Monday, September 22, 1997 Asians suffer under model-minority
myth Societal pressure to succeed academically places burdens on
students
By Matt Grace
Daily Bruin Contributor
One hundred years ago, Asians were stereotyped as stupid, lazy
drug addicts. Now, they are stereotyped as intelligent,
hard-working super-citizens. They are now called "the model
minority."
Like all stereotypes, the model-minority myth has placed a
cultural and societal noose around Asian Americans, creating
expectations that are often difficult to live up to, while pushing
underrepresented members of the group into the dark.
Students in need of affirmative action have been lumped with
other sufficiently qualified Asian Americans, making it difficult
for them to receive the help they need.
At the same time, colleges have been accused of limiting Asian
American admissions to insure slots for Latinos, African Americans
and Native Americans.
"Conservatives use (the Asian American case) to attack
affirmative action," said Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian
American Studies Center. "But they (don’t) use it to challenge
long-standing practices that are also unfair and
nonmeritocratic."
The unique situation of Asian Americans has also placed them in
the middle of a tug-of-war of racial politics. Conservative
politicians adopted Asian Americans as a poster child to pass the
California Civil Rights Initiative last year, while liberal
activists and educators championed affirmative action as a
necessary political tool to insure help for disadvantaged
minorities.
The 1995 regents’ decision effectively eliminated all racial and
gender preferences in university admissions and the California
Civil Rights Initiative extended that to business contractings and
employment.
Now with affirmative action eliminated entirely, decisions based
solely on merit might divide Asian Americans along lines of class
and ethnicity.
The model-minority myth
Disadvantaged Asian American groups tend to remain invisible to
the larger society.
"People fail to recognize that lots of Asian Americans are in
real need and suffering from real problems," said Jerry Kang, a
professor of law at UCLA. "(The model-minority myth) makes us less
solicitous and less caring about the difficulties that (some) Asian
Americans might suffer."
Blinded by this perception, the downside of the Asian American’s
experience has gone largely unmentioned. And as a group, Asian
Americans have not yet reached parity in many areas of the dominant
culture.
"(The myth) disguises the lack of influence, representation and
access that Asian Americans have to many institutions in society,"
said Nakanishi.
In the 1960s, the media began to focus on the economic success
of Japanese and Chinese businesses. This fostered the image of
hard-working Asian Americans who were able to rise above
adversity.
This perception has gradually come to constitute the present-day
"model minority myth."
Likewise, the academic accomplishments of children of successful
Asian Americans involve them in the myth.
Perceived as whiz kids with an innate love of and ability to
excel at mathematics and science, the society and media have often
stereotyped them as academic superstars.
As a result, the media became fascinated with Asian Americans as
the "upside" of the minority experience, resulting in a stereotype
that degrades less economically successful minorities and places
unreal expectations on many Asian Americans.
The apparent success of some Asian Americans has provoked
criticism of other minorities and resulted in a wedge between Asian
Americans and other disadvantaged groups.
"Look at all these Asians – they don’t even know English, they
come here as refugees, they come here as immigrants, they hustle
and they send their kids to Harvard," Kang said, detailing some
generalizations used to criticize other minorities for not working
hard and achieving like Asian Americans.
In that way, the myth eventually became used as a tool against
other minorities. "If Asian Americans could do it, particularly do
it on their own, then anybody else could do it, particularly other
groups of color," Nakanishi said, describing the media portrayal of
the success model.
The myth castigates other minorities as culturally defective,
holding them up to the Asian American standard of success, Kang
explained.
The question of cultural superiority has fueled research aimed
at identifying the factors underlying Asian American success.
The value of education
Asian societies, in general, place enormous resources and
emphasis on education.
For example, Chinese culture places great emphasis on the work
ethic and pursuit of knowledge associated with Confucianism. In
Korea, the limited accessibility to higher education has led to the
immigration of some Koreans to the United States.
However, academic achievements cannot solely be attributed to
Asian cultural values, said Professor Stanley Sue of UC Davis, a
psychologist who studies Asian American culture.
Rather, Asian immigrants faced with language barriers and racial
discrimination have pursued education as a feasible path to
success.
"Asian Americans are more likely to see education as the way to
upward mobility," Sue said. "Education acquires a more functional
value."
When avenues of opportunity are blocked for Asian Americans,
they focus on career choices in which education directly leads to
success.
"If you think that certain doors are shut, you will actually
focus on the few doors that are open," Kang said. "For Asian
Americans, they are not going to become entertainers, they are not
going to become athletes and they see no role models in
politics."
In contrast, factors such as past discrimination, lack of role
models and blocks to upward mobility have made African Americans
less likely to believe in the value of education, according to
research done on cultural attitudes toward education.
Education Pressure
After achieving success, Asian American families and communities
view education as a practical path toward social mobility, creating
a self-fulfilling prophecy that places unfair expectations on Asian
American students.
Asian American youth feel obligated to satisfy the goals
established by their parents, Wang said.
Many parents impose enormous burdens and pressures to achieve,
Nakanishi said, telling their children about working long hours and
leaving family behind in order to insure educational opportunities
for their children.
Likewise, the model minority myth places unfair expectations on
Asian Americans to fit the stereotyped mold.
"There is a sense of being held up to different standards," said
Anna Wang, fourth-year communication student, specializing in
women’s and Asian American studies.
There exists a self-imposed pressure to live up to expectations,
Wang said, while at the same time a need to conform.
These pressures sometimes leave the lesser-known Asian American
groups wondering where to turn for help.
"When I had problems with school, I could not relate to
anybody," said Sefa Aina, a recent graduate of UCLA and assistant
coordinator of the Student Community Project, a group of counselors
who advise students in Asian American studies while providing a
link between students and the community.
Through his own experiences and interactions with Asian American
youth, Aina has learned firsthand of the discouragement and
pressure placed on children funneled into the Asian American
stereotype.
"A lot of kids turn to other things because they cannot live up
to these expectations," Aina said.
When individuals become alienated from a larger group, they
might find other avenues for success. Specifically, the pressures
placed on Asian American youth may have an indirect affect on the
rise in the number of Asian American gangs in California, Sue
said.
"We are recent immigrants and we are still trying to adjust,"
Aina said, "(Society) thinks that (model minority) achievements are
inherent."
Admissions and affirmative action
Some Asian American students are unaffected by affirmative
action because they have balanced college resumes and impressive
academic records.
However, Asian American activists and educators are concerned
with the inability of universities to differentiate the high
achievers from the disadvantaged groups.
Colleges find it difficult to deal with the varying needs of
different Asian American ethnicities including refugees, recent
immigrants and native-born Americans.
The monolithic perception of Asian Americans, fostered by the
model minority myth, fails to recognize the extraordinary diversity
of income levels, education and assimilation within Asian
Americans.
"There is a huge difference between a third-generation Chinese
American and a first-generation political refugee who comes from
Southeast Asia," Kang said.
The differences between these ethnicities could be overlooked
with the elimination of affirmative action.
Latinos’, African Americans’ and Native Americans’ admissions
will fall, while Asian American and whites’ admissions will go up,
Ebio said.
However, certain disadvantaged Asian American groups like
Pacific Islanders, Southeast Asians, Hmongs and Filipinos will miss
out, Ebio said.
In 1985, Filipinos were removed from affirmative action after
the number of incoming freshman reached parity with the the number
of graduating high school seniors.
After they were removed, they failed to maintain the degree of
representation achieved up to that point.
Many Asian American activists and educators, including Ebio,
fear other underrepresented groups will meet the same fate.
UCLA Admissions keeps track of seven Asian American sub-groups,
said director of admissions Rae Lee Siporin, but no programs exist
which recruit or consider the special needs of historically
underrepresented groups in light of the elimination of affirmative
action.
Students with parents who do not have college educations and
students from financially troubled families receive consideration.
However, nothing accounts for any lasting traces of racial
discrimination and cultural barriers experienced by these different
ethnicities.
As a result, the number of qualified applicants will increase,
according to Siporin, while the number of disadvantaged Asian
American and other ethnic groups will decrease. Opponents of the
regents’ policy feel that it will undermine diversity in colleges
and continue to limit positions of power to the already-represented
majority.
Until government social programs work to improve diversity from
the ground up, individual responsibility and traditional
meritocracy will prevail.
"I don’t see the government picking up the slack," Kang said,
"so that might be the challenge."