Among the many stereotypical misconceptions that the Model Minority myth fosters, there are a few specific ones that I deeply resonate with. They also apply to my own experiences of failure at being the ideal Asian American that I grew up forcing to mold myself into. Along with exploring the ways in which the Model Minority Myth has acted as a foundation for my own failures, I will also discuss how the myth has failed the Asian American community as a whole.
One major stereotype that the myth suggests is that Asian Americans are a single monolithic group. This is proved to be false as the demographic of Asian Americans make up 22 million or 7% of the United States’ population. These individuals can trace their ancestry back to different regions around the world. The regions include East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Each of these regions also umbrella various ethnicities. The figure here shows an approximate measure of the different ethnicities that the major regions of Asia hold (Jin 2021). This makes the misconception of Asian Americans being forced into a singular monolithic group transparent. It also shows how this stereotype fails to encapsulate the diversity of the Asian American identity, which then neglects the unique characteristics, cultures, and visibility of these various ethnicities.
I can also personally relate to this as I am an ethnic minority; Lahu, to be exact. Lahu people are known as groups of indigenous and underrepresented people of Asia. The Lahu tend to live in remote, isolated areas which helps explain why our culture has remained relatively untouched by the outside world (Hays 2015). This was until the Vietnam war happened in the mid-to-late 1900’s. Lahu men were recruited by the CIA to help the United States fight the communist party and were referred to as the U.S. Secret Army (Ucanr). Because of this, Lahu people, including my grandparents and parents, were sent to refugee camps in Thailand, in which they waited to be sponsored and seek refuge in the United States. My family were forced to come to this country because of war, and were faced with another battle of surviving in a foreign country with little-to-no bare necessities. In short, my family history and cultural background as being a part of an indigenous ethnic group is one of the greatest factors that contribute to my feeling of being “othered” and failing to fit into the typical Asian American stereotype. This evidently proves that the Asian American identity cannot be flattened into one singular narrative as myself and millions of others have their own unique cultural experiences.
Another major Asian American trope that the Model Minority Myth falsely advertises is the stereotype that all Asian Americans are well-educated and high earning. In reality, research has shown that income equality, which is “a measure of the economic gap between the rich and poor”, is the greatest among Asian Americans. To be more specific, Indian American households are the highest-earning group with a median income of $100,000 a year, whereas Burmese American households are on the opposite end of the spectrum being the lowest-earning group with a median income of about $36,000 a year . In 2015, it was found that some 15% of immigrants from South and East Asia lacked a high school diploma, compared with 9% of native-born Americans. Poverty rates are also known to be extremely varied between certain Asian American communities (Kochhar et al. 2018). This means that although there is a misconception that Asian Americans are all “smart” and “wealthy”, it remains prevalent that racial and cultural background does not determine educational and financial status.
In my own case, I grew up in a low-income refugee household in an impoverished area of a city with an Asian demographic of 5% compared to a demographic of 84% White. My parents do the best they can with their factory wages, but the title of being poor working class Asian Americans seems inescapable. Although I was aware growing up that I am a low-income first generation student of refugee parents, my financial status never became so obvious until I came to college and became exposed to other Asian American lifestyles through the lives of my newfound friends. Because of this, I felt as if I was failing at being a “real” Asian American because my parents did not pursue higher education and relied on low-income jobs, which caused my youth to be filled with missed opportunities due to having zero financial backing. Now, I realize that this stereotype of Asian Americans being well-educated and high-earning is highly toxic as it promotes unrealistic expectations.
One of the most prominent and detrimental stereotypes that the Model Minority promotes is how Asian Americans face less discrimination than other minority groups. When referring back to historical events, it is evident that racism, xenophobia, and discrimination against the Asian community has remained prevalent since the earlier years of the United States. Examples of these anti-Asian sentiments in a historical context include the 1882 Chinese exclusion act, which was the first direct race-based law in the US and Executive Order 9066, which resulted from the pearl harbor bombing that emerged anti-Japanese sentiments into American society leading to the internment of all Japanese Americans. These are just only a few of the multitude of historical events that are rooted with anti-Asian sentiment.
This is also related to the idea of a “racial wedge” that divides Asian Americans from other racially marginalized communities. Throughout history, minority groups have always been pitted against each other to help maintain the racist hierarchy that the people in power have built society upon. Black Americans are the common comparison of Asian Americans in which the latter is used as a scapegoat to undermine the successes of the former. Reporter and author Kat Chow beautifully articulated this phenomenon by saying, “The idea that black failure and Asian success cannot be explained by inequities and racism, and that they are one and the same; this allows a segment of white America to avoid any responsibility for addressing racism or the damage it continues to inflict” (Chow 2017).
More recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the hardships and illness, the Asian community also had to experience additional racism, xenophobia, and bigotry (Neol 2020). This was due to COVID-19 being falsely tied with the Asian community as a whole because of its Chinese origins. The world utilized their anti-Asian sentiment and expressed it through acts of violence, which led to an exponential increase in hate crimes targeting the Asian community. In 2020, it was found that Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Surge 145%, while overall hate crime Drops 6% (CSUSB). If this mere fact does not prove that discrimination and prejuidce against Asian Americans exists, then what will?
Jin, C. H. (2021). “6 charts that dismantle the trope of Asian Americans as a model minority”. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/999874296/6-charts-that-dismantle-
Hays, Jeffrey. (2015) “Lahu Minority”. Facts and Details. https://factsanddetails.com/asian/cat66/sub417/item2737.html.
Ucanr. “Hmong, Lao, Mien, Lahu, Khmu - Refugees From Laos”. Small Farms and Specialty Cropshttps://ucanr.edu/sites/Small_Farms_and_Specialty_Crop/files/90299.pdf
Kochhar, Rakesh, and Anthony Cilluffo. (2018). “Income Inequality in the U.S. Is Rising Most Rapidly among Asians.” Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/07/12/
Chow, K. (2017, April 19). “'model minority' myth again used as a racial wedge between Asians and Blacks”. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/19/524571669/
Noel, T. K. (2020). Conflating culture with COVID-19: Xenophobic repercussions of a global pandemic. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2(1), 100044.
CSUSB, Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. (2020). "FACT SHEET: Anti-Asian Prejudice March 2021 Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism"