According to Prashad in The Karma of Black Folk, Asian immigrants who were previously denied entry and citizenship to the United States were permitted to immigrate in 1965 under the Immigration and Nationality Act as technical workers. Fore example, Indians who had degrees in the STEM field were recruited during the Cold War to expedite the moon landing in response to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik. The U.S. required only skilled people, which consequently had or achieved a higher economic status and education. These elite immigrants were then unfairly compared to other minorities in the U.S. that suffered under discrimination and segregation, becoming a model image of what white Americans think non-white Americans should be, the model minority. Therefore, the phrase “model minority” was first discussed in 1966 to distinguish the well-off “good minority” from the “bad minority.” Kim says in “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans” that Peterson’s article was the first to attribute Japanese success in America to their “culture,” a Japanese “Tokugawa” ethic, and to compare this model to the lack of success seen in the Black community. He emphasizes similarities between Protestant ethic and “Tokugawa” values, their perceived culture being foreign though Japanese Americans had been Americans for generations. Their supposed lack of political involvement allowed them to focus more on generating wealth. He suggests that the Black community fails to achieve success due to their “deficient culture,” the political activity that paved the way for all minorities to resist discrimination, and that they should be more like the Japanese “model minority.” Thus, we can see that the “model minority” myth was developed to pit Asian Americans against other “problem minorities.”
In the video “Affirmative Action,” the “model minority” myth is reproduced by the AACE when they say that they worked hard for the American dream, and that affirmative action and other racially conscious social programs are standing in the way of their success. Hasan Minhaj mentions that Zhao wrote a book attributing his success to Confucian values, perpetuating the “model minority” myth that the cultural uniqueness of Asian Americans solely determined their success. This ignores the civil rights movement that the Black community fought for, that even allowed universities to be racially integrated. Furthermore, their inability to be accepted into these Ivy League colleges, despite of their hard work, while legacy students are given priority, emphasize the limits of Asian “gung-ho.”
Hi, I agree with how you mentioned that the US only allowing “skilled” Asian immigrants perpetuated the model minority myth, and that is what the ideal minority person should be like, and if any one didn’t meet the American expectation of a model minority they were seen as failures or unfit to be citizens. This harmful stereotype not only places pressure on asians and forces them to only focus on being accepted in society as the ideal minority but at the same time makes other minority groups seen as failures, thugs and etc. This is why this model minority myth is harmful to not only asians but other minorities as well.
Hey Garey, you make a great point. Elite immigrants were compared to other minorities. I don’t think it was fair to do that comparison because it is hard enough for some minorities to prove themselves so clearly that was never meant to be equality. Also, this term model minority for Asians put a lot of pressure on their need to end in success.
Hi,
I agree with you that the United States is always looking for top talents in the world, such as doctors and scientists. However, at least half of the scientists working for the government come from Asian countries.
I agree with you, people should not be treated too special or too poorly because of their race and what benefits it has on the former, rather than the latter
Agreed. The issue is that the whole ‘model minority’ idea just serves to put down other groups of minorities. It seeks to create a rift between minority groups, while also putting a considerable amount of unfair pressure on Asian Americans.