An Asian-American Who's Bad at Math?

Have you ever felt surprised when you found out that an Asian American student didn't excel academically?  Did you expect them to at least be good at math?

Perhaps you just assumed that the Asian-American kid you went to school with would grow up to be a doctor.  Surely they were smart.  After all, Asians are smart, right?

Congratulations, you've stereotyped someone based on the Model Minority myth.

What's the Model Minority Myth?

You've probably learned about the Chinese railroad workers during one of your American History classes at some point.  During this period of the 1800s, as the availability of gold from the Gold Rush slowly decreased and the need for cheap labor around American industrialization increased, Chinese immigrants who had traveled to California were quickly hired for cheap wages to do the hard labor that was in demand by unscrupulous employers.

Unhappy with dwindling job availabilities while surrounded by immigrants with jobs, Americans expressed their discontent through racial discrimination in local communities that was eventually made into law through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, limiting the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into the US each year (this law eventually extended to include all of Asian descent).  During this period, American propaganda warned about the "yellow peril," and this extended into the early part of the 1900s when Hollywood portrayal of Asians showed Asians as exotic, mystical, threatening, and degenerate.

During World War II, the US and China had become allies, and it was crucial for the American public to un-learn what had been taught by the negative propaganda in order to foster positive relations with China and with Chinese immigrants.  And after World War II, Japanese Americans who were held in the internment camps set out to rebuild and reclaim their lives as American citizens.  As the US started to move past World War II, and the Civil Rights Movement started to take shape, it became easier for the media to pose the question of "Why were Asians doing so well despite suffering through so much discrimination, but blacks can't seem to do it?"

This is where the Model Minority stereotype started to take shape.

Why Is This Important?

Since the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, the Model Minority stereotype has been used as a racial wedge between Asians and blacks in the US.  

This causes several problems:

• It allows a segment of white America to skirt any responsibility in addressing socioeconomic problems that black Americans have faced and continue to face by shifting the blame back to black Americans,

• It disregards the fact that Asian-Americans come from many different backgrounds (including a number of marginalized ethnic groups) and are affected by a number of different social, economic, familial, racial, and environmental factors, and

• It pressures Asian-American children to live up to impossible, yet expected, standards of achievement, despite the diversity of backgrounds that they all come from.  Asian-American children are constantly pressured by parents, teachers and colleagues to model what it means to be a "top student" and are more likely to not seek help when they need it with their studies and when they suffer the anxiety and depression that comes with the failure to meet unusually high expectations.  Growing up with these pressures is one of the reasons that Asian-American college students have one of the highest rates of attempted suicide and suicidal thoughts compared to their non-Asian American colleagues.

What Can You Do?

As with all other problems we face in this world, we need YOU to start a conversation: Talk to your friends, talk to your family, talk to your colleagues, and most importantly, talk to your children.  

DON'T let your children assume that their Asian friends and classmates will automatically do better in school--give them a gentle reminder that a person's race has nothing to do with how well they will do in academics, sports, or anything else.

DON'T let your friends and family assume that all Asians will make certain career choices.  Not all Asians want to become doctors or engineers--race has nothing to do with a person's aspirations or career choices.

DO reach out to your Asian-American friends and community and listen to people's experiences.

DO share this website on your blog and social media.

DO contact us for posters, postcards, and stickers so that you can spread the word within your city.

DO join us in fighting stereotypes so that we can put an end to racial prejudice.

Have you been affected by the Model Minority Stereotype?  Do you know someone who has been affected?  Share your story below in the comments, and join us in putting an end to racial stereotyping!