Is there discrimination against Asian Americans in the workplace?
Can you relate a man with an Ivy college diploma and decent salary to discrimination? Probably no, and neither can I. How about adding a racial identity to him, say Asian American? This answer may be not that simple.
Such topic above has brought about a hot debate on the Internet. Many people insist there is no discrimination against Asian Americans. More than a half Asian Americans hold college degree (Hyun, 16). “In 2013, Asians’ median weekly earnings were $973, as compared to$799 for whites” (Golash-Boza). Considered the most educated and richest racial group in the United States, Asians can hardly be connected to facing discrimination from the view of some people. In addition, many believe it is the lack of communication skills and leadership characteristics that hold Asians back in promotion, instead of discrimination.
However, demographic data can be tricky. “In 2004, less than 10 percent of Hmong, Laotian, or Cambodian adults in the US had college degrees”, while the number in all Chinese and Pakistani is a half (Golash-Boza). In addition, while Asian Americans consist of 6.2 percent of American higher education faculty, only 2.4 percent of them are in important positions, stated by the Committee of 100 in Higher Education Report Card (qtd. in Ruttiman).
It is the same with the uneven rate of Asians’ income. According to Golash-Boza, some Chinese and Indian men have greater personal budgets than white people, but not Laotian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong Americans. In addition, it makes sense when some Asians earn more than the white when they had better education and worked harder in schools. However, studies show Asian Americans have low...
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Hyun, Jane. “Leadership Principles for Capitalizing on Culturally Diverse Teams: The Bamboo Ceiling Revisited.” Leader to Leader. 16 Mar. 2012: 14-19. Web. 2 Apr. 2014 < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ltl.20017/abstract >
Ruttiman, Jacqueline. “Breaking Through the ‘Bamboo Ceiling’ for Asian American Scientists”. AAAS.org. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 29 May. 2009. Web. 2 Apr.
Thompson, Krissah. “Author, N. Va. Native Helen Wan on the ‘bamboo ceiling’”. Washingtonpost.com. 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Apr.
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 ...
Both essays highlight how the authors felt as outsiders growing up. Both were exposed to various stereotypes and write on how the stereotypes are time again permeated across societies. Asian Americans are viewed as the ‘Model Minority’. Asian Americans have high rates of admission into institutions of higher education, low rates of drop outs and also higher grades across all groups. Asian Americans also have higher average annual incomes than other groups. Asian Americans also figure lower in crime rates. Their also hold very low poverty rates. All these figures have led to Asian Americans being touted as the Model Minority.
My grandmother sent me a letter from home, telling the success story of her old Chinese tenants who, through hard work, had become very wealthy in the 9 short years they lived in America. My grandmother embraces the belief that "with hard work, patience and a little help from the model minority stereotype, someday Asians will gain full approval of white America". She believes that Asian Americans are inherently smarter, more diligent and thrifty than other racial minorities of our time. I, on the other hand, am skeptical towards this assumed advantage that other minorities have perceived as "elevators to the ladder of success" in American society. While Asian Americans are able to achieve acculturation by gaining material success, despite this economic advancement, they are unable to assimilate socially into mainstream America because of prejudice and discrimination.
Wong, Paul. “Asian Americans as a Model Minority: Self-Perceptions and Perceptions by Other Racial Groups” Gale Group. 1998. Web. 4 May 2014
In an April data report, experts from Pew Research Center, a nonprofit organization that conducts data based on social issues, public opinion and demographic changes, reported that “Asian-Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group…they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success.” It is biased claims like this are the reasons why Asians are encouraged to be further discriminated agains...
According to the Pew Research Center data, recent trends shows that Asian Americans are the “the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States” ("The Rise o...
In relation to workplace discrimination, wages rank among the issues that affect working Asian-Americans. According to ChangHwan Kim and Author Sakamoto, Asian Americans earn 8% lower wages compared to their White counterparts. Furthermore, they also found out that education did not significantly improve the wage earning situation for Asian Americans. Asian American males with college degrees still earn a lower wage compared to a White male with a similar level of education. Although the 8% difference may not seem to be much, it is a clear indication that racial discrimination for Asian Americans still exists through wage rates (Charles and Guryan 509).
Most Asian Americans live in locations with higher median prices for houses, which in turn forces them work more hours to afford paying for them. “For example, figures on the high earnings of Asian Americans relative to Caucasians are misleading. Most Asian Americans live in California, Hawaii, and New York — states with higher incomes and higher costs of living than the national average” (Takaki 123). The median price for houses in California during the year 2015 was $393,000, while the median was a relatively low $162,000 in Kentucky and other states for the same year. This affects the comparability of the Asian Americans and Caucasians’ earnings, as there is a higher number of Caucasians in the United States than Asian Americans. ”Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States“ (The Rise of Asian Americans). This statement is flawed since many Asian Americans have a higher household income due to having two generations of family. Takaki’s article mentions “Comparing family incomes is even more deceptive. Some Asian American groups do have higher family incomes than Caucasians. But they have more workers per family” (Takaki
Discrimination is still a chronic global issue, and drastic inequalities still exist at the present time. Thus, the Affirmative Action Law is an important tool to many minorities most especially to women, and people of color, for the reason that this program provides an equality on educational, and professional opportunities for every qualified individual living in the United States. Without this program, a higher education would have been impossible for a “minority students” to attain. Additionally, without the Affirmative Action, a fair opportunity to have a higher-level career...
...o “limit Asian Americans’ career opportunities.” In mainstream media, Asian Americans are often overrepresented in number-crunching professions that require minimal language proficiency (e.g., engineering and sciences), but underrepresented in social science and humanities fields that entail superb language and interpersonal communication skills.
Employers developed a dual wage system to pay Asian laborers less than white workers and pitted the groups against each other in order to depress wages for both. “Ethnic antagonism”- to use Edna Bonacich’s phrase- led white laborers to demand...
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
Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
In today’s globalized world, multicultural teams accomplish a significant proportion of organizational work. Multicultural teams are formed because they improve organizational effectiveness in the global business environment. As such, multicultural teams offer huge potential to organizations. The most critical and practical challenge multicultural teams face is managing conflicts across members’ national cultural boundaries. Other cultural challenges in multicultural teams include dealing with coordination and control issues, maintaining communication richness, and developing and maintaining team cohesiveness. For multicultural teams to be effective, members must learn to address the challenges that arise from team members’ differing nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
There are many types of discrimination in the America such as racial, religious, age, disability, and sexual. As college students, discrimination will play a major role in minorities lives as they look for employment or whom they are employed with. Discrimination and the opportunities for promotion are still common even though companies create a safe place to prevent racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is one of the world’s major issues today. Many are not aware on how much it still exists everywhere. A person cannot be born racist and discriminative but only learn to become one as they grow from child to an adult.