome, and uncivilized for more than a century, from approximately the
1850s until World War II (Annie, 2020). they were given titles like the “yellow peril,” hence
seen as a threat “to Western civilization.” Because of their perceived challenge, they became the
victim of racist assaults and unjust legislation. However, beginning in the 1960s, this pessimistic
perception began to shift to one of admiration as Asian success stories became more common in
American society. Since then, even today, Asian Americans have conquered past biases and are
still performing well in society. As a result, Asian Americans are dubbed the model minority and
are held up to illustrate other minority groups. However, this belief, which is a kind of covert
stubbornness, is false and has far-reaching implications not just for the Asian American
community but also for all minority groups. The model minority “mark”, in the end,
disadvantages all minority communities, divides them and leads to discriminatory and divisive
views.
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This problem may seem on the surface to be a struggle among “Asian Americans and
other minority groups” (kim, 2021). However, there is a much bigger problem beneath the
surface. Instead of getting together and identifying with each other’s issues, ethnic communities
in America are being pushed farther away due to wrong perceptions. Although Asian Americans
are the model minority, many Americans claim that non-Asian minority communities are
affected by their shortcomings. This belief causes unpleasant sensations for Asian Americans
and non-Asian minority groups to tend to feel as though they cannot recognize themselves as a
minority with the Asian American community. However, many people do not realize that the
Asian American culture has the same detrimental effects as non-Asian American ethnics under
such a name. Many Asian American students and families continue to struggle, but the model
Jean Wing, the Research and Best Practices Manager of the New School Development
Group, Oakland Unified School District, has developed a report to assess Asian American
students’ invisibility by tracking their perception and performance of Berkeley High School
Asian American students. Wing believes that Asian American students experience unnoticed
problems due to the pervasive recognition of Asians as a minority model. From its conclusions,
Wing notes that every case study has confronted new, unrecognized university problems because
they “are masked by the common view that Asians are model students, that they are not
unsuccessful and that their performance is simple for them” (466). This popular belief is a type
of discreet prejudice which has negative consequences not only for Asian Americans but also for
other minority groups. “Asian Americans’ progress story is frequently opposed to African
American and Latin calls for freedom.” Wing declares: “The stereotype of the minority paradigm
promotes color division rather than solidarity in the fight against bigotry and for greater justice
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for all peoples” (481). The minority paradigm myth separates minority communities and
promotes discriminatory ideas in a society that already suffered under racial conflicts for the past
centuries.
Additional research examining that “many categories of races and racial groups now
enrolled in gifted education systems in the U.S.” further reveals how the minority model mark
reinforces bias. Yoon Yoon, an applicant for a doctorate in talented learning at Purdue
University, and Marcia Gentry, director at Purdue University’s Gifted Education Resource
Institute, contend that fair student distribution through race and ethnicity is one of the main
challenges in gifted education programs. Yoon notes that white and Asian students have
Indians, Alaskan natives, Hispanics, and African American students have and remain
than Asian Americans may be called bigotry. The reasoning behind this point is: “When Asian
Americans will succeed in talented programs, other ethnic groups can also be in a position to
succeed.” This theory causes biased feelings, and some ethnic communities are therefore
believed to be indocile only because they are poor or just as intellectual. However, it is not
rational or accurate to say that those are underrepresented in talented programs, since certain
The minority model mark often produces prejudices for Asian and non-Asian minority
communities that further intensify segregation in the United States. These stereotypical
perceptions have been found to harm the test results of both Asian and non-Asian students. Non-
Asian minority groups face academic exam threats that lead them to fail. The detrimental impact
of assumptions on academic success was studied by Sapna Cheryan and Galen Bodenhausen of
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Northwestern University. They find that negative perceptions hinder success for non-Asian
minority groups by “creating concern on the part of the stereotyped community that their
performance will help to reinforce the negative assumptions of others towards its group” (399).
This concern, called a “stereotypical challenge,” impedes academic success by applying the
pressure of concern to validate other people’s low standards (Cheryan 399). The poor success
expectation caused by testing by non-Asian students is attributed in part to the minority label of
minority community, a sense of inferiority may develop that impedes academic performance.
Cheryan and Bodenhausen have shown that Asian students are adversely affected by such
a title compared to the lack of success by non-Asian minority groups due to the model minority
myth. The myth calls for Asian Americans to excel and surpass them, encouraging them to
undertake tests when they hit high standards. Exposed to a supposedly positive stereotype as the
model minority, an external audience anticipates a positive output that causes a person to feel
worried about meeting the high demands, leading to a phenomenon called “pressure hitting”
(Cheryan 399). Like fear of confirming a negative stereotype, fear of confirming a positive
stereotype can undermine results as well. Though Asian Americans are the model minority, this
stereotype may be restrictive. The myth creates a racial stereotype that disadvantages Asian and
non-Asian students due to a stereotype hazard and causes them to underdog academic tests.
The model minority myth also undermines Asian students’ academic success and has
more severe implications. “The expectation to excel and overcome is sometimes excessive and
may result in suicide, especially among young Asian American women aged 15 to 24 who carry
the highest suicide rates in the country (Le). The Chicago Tribune is a report by Joel Wong,
assistant professor of psychology and therapy at the University of Indiana, on the key factors
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Asians think about suicides. Wong’s 1377 Asian American students Internet study found that 48
percent listed family issues as the cause of suicidal thinking, with 43 percent preferring academic
problems and 25 percent referring to financial problems. This study reveals that model minority
aspirations will lead to expectations of achievement, which many Asian Americans will
overshadow.
Francis Dalisay and Alexis Tan, both from the Edward R. Murrow College of
impact of prejudices caused by the model minority name. Dalisay and Tan were interested in the
impact on Asian Americans’ and African Americans’ perceptions of knowledge, reinforcing the
Asian American model minority stereotype. Dalisay and Tan observed that study participants
would judge “Asian Americans more favorably and negatively when subjected to the minority
paradigm”. Dalisay notes that the positive representations of some social classes, as Asian
Americans, may lead to negative views on other groups, such as African Americans. Given that
many Americans support the model minority stereotype, derogatory perceptions for other
minority groups such as African Americans and Latinos are created, thereby strengthening racist
ideas.
These communities can often feel isolated and alienated by the generation of adverse
discrimination among minority groups. This division of minority communities is visible today in
California. Proposition 209 was adopted in 1996 in California, which eliminates ethnic
preferences in public services. “The rise of Asian students at the University of California, the
Proposition 9 and its strict meritocrats.” Timothy Egan, a New York Times writer, estimates that
Asian-US attendance has reached the height of prestigious colleges and universities and has
made other ethnic groups feel alienated and lonely in these universities. “The decreasing number
of African Americans on campus is a consistent cause for debate among black students and
without some sense of culture,” Egan says (24). Amilia Staley, a student of African American
law interviewed by Egan states, “I think you are always standing out... I’m the first black kid in
my class nearly always” (24). Staley said she doesn’t recognize the Asian population as a
minority. Unfortunately, since Asian Americans are a group, Staley thinks this way; “they make
up fewer than 5 percent of the national population. Both minority groups in America have had
some feelings of isolation and should be able to cope with this problem, but instead are pulled
away from each other because of racial prejudices created by the minority model mark.”
Eric Liu, author of The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, and domestic policy
advisor to former President Bill Clinton, challenges the notion of pure meritocracy to defend
non-Asian minority groups. The author suggests that the high Asian composition of elite
campuses represents a post-racial era in which merit prevails. Liu maintains that “the notion of
pure meritocracy is ludicrous before all applicants from poorer metropolitan areas have fair
access to specialized training courses that have proven a ticket to the best universities” (24). Liu
then says that Proposition 209 seeks to fairly evaluate the consequences of an already unequal
scheme by the State of California. Many Asian American students on the Berkeley campus have
parents who are educated at universities. They have easy access, cmpare to those who come from
poor backgrounds with no access to good schooling to the opportunities that help train them for
college education. Such a elite education framework is discriminatory and excludes diversity
from universities by isolating and alienating non-Asian ethnic classes. As a consequence of the
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minority paradigm mark, Asian Americans have a high expectation and overpopulate college
campuses, removing the possibilities of diversification and dividing minority groups further.
Since Asian Americans take up 4.2 % of the American population, there is a need for
proper strategies to minimize racism toward this group. The population can be ignored; it adds to
the country,s GDP and other national activities(Jung). Racism and other discriminations come as
a result of stereotypes. People should be educated about the mental fixations that mold the vice.
People believe in some statements they hear without evening researching facts and truths. If they
become aware that Asian Americans are not there to grab their job vacancies but help improve
the American economy, racism will reduce in magnitude. Key processes such as job employment
procedures should be systematically structured in such a way that every applicant gets the same
number of similar questions. People should be employed based on their skills and qualifications
rather than skin colors and other unprofessional features. Social accountability should be valued
and called for. Things should be made clear and available to everyone in society. For instance, in
the case of a job, the wages should be announced to all potential workers to create equal chances
for every applicant. Employment of the best will better the U.S.A economy as experts only
would get employed. The firms of justice should put in proper punishments for racists.
Whenever one is found in controversial racism, they should be judged and jailed to act as
examples to others who think of committing the same crime. Racism should be outspoken as a
crime at every level: for instance, when black Americans commit a crime of discriminating
against a color, it is seen as a very serious issue, but it is taken lightly and sometimes assumed
By naming Asian Americans as the minority paradigm, all minority communities in the
United States had several detrimental effects. The minority model myth creates derogatory
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perceptions for Asians and non-Asians, which disadvantage both communities. Not only are
negative expectations created, but minority groups start to feel marginalized and segregated and
eventually divide these groups. This division of ethnic communities reinforces and encourages
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