Model minority

Model minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members stereotypically achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. This success is typically measured in income, education, and related factors such as low crime rate and high family stability. Some critics of this terminology say that its implications incite jealousy and fighting among minorities, an example of leveraging majority power dynamics to provoke ill sentiments between minority groups.

Model minority was first used in the mid-1960s in the work of William Petersen, a social demographer. Petersen's work compared the success of Asian Americans to those of Jewish Americans, and described the two groups as both having been formerly marginalized but presently highly successful. Petersen contrasted model minorities with "problem minorities." ^*

Background of the Stereotype

The term model minority was first coined in the mid-1960s by William Petersen, a social demographer, who believed that the success and achievement of Asian Americans paralleled those of the Jewish Americans. Petersen described Asian Americans and Jewish Americans as examples of two formerly marginalized groups who, because of their hard work and determination, have risen above the ranks of "problem minorities" (Winnick, 1990).^*

The purpose of this stereotype was to provide a comparison of capitalist and socialist economies: as capitalism was equated with inequality, particularly in reference to poor African Americans, Asian Americans were chosen as an example of a minority group who could succeed by "merit" alone.Modelminority.com writes: "While superficially complimentary to Asian Americans, the real purpose and effect of this portrayal is to celebrate the status quo in race relations. First, by over-emphasizing Asian American success, it de-emphasizes the problems Asian Americans continue to face from racial discrimination in all areas of public and private life. Second, by misrepresenting Asian American success as proof that the US provides equal opportunities for those who conform and work hard, it excuses US society from careful scrutiny on issues of race in general, and on the persistence of racism against Asian Americans in particular."[3

The term regularly provides justification for anti-anti-discriminitory practices (see affirmative action) and racialist comparisons between minority groups.

Asian Americans

In as little as 100 years of American history, Asian Americans have gone from being the "bucked-toothed, slanted-eyed, uncivilized yellow peril" to the hardworking, musically-talented, and mathematically-brilliant model minority. ^* Constituting over 4 percent of the US population in 2000, Asian Americans have exceeded 25 percent of some of America's most prestigious private universities, and outnumber Euro-Americans at many University of California campuses. Asian Americans are spoken of as a 'model minority' group because the group has been argued to be more successful comparatively than other minority groups. In this context, the term Asian Americans is used primarily to describe those of East Asian descent, specifically Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans. It is also used by many people to include people of South Asian or Southeast Asian descent. Other groups that are geographically considered Asian, such as West Asians or people of the Malay Archipelago, though well-off in many respects, have not traditionally been thought of as model minority.

According to the United States 2000 Census, the median household income of Asian Americans is $55,521. This is higher than other racial groups only because of the larger household size typically found in Asian-American households. Per capita household income is slightly lower than that of European Americans.

As of 2000, about 44 % of Asian Americans ages 25 or above held a bachelor's degree or higher , as compared to 24% of the whole population.According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2003 report Crime in the United States, Asian Americans have the lowest total arrest rates ^*" target="_blank" >Asian Americans have achieved higher Math SAT IQ scores (in particular involving high visuospatial aptitude, but average verbal aptitude^*)" target="_blank" >than other ethnic groups, even when more socioeconomically deprived [http://www.arthurhu.com/index/sat.htm or in cases of transracial adoptions (Clark 1992, Frydman 1989), which can control for environmental and cultural differences in upbringing.

Math SAT scores of relatively poor Asians compare favorably to affluent Euro-Americans, though there are also a high number of very low scores. In the Seattle area, one study published in National Review by Arthur Hu showed that Asians tended to score as well as Whites in the next better suburb. Even in the poorest districts, Asians tend to score only slightly worse than whites. Studies have shown Asian Americans to be, on average, about 2 years ahead in math ability compared to average, which is also about the same gap observed between nations such as Taiwan and Japan compared to the US. This is despite that Asian Americans have the same school year, and often go to the same dreaded urban school systems that serve other minorities so poorly. Nationally, Asians tend to get higher grades and have a higher completion rate than whites, and lower rates of discipline, along with lower rates of drug use and premarital sex, entirely inconsistent with the common wisdom that minority status necessarily results in poorer outcomes. Asians still lag on verbal scores because of the predominance of recent immigrants, however UCLA studies (cite study, please) show that math SAT is much more indicative of success. Some new standards based tests such as WASL are much more english intensive, and Asians in Seattle lag whites even in math, but not statewide.

History of discrimination

The success of Asian Americans as a group has occurred despite severe discrimination in the previous century, such as, prior to the 1950s, being stereotyped as cheap, uneducated labourers. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many U.S. citizens of European descent feared that the western part of the US would be overrun by the "Yellow Peril," prompting initiatives to reduce immigration from Asia, and during WWII, anti-Japanese paranoia lead to thousands of Japanese-Americans being held in "internment camps" in America. In addition, numerous Asian Americans were recent immigrants or their offspring, since immigration laws had limited Asian immigration prior to the mid 1960's. In the mid 1900s, the Yellow Peril stereotype began to give way to recognition of the racial group's socioeconomic accomplishments.

Media coverage

Media coverage of the increasing success of Asian Americans as a group began in the 1960s, reporting high average test scores and marks in school, winning national spelling bees, and high levels of university attendance. One such example is the University of California system. For instance, at the University of California, Berkeley, Asians account for 41% of the undergraduate student body as of 2003, almost 4 times the proportion of Asian Americans in California (11%). At top high schools, Asian Americans constitute even larger proportions of the student body; over half at Stuyvesant High School, which practices race-blind admissions.

Causes of Model Minority status

Self-selective immigration

One cause of the good performance of Asian Americans as a group is that they represent a small self-selected elite of Asians because the difficulty of emigrating filtered out many of those not possessing more resources, motivation, or ability.

For example, there are only 2 million Chinese Americans in the U.S., and worldwide the total amount of overseas Chinese is about 34 million, whereas the total worldwide Chinese population is almost 1.3 billion. Emigration to the US has always been strictly limited by factors such as the high cost of trans-Pacific transportation, language and cultural barriers, strong racial prejudice against Asians which did not wane until the early 1970s, historical state laws that once prohibited Chinese from working most jobs or owning land, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which limited Chinese immigration to about 100 individuals per year from 1882 through 1943. Self-selection could be continuing even today, as the current quota of about 25,000 per year is still small compared to the millions of Chinese who would like to emigrate to the US.

Moreover, American immigration law holds preference for skilled workers and those with college degrees; as such, many Asian American immigrants are well-educated before coming to America and are often in a higher economic bracket. Traditionally and statistically children who have higher-educated parents are more likely to attend college; therefore more emphasis is typically placed on education; this trend is noticeable among White and Black populations as well.

This hypothesis is supported empirically. The sociologist Stephen Klineberg conducted a 1996 study of Asians in Houston, and found that the Asian population had little upward mobility. For example, "44 percent of the Indians and Pakistanis in Houston are in professional or managerial positions, but so were 47 percent of their fathers. Among the Vietnamese, 28 percent are in low-skilled production or laboring jobs as were 30 percent of their fathers." Most Vietnamese emigrated to escape political oppression or for freedom. On the other hand, most Chinese emigrated for educational opportunities, while most Indians and Filipinos emigrated for economic and work advantages. The Vietnamese in Houston were worse off than other Asians, although they were doing better than most Blacks and Hispanics. ^*

Other hypotheses

=Genetic differences

Main article: Race and intelligence

Both the self-selecting immigration explanation and the explanation that the racial group simply worked hard for its success are challenged by the observation that the average IQ scores of the East Asian population living in the US and in Asia are similar, and both are higher than the average IQ scores of the White population living in Europe and the US. However, if the IQ test is seen as culturally, socioeconomically, or racially biased, then it is quite obvious the middle-class standing of many Asian Americans and the emphasis on education that is common amongst all middle-class persons provides for this discrepancy. Additionally IQ scores for the African American population are lower than for the White population. Some scientists in related fields to this issue believe genetic biodiversity may play a role in the success of racial groups, though this is debated and difficult to isolate from factors such as socio-economic discrepancies, subcultural discrepancies, social discrimination, and internalization of stereotypes.

The scores obtained by various minorities on tests such as the IQ and SAT could be influenced by cultural and social differences. Also interesting to note is that whites who take natural sciences tests against Asian Americans often score lower regardless of academic history; similarly, a Black person often scores lower than a white person regardless of academic history. It has been argued that this is a clear indicator of the internalization of stereotypes and is called racial target theory.

=Cultural differences

= Cultural factors are thought to be part of the reason why Asian Americans are successful in the United States. East Asian societies themselves, in general, will often place enormous resources and emphasis on education. For example, the Chinese culture places great value on work ethic and the pursuit of knowledge. In traditional Chinese social stratification, scholars were ranked at the top — well above businessmen and landowners. This view of knowledge is evident in the modern lifestyle of many Asian American families, where parents will push their children to study very hard and achieve high marks. Similar cultural tendencies and values are found in South and Southeast Asian families, whose children similarly face extra pressure by parents to succeed in school and to achieve high-ranked jobs.

Also, many Asian Americans believe greatly that work ethic and education trumps natural-born intelligence on the road to success. Many Asian Americans will say that a not-so intelligent person who works diligently in his or her studies will surpass one who is naturally gifted with high intelligence but is lazy or unwilling to work hard.

Effects of the stereotype

According to Gordon H. Chang: The reference to Asian Americans as model minorities has to do with the work ethic, respect for elders, and high valuation of family and elders present in their culture. Despite the fact that this concept seems to valorize Asian Americans, it comes with an underlying notion of their apoliticality. Moreover, such a label one-dimensionalizes Asian Americans as having those traits and no other human qualities, such as vocal leadership, negative emotions, or intolerance towards oppression. Asian Americans are labeled as model minorities because they have not been as much of a "threat" to the U.S. political establishment as blacks, due to a smaller population and less political advocacy. This label seeks to suppress potential political activism through euphemistic complements. (Reference: Asian Americans and Politics: Perspective, Experiences, Prospects by Gordon H. Chang.)

Effects of Model Minority stereotyping

Asian Americans being the most economically successful racial group in the US can create a stereotype as a side effect. Asian Americans may also be commonly stereotyped by the general public as being studious, affluent, and non-violent. In some cases this may have the effect of those with learning disabilities being given less attention than they need. As well, the connotations of being a model minority mean that in school, Asian students are often labeled with the unpopular "nerd" image. Many Asians resent the label of model minority and see it as another attempt to stereotype a minority group.

Asian Americans as a group have a very low crime rate, but a side effect of their success may be a downplaying of the presence of Asian criminal behavior and gangs in several cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver as well as in the state of Hawaii. Occasionally however, news of Asian American criminals receives widespread media coverage, such as the infamous Han Twins Murder Conspiracy in 1996.

The labelling of Asian Americans as the model minority, rather than as a model minority, has led to tensions between them and other minority groups.

Model minority could be a euphemism for the definitive yuppie culture among young adult Asian Americans — particularly for those employed in typical white-collar occupations e.g. medical, law, and computer science.

Asian American status in affirmative action

Because of their high degree of success as a group, Asian Americans do not generally benefit from affirmative action policies the way other minority groups do. In fact, some schools routinely choose lower-scoring applicants from other racial groups, even European American, over Asian American, in an attempt to promote racial diversity and to maintain some proportion to the society's racial demographics.^* One of the highest gaps is at UC Berkeley where the gap between Asian American and African American is about 300 SAT points.

According to a 2005 Princeton University study, if affirmative action were eliminated in college admissions, nearly four out of every five spots lost by African Americans and Hispanic Americans would be given to an Asian American. Summary of Study PDF of study

Cultural references

The film Better Luck Tomorrow plays on the model minority stereotype by depicting a group of East Asian American teenagers who use their academic achievements to cover up criminal activities they are involved with.
In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold is faced with the stereotype of the intelligent, academically successful and "nerdy" East Asian male. Kumar, of South Asian descent and whose father and brother are both medical doctors, denies himself the prospect of going to medical school in defiance of the "Indian doctor" stereotype despite his considerable intellect and knowledge.

Other / European American US groups

Jewish Americans are in some interpretations considered a model minority. Mormons have also been identified as exhibiting model minority characteristics. Furthermore, in some US cities where European Americans do not make up the largest ethnic group such as Atlanta or Detroit, the European American population in general can somewhat be regarded as a model minority considering their vastly lower crime rates and higher personal incomes and educational attainment.

Other Countries

In the United Kingdom, the Jewish, Chinese, and British Indian populations are often considered to be model minorities.

In some areas of Australia such as Sydney and Melbourne, East Asians, South Asians and Jews are considered a model minority. This is often illustrated by the representation of these groups in selective schools compared to population proportion.

Negatively viewed success

In certain countries, minority groups successful in economic and other measures have attracted the reverse sort of attention. In Indonesia,for instance, ethnic Chinese, a group which historically have achieved prominence in business and economics, have been the target of violence and measures aimed at reducing their share of the economy.In Indonesia, according to official figures the ethnic Chinese constitute only 3-4% of the population, yet according to some (controversial) studies control as much as three quarters of the wealth ^*.

The government of post-independence Uganda persecuted the Indian minority who were disproportionately prosperous businessmen and traders. They were expelled from the country by the government of Idi Amin in the 1970s, which also outlawed Judaism and severely persecuted the Abayudaya Jewish community (resulting in an 83% reduction in the size of that community).

External links

Myth versus Facts: Asian American and Model Minorities, criticism by Steve Kangas
Survey Examines Asian Mobility, Stephen Klineberg's systematic survey of Houston's Asian community
Asian-Nation: The Model Minority Image, by C.N. Le, Ph.D.
A Brief History of the Model Minority Stereotype, by Andrew Chin

References

Espiritu, Yen Le (1996). Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws, and Love.
Clark, E. A., & Hanisee, J. (1982). Intellectual and adaptive performance of Asian children in adoptive American settings. Developmental Psychology, 18, 595-599.
Frydman, M., & Lynn, R. (1989). The intelligence of Korean children adopted in Belgium. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 1323-1325.
Chen, C.H., Yorgason, E. (1999). Those amazing Mormons: The media’s construction of Latter-day Saints as a model minority. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Model minority