Teranishi and Liu Reflection
In the article Asian Pacific Americans and Critical Race Theory: An Examination of School Racial Climate, by Robert Teranishi, he explores how Asian Pacific Americans are being misperceived, through the racial stereotypes that they had went through. Moreover, he examines how their racial experiences affect their academic college opportunities and their personal goals. He introduces statistics about Asian Americans. In UC Berkley, about 40 percent of Asians enroll there. From this statistic, Teranishi emphasizes that Asian Americans are being overrepresented in education. In addition, he states that Asian Americans have different poverty rates compared to other ethnic groups. Asian Americans have half the poverty
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His research also focuses on what factors contribute to success of Asian American students from different racial backgrounds. Moreover, a third objective of this study is to describe the effect of institutional context on educational experiences of APA students from different ethnic backgrounds and immigration statuses. Finally, the research examines how APA student’s ethnic identities impact their social relationships with teachers and other professionals. Understanding the racial climate of the school is also an important part in this study. Racial climate is determined by whether the school includes or excludes other ethnic groups in the past and by the racial perception of different groups towards one another. The results from this research study indicated that the Chinese people are viewed as overachievers while Filipinos are perceived as delinquents and failures. These results mean that the Chinese people are more motivated to succeed and have more positive self-image because of the positive stereotypes. Unlike the Chinese, the Filipinos believed have limited educational opportunities. As a result, it was hard for them to maintain a positive self-image and they felt let down because …show more content…
Before I read this article, I thought Asians were never suspected to any type of racism, that they are doing great economically. That made me to realize that racism is everywhere and it affects every ethnic group. It made me remember, I was subjected to racial microaggressions. In high school, someone told me that I am Asian and I suck at reading comprehension than everybody else. Because of the stereotype, it leads me to falsely believe that I would do bad on the critical reading section of the SAT and I dreaded that section the most. Although if I was weak in reading comprehension, it does not mean I would not do well. I will just need to practice more on that. They thought that I couldn’t get better at it. Also, when they said that, they took away some of my self-confidence about success. That was a racial microaggression because they didn’t know that I will be offended when they said that. Also, I remember watching the news about some strict Asian American parent that harshly yelled at the son for getting an A- on his test when they expected an A+ instead. I would have accepted the A- and I would be proud of him, but his parents are disappointed instead. That reminds me that Asian Americans are being pressured to achieve. After reading Liu’s article, I would have reacted the same way as she did when the hunger strike for the Asian American Studies happened at UCLA. I would
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
Cater, the author of the book Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, became interested as of why minority students were faced with white society challenges in school systems? In her book, Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, she offers an insightful look at the educational attainment in low-income urban communities. Carter suggest that these students are embraced the dominant opportunity ideology, they acknowledge the dominant cultural to obtain status and goods. However, they use their own cultural to gain status in their own communities. She conducted a research to study the importance of cultural authenticity for minority, such as African American and Latino, students. She examines how cultural authenticity influences minority students’ relationship with the values they believe are privileged in schools. Cultural authenticity reflects on the beliefs and values of everyday society. Carter questioned, why do so many African American and Latino students perform worse than their Asians and White peers in class and on exams? And why might African Americans and Latino students are less engaged in
Studies of Hmong students are not sufficient to provide in depth and comprehensive information on the performance and education of this minority group. There are countless factors that impact the achievement levels of these students and in order to address the needs and issues, more research needs to be done. I suggest that more studies need to be done on the newly founded Charter schools which focus on the Hmong culture as well as American academics. I also suggest more studies that focus on the examination of peer pressure and gender equality issues relative to academic success involving Hmong-American students, and most especially for Female Hmong students for whom data is typically lacking (Vang, 2004) .
In the book “Academic Profiling” by Gilda L. Ocho, the author gives evidence that the “achievement gap” between Latinos and Asian American youth is due to faculty and staff of schools racially profiling students into educational tracks that both limit support and opportunities for Latinos and creates a divide between the two groups. Intersectionality, the ways in which oppressive in...
The school system typically emphasizes participation in speaking in class, which may be more intimidating for Asians due to their background and importance of silence. Participants of Sue’s study “felt forced to conform to Western norms and values (‘talking more’) when such behaviour violated their cultural upbringing” (77). In other words, Asian participants felt uncomfortable trying to fit the White standard of talking and participating in class. Furthermore, the college and university admission decisions may be influenced by unconscious biases. These biases are usually prominent in individuals faced with an uncertain decision.
...silenced in this country, in order to have voice and be visible in society, one must strive to be a white American. They feel the need to embody and assimilate to whiteness because the white race has a voice and is seen, rather than silenced and unseen, in society. They are privileged with the freedom of not having to cope with the notion of being marked, silent, and unseen in society. This creates pressures for Asian Americans and immigrants to suppress their own cultural identities and assimilate to whiteness in an attempt to potentially be able to prosper and make a life for them in America. Asian Americans feel as though being who they truly are and express their unique cultural identities will alienate themselves even more than they already are.
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...
One theme that I found to be very interesting is the struggles that Asian Americans have faced in the past and the present. I never knew about the struggles that have been happening in places like China and Laos. I never realized how many families come from poverty and violence. I have only learned very little about historical events such as Vietnam. I am only now becoming more aware about the human rights problem in China. I am so used to seeing places like Tokyo, Japan in movies and television. Everything seems so clean and the city is lit up with bright lights and amazing buildings at night. Before this course, I thought that most Asians live this kind of life. I never knew that these events had even occurred and I was amazed at some of the things Asians have had to go through over the years.
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 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).
Many immigrants are aware of the history of the Civil Rights movement, slavery and the history of race in the US. Yet, they believe those times of discrimination is over. Immigrant optimism is why immigrants push their children to excel. The openness of the educational system and pay off to higher education is too good to ignore. Many groups strive when they come; Asian immigrants are the minority model. Their consistent success is an example of overcoming all odds to succeed. Unfortunately it overshadows the reality for many native born people of color. It overshadows systemic racism and its many forms. It ignores the cycle of poverty and set up for failure by the education system. It ignores laws and Acts that have passed that impacts people of
We’ve all heard it said that Asian Americans are good at math; anything involving science, technology, and medicine. They study all the time, work really hard, and live a version of the American dream many of us never thought to dream of. And of course, we know these stereotypes are dangerous and often untrue, but perhaps we still find ourselves buying into them. Ronald Takaki”, the ethnic studies expert, writes about the idea that Asian Americans are more successful than any other American minority group in his article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority. Takaki refutes this idea by strategically, and somewhat effectively, using reason, statistics, and word choice to show that Asian Americans still face some of the same hardships and barriers
Another example of cultural differences could be the educational attitudes of Americans as opposed to those of many Asians. Many people in the United States are surprised and alarmed by the high test score and college admissions averages of Asian students in contrast to the falling averages of students of other ethnic backgrounds, including white. This discrepancy is directly related to cultural differences between American and many Asian nations. In most Asian cultures education is strongly encouraged and supported and has been for generations. On the other hand, in America education is often a low priority. Many American students look at school as a burden rather than a chance to gain knowledge. At the same time, many American parents reinforce this attitude because they were raised with a similar belief.
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.