By: Joshanne Chiang
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. In recognition of it, I want to take a look at the model minority myth, which is the stereotype that Asian Americans are more academically or financially successful than other races. Even though it is often perpetuated by members of the Asian American community, this myth is harmful in a few ways.
First, Asian Americans are not a monolith. There are differences between different groups of Asians. For example, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum found that while the average Malaysian woman makes $1.25 to every dollar made by the average non-Hispanic white man, the average Nepalese woman makes only $0.50. In fact, Rakesh Kochhar and Anthony Cilluffo of the Pew Research Center wrote in 2018 that income inequality in the U.S. is greatest among Asians. Treating all Asian Americans as successful makes it difficult to highlight the plights of specific ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups and offer them the help they need.
On an even smaller scale, every individual is different. It is dangerous to expect all Asian Americans to perform well academically because it hurts the mental health of those who cannot live up to the sky-high expectations. Asian Americans who need additional resources to succeed might not get them on the assumption that they should be naturally successful.
Second, the model minority myth ignores racism against Asian Americans. Like any other minority, there is extensive discrimintation against Asian Americans in the US both historically and presently. Irene Hsu of The New Republic wrote in 2018 that the model minority myth does not reflect the broader history of Asians in the United States, from the long history of Chinese exclusion to Japanese incarceration. Tracy Jan of the Washington Post wrote in 2019 that Asian Americans are one of the groups most disconnected from the welfare system, with only 67 percent of Asian Americans in poverty receiving aid.
Nationally, Asian Americans are a small minority, only making up 5.6 percent of the US population. Asian Americans often don’t have the voice to speak up against cruelty. The model minority myth exacerbates this by serving as a blinfold to the mistreatment of Asian Americans.
Third, Asian Americans are not superior to other races. Saying Asian Americans are more successful is essentially the same as saying other racial groups are less successful. Sarah-Soonling Blackburn of Teaching Tolerance wrote in 2019 that the model minority myth is used as evidence to deny or downplay the impact of racism and discrimination on people of color in the United States. Blackburn continues that by putting people of color in competition with one another, the myth distracts us from striving together toward racial equality.
Fourth, Asian Americans do not belong in a box. Only recently have a few Asian Americans been able to break out into fields such as entertainment and sports. Since Asian Americans are only seen as academically successful, the few successful creative and athletic Asian Americans end up spending much of their time justifying their inclusion when they deserve to be in their field as much as anyone else. Think of Jeremy Lin during the 2011-2012 “Linsanity” period. Although he was a star basketball player, much of the narrative surrounding him was about his Taiwanese ancestry and Harvard education. In an interview with The Undefeated in 2019, Jeremy Lin said that because of Linsanity, he learned that “the world wasn’t quite ready or didn’t know how to handle Asian Americans in sports, Asian American masculinity, and a lot of different Asian American issues.” Part of the problem that Lin faced was the stereotype of Asian Americans as only bookish and not much else.
To work against the harmful model minority myth, it is important for everyone, including Asian Americans, to realize that although it is important to do your best, every person’s best is different and not determined by your race.