Model Minority Essay

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Article Reflection . . . Challenging the Politics In this article Tianlong Yu inspects the political reasoning for the “model minority” stereotyping of Asian Americans and its impact on education in the United States. A model minority is a minority group whose members are perceived to achieve more socioeconomic success than the population average. This success is typically measured in income, education, low crime rates and high family stability. According to Bennett (2015), “The term model minority originated during the 1960’s at the height of Black protests against institutional racism” (p. 258). In stark contrast prior to the 1960’s the United States government passed legislation to keep Asians from immigrating to America. However, when faced with civil unrest from the Black community over civil rights, White …show more content…

At first glance, it appeared that Asian Americans were earning more money and acquiring more education than the U.S. population (Yu, 2006, p. 326). However, Asian Americans were making less money when compared to their White counterparts with the same level of education. Additionally, the number of Asian Americans living below the poverty line was far greater than the white population (Yu, 2006, p. 326). Regardless, of the statistics, mainstream thought continued to view Asian Americans as the “model minority” partially due to the growth and development in the Far East following the end of World War II. Furthermore, the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act that gave priority to immigrants with a high level of skill or education. Hence, new immigrants from Asia thrived in their new country due to selective immigration practices. Finally, an extremely problematic stereotype of Asian Americans is that they are all one homogeneous group; in fact, they are a divergent group that do not share a common language or

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