Despite Asian Americans extended history of discrimination in the U.S., on average they have surpassed or reached parity with their white counterparts in multiple socioeconomic indicators such as income, educational attainment, and net worth. Due to this success, Asian Americans have been labeled the “model minority”, attributing their achievements to cultural values such as hard work, devotion to education, and discipline. The model minority argument is an ideological argument framed by cultural racism to discredit the achievements of Asian Americans in the U.S. while simultaneously targeting the cultural values of other minorities in the U.S. This argument is used to reinforce the racial structure in the U.S. by granting fair-skinned Asian …show more content…
The Asian American community is incredibly diverse representing over 20 national origins in the U.S. Therefore, statistics on the Asian American community present a misleading narrative surrounding their socioeconomic status within the United States. Asian American subgroups such as the Hmong, Vietnamese, and Laotian haven’t experienced the same prosperity in the U.S. as their Japanese, Indian, and Chinese counterparts primarily as a result of the conditions in which they entered the U.S. As the fastest growing racial group in the United States more attention needs to be paid to the radically different experiences within the Asian American community. To determine whether Asians are indeed out-whiting whites I will investigate the socioeconomic status two ethnic groups (Indian and Hmong) within the Asian American …show more content…
Disparities within the Asian American become invisible when solely comparing income, educational attainment, and net worth to white populations, while looking at wealth inequality provides a more accurate representation. Today in the United States wealth inequality is greatest within the Asian American population, indicating not all Asians subscribe to the model minority framework. In 2015 Indian Americans reported a median annual household income of $100,000 while Burmese reported only $35,000. The Center for American Progress reported that 90th percentile Asian Americans earn more than 90th percentile whites while 20th percentile Asian Americans earn less than 20th percentile whites. Therefore, the richest Asian Americans earned more than the richest whites while the poorest Asian Americans earned less than poorest whites. This wealth inequality is not only exhibited in annual income but net worth as well. 90th percentile Asian American net worth was valued at 1.4 million which included assets such as bank accounts, retirement savings, and home equity while 20th percentile Asian American net worth was valued at nine-thousand. Although on average Asian Americans earn more annually they experience higher rates of poverty which reveals that a large portion of the community is impoverished. While only 8.2% of Indian Americans live in poverty, which is
The article by Min Zhou titled "Are Asian Americans becoming "white"? was relatively interesting as it provides a look at a different perspective of Asian Americans regarding immigration. I found it particularly interesting to learn that Asian Americans are considered to be white in equal opportunity programs; however, the race is still seen as different from Americans of European ancestry. Furthermore, I was not shocked to read that Zhou described the Asian American race as the "model minority." When first looking at the reading, I was shocked by the title because I thought it was a little exaggerated. I believe the author could have chosen a more suitable phrase rather than "Asian Americans are becoming white"; however, it does provide significant
Hmong students who participated in Lor’s research shared that “their parents’ financial resource were not enough to put them through college, as their parents did not have much formal education” (2008, p. 46). In fact, it has been recorded that Hmong are “the poorest and most highly unemployed immigrants in the United States” (Su, Lee, & Vang, 2005, p. 482; Swartz, Lee, & Mortimer, 2003; Yang, 2003). For this reason, Hmong high school students are encouraged to apply for financial aid, work-study programs, scholarships, grants, and seek employment to help pay their postsecondary expenses (Lor,
We cannot deny the fact that, as Americans, racial realism has always affected us and our way of thinking. In my personal experience, being an Asian, I have had
Described by journalist Amy Uyematsu as “victims--with less visible scars--of the white institutionalized racism”, Asian Americans faced similar, if not more brutal xenophobia and racism than African Americans especially given the circumstances and historical context. The post-WWII era unified blacks and whites against a common enemy and created an assimilated group that triggered the path towards racial equality--or in other words: the makings of a more equal and integrated society for blacks and whites. However, with post WWII Japanese resentment, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War, impressions of Asian Americans in the United States declined as those for African Americans rose. Moreover, the voice of Asian Americans often went unheard as they assimilated into a “White democracy”. As a result, the emergence of the “Yellow Power” movement began as a direct influence from...
The Asian American history is the history of the ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. Spickard (2007) shows that the "'Asian American' was an idea created in the 1960s to bring together the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for a strategic and political purposes.
As a minority, coming from an international country to a foreign nation has been the most crucial decision that my family has concluded to live the possibility of the "American Dream". However, growing up as an Asian-American student wasn’t simple; I was faced with the challenge of malicious racial slurs, spiteful judgment, and unjustified condemnation that attacked my family's decision to come to America.
In the beginning when Asians came to America, they had started out with nothing, no foundation, and no help. All they could do was work hard to create a better life with their own hands, someday, in hope that they will succeed. Back in the 1800’s, during the gold rush days, Americans were displeased with the amount of Asian immigrants who came and took their jobs. Since then, Asians were able to survive and to achieve a great amount of success in the US. In order to catch up along with the rest of the world, the government created an example for their own people, known as the model minority. The model minority is a stereotype suggests that Asian Americans are “more academically, economically, and socially successful than any other racial minority groups.” (Yoo) In today’s world, Asian Americans are known to be “culturally — even genetically — endowed with the characteristics that enable them to succeed in American society.” (Wu) Model minority refers to a racial minority that serves a good example to be followed and compared for all other race; therefore, Asian Americans are characterized to it as one. If an Asian American is successful and smart, then it must be true about the whole Asian race. It creates false assumptions that every Asian is the same, which can discriminate and stereotype all Asian Americans who doesn’t belong in the category. This creates an unfair and unjust disadvantage and treatment towards Asian Americans who are targeted as one, in other words, it’s a problem that their needs and aids are ignored by society.
The United States of America is the place of opportunity and fortune. “Many immigrants hoped to achieve this in the United States and similar to other immigrants many people from the Asian Pacific region hoped to make their fortune. They planned to either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country (Spring, 2013).” For this reason, life became very complicated for these people. They faced many challenges in this new country, such as: classifying them in terms of race and ethnicity, denying them the right to become naturalized citizens, and rejecting them the right of equal educational opportunities within the school systems. “This combination of racism and economic exploitation resulted in the educational policies to deny Asians schooling or provide them with segregated schooling (Spring, 2013).”This was not the country of opportunity and fortune as many believed. It was the country of struggle and hardship. Similarly, like many other immigrants, Asian Americans had the determination to overcome these obstacles that they faced to prove that the United States was indeed their home too.
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
I also researched instances of counter actions taken by Asian Americans to protest against these negative images. My research also has examples of Asians that have succeeded in breaking through the racial barriers in the media. The results show that even though racial stereotyping still exists in various forms of mass media, there are signs that show noticeable improvement in allowing a more balanced image of Asian Americans. Statement of the Problem There are close to 12 million Asian Americans living in the United States (U.S. Asian, 2000). Asian Americans are considered one of the fastest growing minorities (Pimentel, 2001).
For 20 years, Asian Americans have been portrayed by the press and the media as a successful minority. Asian Americans are believed to benefit from astounding achievements in education, rising occupational statuses, increasing income, and are problem-fee in mental health and crime. The idea of Asian Americans as a model minority has become the central theme in media portrayal of Asian Americans since the middle 1960s. The term model minority is given to a minority group that exhibits middle class characteristics, and attains some measure of success on its own without special programs or welfare. Asian Americans are seen as a model minority because even though they have faced prejudice and discrimination by other racial groups, they have succeeded socially, economically, and educationally without resorting to political or violent disagreements with the majority race. The “success” of the minority is offered as proof that the American dream of equal opportunity is capable to those who conform and who are willing to work hard. Therefore, the term ...
Takaki, R. (1999). The myth of the “model minority.” In D. M. Newman (Ed.), Sociology:
When you think about the culture in the United States (U.S.), it is considered to be very diverse. There are many different cultures and religions in the country, which increases the diversity. Asians are a significant part of U.S. culture as they have been around for years. However when compared to how other U.S. citizens are treated, Asian Americans are treated significantly worse. “Asian Americans, like other people of color, continually find themselves set apart, excluded and stigmatized-whether during the 19th century anti-Chinese campaign in California, after the 1922 Supreme Court decision (Ozawa v. United States) that declared Asians ineligible for U.S. citizenship, or by a YouTube video that went viral on the Internet in 2011 in which a UCLA student complained bitterly about Asians in the library” (Healey, p.330). Many Asian Americans have been treated poorly because of how they are perceived within the society. It may be because of a jealousy against their strong academic achievement or because of the many jobs that they have “taken away” from the American population. In Wu Franks Article, Yellow, he claims that when someone refers to someone as an American, it is automatically assumed that they are White, however when someone is thought of as a minority they are thought of as Black. Asian Americans neither fit into the Black or White category, therefore feel as if there is no place within society for them to fall into. Wu’s article in comparison to the documentary Vincent Who?, explains how Asian Americans have been treated in America in the past, and how those stigmas have not changed as much. The documentary Vincent Who?, goes to describing murder of Vincent Chin, who was brutally attacked and murdered outside of a ...
Everyone seems to praise Asians for their skinny bodies and healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, they don’t realize the hardship that Asian children have to endure growing up. Since young Asians children are under careful watch about their body size, looks, and weight. Making sure the girls fit into the mold that society has set out for them. No matter where a person goes, people are already having a judgment on how she looks. Any sign of body imperfection, particularly overweight, will bring the wrath of society, making comments about how bad the girl looks, how she should lose weight to match with their ideal image.
Before taking this Asian American class, I only knew that this class is an academic discipline about history, experience, culture, and policies relevant to Asian American. However, the professor, Stohler used interesting teaching style to talk about how this class relates to Asian American’s history, such as providing the PowerPoint and let every students discussing in the class or online. I found out that students could pay more attentions on this teaching style. Owing to this quarter almost ended, there are some reflections and ideas in my mind. In this paper will talk about that the most important and interesting thing I learned in the course; discuss about how relates to my lives and other courses; at last I will think about that my contribution