...comes to Asian families, there is the stereotype of strict, overbearing parents who want their children to get high-paying careers. Usually, they would idealize their children to major in medicine, engineering, etc. At first, this can be seen as a good thing to gain discipline and success. However, these ambitious career aspirations from familial pressure inflict harm on their kids long-term and their experience as Asian Americans. The most discernible effects can be broken down into four ways: a decline in mental health, low self-esteem, generational trauma, and internalized stereotyping. When taken into consideration, the familial pressures of Asian parents affect their children emotionally and psychologically, taking a significant...
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...Myth of the “Model Minority” and Its Effects on Minority Racial Groups When we talk about race it is almost exclusively in black and white with occasional mentions of Latinos. The struggles of the races in-between are often left out of the conversation and arguably none more so than that of Asian Americans. People often see Asians are the exception to racism, the successful marginalized group that highlights the American dream. This mindset has been captured in the idea of the “model minority”, referring to Asians and their perceived successes in the United States. The myth of Asians as the “model minority” is an idea constructed to protect white privilege and prosperity by creating a culture of racial minorities competing against each...
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...Midterm Paper: Model Minority For years now, Asians from countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and the Philippines, have been immigrating into the United States. Arriving with not anything in their pockets and nothing but hope, without a doubt they truly believe that the United States is the land of opportunity. Although many of them have successfully amalgamated into American culture through hard work and diehard persistence, the idea of this “model minority” trails behind them unceasingly. This stereotype of the model minority characterizes Asians as having everything “figured out”. They are willing and ready to assimilate completely into American culture; they stay of trouble and are submissive, and they dominate in both education and in the work place. Even though this stereotype seemingly praises Asians; in truth, it has a counteractive effect on both the Asian community and other ethnic groups as well. Despite the existence of this model minority stereotype, Asians are not followers of the myth and altogether demonstrate it counterfactual. In Asian American Dreams, Helen Zia introduces the model minority myth through an article titled “Success Story of One Minority Group in the United States” where it explains it as a reasonably form of praise claiming “at a time when Americans are awash in worry over the plight of racial minorities, one such minority, the nation’s 300,000 Chinese Americans, is winning wealth and respect by dint of its own hard work…” (Zia...
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...On May 15, 2015, a coalition of 64 Asian American organizations filed a complaint against Harvard University for discriminatory admission practices that set a higher bar for admissions for Asian American students than for any other race group (WSJ). Discrimination in college admissions is just one of the many ways that racism still affects Asian Americans today. This contradicts the belief shared by most White Americans that the civil rights movement eradicated racism in America and created equality between Whites and people of color (Sue 2007). Asian Americans are especially believed to experience little to no racism. This is due to the popular belief in the model minority myth: the belief that Asian Americans have succeeded in American society,...
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...For over a hundred years, stereotypes of Asian Americans have dramatically changed from being viewed as uneducated poor laborers to being characterized as successful educated minority. It has changed from negativity to positivity. According to the article “Outwhiting the whites”: An examination of the persistence of Asian Americans model minority discourse, Asian Americans were stereotyped as the “Yellow Peril” before. It was a fear that Asian Americans were going to take power in America. Japanese Americans had lost a lot during World War II. They were imprisoned in internment camps, lost their homes, land, and property. After the World War II, people started to change their views on Asian Americans. The Japanese Americans were able to recover quickly. The media noticed how quickly they were able to recover and began publishing positive stories of how Asian Americans culture were able to succeed. From there on, the media continued to publish positive stories on how Asian Americans were succeeding which created the model minority stereotype. There were two articles that I analyzed, Asian-Americans: Are they making the grade by U.S. News & World Report, and The new whiz kids by Brand, D. I believed the two articles ended up combating the model minority model. Asian Americans have been stereotyped as the model minority. They are the smart, wealthy, hard-working, successful, and obedient minority. Some people believe in that, others don’t. It is not that simple...
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...research topic was to focus on the mainstream media representation of model minority myth within the Asian American Community, but the broad scope and definition creates a challenge of conveying a personalize message through digital photography. The revised topic illustrates the mental stress and problems created from the model minority myth and cultural tensions. “[The Model Minority Myth] theory offered a promise of equality that could be achieved, not through political organization and community empowerment, but only through individual effort, cultural assimilation, and political accommodation.” (Robert Lee 268) The stereotypes characteristics of a hardworking immigrants, obedient members of society,...
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...The “model minority” is an image that people in the United States (mostly Caucasians) have about Asian Americans. It’s a belief that exists because the majority of Asians seems to have succeeded economically, socially, and educationally without resorting to political or violent confrontation with whites. Many Caucasians believe that because they’ve excelled in certain categories that they do not experience prejudice and discrimination in society today. The “model minority” image is inaccurate and is yet another stereotype to add to the list that Americans tend to believe and don’t know any better. Americans believe that being seen as having higher achievements over themselves is a positive quality for the Asians; however the assumption can be harmful to them because it forces them to assimilate to the stereotype, which in turn causes them uneasiness. The “model minority” image not only pressures them to higher achievements because they are perceived by Americans as smarter, it is also causes people from different places in the world (other subordinate groups; such as African Americans) to feel of less importance and not as intelligent because they too are minorities, however haven’t excelled in those areas as the Asian Americans have. In my eyes, this model has done nothing but created more of an issue for the minorities, their judgments on themselves, and of their self-worth. The media has been a contributing factor and has reinforced the “model minority” image. When looking...
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...Exploring Racial Discrimination Against Asian Americans According to Whitlock and Bronski, hate is not the sole cause of things such as “racism, misogyny, homophobia, violence against transgender people, violence against disabled people, or economic cruelty” (Whitlock and Bronski 16). The first two chapters of Considering Hate introduces the concept of hate as a feeling that is not just a personal one, but one that is perpetuated further by the structure of society and popular culture. In the first two chapters of Considering Hate, the concept of hate is introduced as a feeling that is not just a personal one, but one that is perpetuated further by the structure of society and popular culture. Minority groups that have experienced instances...
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...Therefore, your proposal should include basic information about who you are interviewing. Make sure that your proposal clearly answers the following: (Integrate these answers in your paragraphs; don't make a list of your questions and answers.) What are you going to write about? Why did you choose this topic? Based on your topic, what are the main issues you will explore? What is the thesis (or the tentative thesis) of your final paper? Who are you interviewing for your paper? Why? What are your other sources? (Remember that there should be at least two sources in addition to your interview.) What do you intend to prove with this paper? What, in your view, is the relevance of your topic? I am going to write about being Asian and more specifically being Chinese in a particular part of the United States in the 21st century. I will explore the perception that some non-Chinese people have of Chinese people in the US and also explore the pros and cons, in terms of public perception, of being Chinese. I chose this topic because this would be a good study of stereotypes, as well as a venue to express the truth about my identity. The ttentative thesis of my final paper is to find the truth about my identity, it includes three parts, the first part is the perception that some non-Chinese people have of Chinese people in the...
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...Asian American adolescent girls have the highest depression levels in the United States compared to all the ethnic or racial groups (Noh, 2007). The pressures of the model minority stereotype and family expectations can work together to impose an ideal of success on young Asian American women. The model minority stereotype generalizes that all Asian Americans are smart, respectful, and hard working individuals who are able to work from the bottom-up in achieving the American Dream. The purpose of this study is to understand how parenting styles and the model minority stereotype shape self-esteem of Asian American women. This project defines self-esteem as an individual’s assessment of self-worth that encompasses positive or negative beliefs and attitudes about the self. “The looking glass self,” pioneered by Charles Horton Cooley, explains how individuals’ self-esteem can be formed through the eyes of family members. Depending on individuals’ assessments of how others perceive them, people feel pride or shame, which contributes to their sense of self-esteem. I will use open-ended questionnaires to interview Asian American women to explore if parents uphold values of the model minority stereotype and how these standards shape the perception of self. I hypothesize that the model minority stereotype and family members who uphold the stereotype contribute to negative images of self in Asian American Women. Furthermore, I expect that even though most students understand that the model...
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...Affects The Asian Community Just last month ABC premiered their new show Fresh Off The Boat, which happens to be one of the few shows ever to be centered around an Asian-American family on American television. Growing up in America with first generation immigrant parents has not been easy, and growing up in a culture where you can’t even see yourself in everyday media makes it even harder to adjust. I remember watching T.V. as a kid and rarely did I see any Asian Americans on the screen; and if I did, the characters were portrayed in a way I was not familiar with. Finally getting a show like Fresh Off The Boat makes it seem like Asian Americans are breaking through barriers and making their way into mainstream media. As an Asian American myself, I happen to see this as a huge deal; finally, there is something I can relate to on T.V. Even though the Asian-American community has been excited and supportive of the series, it apparently does not appeal to the majority, and there have already been rumors of the show’s cancellation. But why is a show as innovative as Fresh Off the Boat being cancelled? The show has so many fans and is considered ground braking in the Asian-American community, but that is not enough to keep the show on air apparently. -As a minority in America, Asian Americans deserve to have their culture portrayed accurately in mainstream media. However, whenever there are Asian characters on television or films, the roles do not reflect the Asian culture, but...
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...of Law. In Frank Wu’s Yellow, he covers a lot of Asian American related topics, many of whom are covered in Asian American class, and he provides his social commentary on the subject matter. Frank Wu opens his books by recounting stories of his experiences as an Asian American and providing events in history that connect his personal experiences to the larger picture of being an Asian American. Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White then moves onto the topic of “The Model Minority”. The idea of the model minority is that Asian are the perfect minority, all prospering without any problems despite their past hardships due to the hard work Asian put in without any complaints. However, this idea is rejected as a myth for three reasons. First off, it is highly inaccurate as a representation of all Asians in America. When you break down the difference between native Asian Americans and immigrant Asians, native-born Asian Americans do significantly poorer in education. And for those who do finish college, there is a lower return on investment as Asians are found to make less than their equivalent white counterparts. Immigrant...
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...The coined phrase “tiger mom”, before the 20th century, was almost nonexistent because of the poor conditions in which most Americans believed Chinese lived in. They saw Chinatowns as “depraved colonies of prostitutes, gamblers and opium addicts bereft of decency”. During World War II, some Americans believed that China would see the United States and their Chinese Exclusion Act negatively and wish to no longer support us against Japan and the rest of the Axis powers. These people ended up being able to project the thought that most Americans think that Chinese immigrants were “‘law-abiding, peace-loving, courteous people living quietly among us’” instead of what they thought they were. In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by Congress. In the 1950s, this idea of Chinese children being obedient and respectful to their elders was reused after they saw a “national juvenile delinquent crisis”. Another stereotype they put onto the Chinese children was that they had a “high moral sense”. “U.S. Rep. Arthur Klein of New York praised his Manhattan Chinatown constituents for their ‘respect for parents and teachers,’ ‘stable and loving home life’ and thirst for education”, Wu says....
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...The dominant image of Asian Americans as high achievers can be traced back to 1966 when Time Magazine (Peterson, 1960) and U.S. News and World Report (1966) reported on the ability of Japanese- and Chinese-Americans to achieve success in the face of the same adversities declared by proponents of the civil rights movement (Tran and Birman 2010). Direct experiences are pervasive, with research showing that over 99 % of Asian American adolescents have had at least one encounter in which they felt like they were being stereotyped as a model minority (Thompson and Kiang 2010). Yet, despite its prevalence and commonality, the developmental implications of the model minority stereotype are not well-understood. Most of the existing research has been...
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...Panjab, the Indian government took power, oppressed minorities, and continue to do so. With the constant persecution and threat to live in Panjab, my family immigrated to Detroit, Michigan in 2001. The choice to move to the United States of America was because of safety and hopes to reap the benefits of the American Dream. An article called “Are Asian Americans Becoming White?”, by Min Zhou explains that “Like most immigrants to the United States, Asian immigrants tend to believe in the American Dream and measure their achievements materially” (Andersen and Collins, 2016; pg.92). My family was the same and...
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