Asian Americans and the Model Minority Myth
Published in Diversity MBA Magazine:
Is success only skin deep? That depends on whether or not you believe that truth, lies on the surface.
The term “Model Minority” means that a minority ethnic group is able to achieve the highest levels of success both educationally and economically, while maintaining the lowest levels of crime and poverty. Success is then measured in education and more importantly, income. In the particular case of Asian Americans being labeled the “Model Minority,” the truth as it seems, lays below the surface.
The term was started by William Peterson in the mid 1960’s, to describe that Asians “despite marginalization, have achieved success in the United State,” and that it has been achieved through merit alone. And there is no denying that statistics support this myth.
According to a survey conducted by the Census Bureau in 2000, 12 percent of Asians have incomes of $75,000 or more to 10.9 percent for whites, 67.2 percent of Asians are part of the labor force compared to 66.4 percent for whites, and 39.3 percent of Asians work in managerial professions compared to 33.2 percent for whites. In other statistical breakdowns, Asians trail right behind whites. However, the statistics on education may begin to reveal much more about the myth.
More Asians have graduated from elite universities than any other ethnic group. In fact they make up over 30 percent of graduates from prestigious American universities including Stanford, MIT, and Northwestern. The 2000 U.S. Census reported that 44 percent of Asians attained bachelor’s degrees or higher, compared to 24 percent of the general population. At many other schools, Asian academic excellence, makes up even higher proportions of the entire student body.
But can such good numbers be a bad thing? First, a common misconception is that the Asian community holds pride in such label. But these numbers of high percentages of Asians with white collar jobs and overrepresentation in higher education, have created a bigger problem, the unjust myth that amounts to racial stereotyping to be used as a political tool to “justify the exclusion of needy Asian American communities in the distribution of assistance programs, public and private” (source: wikipedia.com). Also, surveys usually only account for what is called “The Big Three”, East Asians that include Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. It excludes South East Asians such as Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong etc, who more often than not, fall below the average education and income bracket. Asian-Nation.org notes that, “For every Chinese American or South Asian who has a college degree, the same number of Southeast Asians are still struggling to adapt to their lives in the U.S.” In California for instance, about 40 percent of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Hmong and Laotian refugees are on public assistance programs. The U.S. proudly proclaims to share equal opportunity to those who work hard to achieve the dream, but labels and stereotypes just create excuses to hold back on government resources and political and educational representation. Affects include school districts which provide poor assistance to Asian immigrants by not having enough bilingual instructors and proficient English learning courses, as well as multi-lingual documents and welfare assistance provided by the government. What this creates is an enormous pressure among Southeast Asians and other ethnic groups to rise through a glass ceiling that seems impossible to break.
Dr. Tam T. Nguyen, President of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County comments, “There are definitely two sides of the coin for me on being a member of an ethnic community labeled as Model Minority. First, it brings pride if I focus on the “model” part, since being the model for anything means that you are setting the standard. It makes me think of the many Asian immigrants who have done so well for themselves in the relatively short time they have resided in the USA. On the other hand, model minority also brings about some misconceptions. Not all Asians have broken out of the tough challenge of being a newly arrived immigrant. Also many Asian communities do not get the resources needed from the Government and other entities because we are viewed only as academically successful, and high achievers.”
So what continues to encourage such myth? It is a truth hidden from the media. Take for example, Jerry Yang, Co-Founder and Chief of Yahoo. His portrayal of someone who conquered the American Dream of creating a billion dollar company before his 29th birthday in a matter of less than 3 years, is what inspired the stereotype of Asians out of geeksville. But what the media plays down is the fact that Jerry Yang graduated Stanford University with two degrees. Two Stanford degrees: impressive or suggestive? Asian-nation.org states that “with each additional year of schooling completed, or what sociologists call “returns on education”…Whites earn another $522 more…That is, beyond a high school degree, a White person with a college degree can expect to earn $2088 per year in salary. In contrast, returns on additional year in education for a Japanese American is only $438. For a Chinese American, its $320.” What does this mean? Asians have to get more years of education to make the same amount of income that a White person makes with less education. That begins to explain why Asians place so my importance on education. It’s the rules of the game called the American Dream.
| 2000 Census Public Use Micodata Samples | |||||
| Whites | Blacks | Hispanics/Latinos | Native Americans | Asian Americans | |
| Less than High School | 15.3 | 29.1 | 48.5 | 27.4 | 19.5 |
| College Degree | 25.3 | 13.6 | 9.9 | 10.8 | 42.9 |
| Advanced Degree | 3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 6.5 |
| Median Personal Income | $23,640 | $16,300 | $14,400 | $14,500 | $20,200 |
| Median Family Income | $48,500 | $33,300 | $36,000 | $32,240 | $59,000 |
| Living in Poverty | 9.4 | 24.9 | 21.4 | 25.1 | 11.5 |
| Public Assistance | 1.3 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 6.1 | 2.2 |
| Homeowner | 78.2 | 54.4 | 52.4 | 64.2 | 62 |
| In Labor Force | 63.6 | 59.8 | 61.5 | 61.2 | 65.3 |
| High Skill Occupation | 21.4 | 12.3 | 9.6 | 11.9 | 34.6 |
| Median Socioeconomic Index | 47 | 44 | 26 | 44 | 49 |
Now lets scratch a little deeper. Numerous reports show that in terms of income, Asians aren’t doing so shabby. In fact, Asian families have a higher household income median than Whites. How is this possible? Simple, it is the strategy of numbers. In this case, outnumbering to be exact. More members in an Asian American family work and contribute financially more than any other ethnicities, and it is not unusual for a typical Asian family to have four or more members that work. And since they pursue more white-collar jobs in fields like law, medicine, finance, banking, real estate etc., it is no surprise why censuses reveal such statistics. Asian families expect financial contribution not because of greed or trying to maintain the model minority label, but because of circumstance. They mostly concentrate metropolitan areas such as New York and Los Angeles, where the cost of living is so high that although Asians may earn more, but that also means that they spend more. Much more. So if you look at it that way, everything evens out, and Asian Americans really make incomes that still fall right behind that of Whites.
Getting under the skin: the model minority myth is a mask over all the prejudices that have happened and continue to happen to Asian Americans. They, like all other minorities, are underrepresented in political leadership, and corporate America. They rank below African Americans and Latinos at an alarming 6 percent on executive boards and high-level positions.
Labels and stereotypes throughout the history of mankind have achieved nothing more than to create social disillusionment. The majority of Asians have figured out that they must study and work twice as hard to achieve the same thing. The label also means that they are supposed to accept their fate quietly and their compliance is expected in the corporate office. They are supposed to be diligent, unchallenging to the structural norms of the business hierarchy, and act as if everything they achieve just comes naturally. However, they are not natural born geniuses with high IQ s, rather they understand the rules of the American Dream. So just like our skin, there are layers and so much more hidden underneath the surface.
Written by: Jade Kira