The model minority myth is a sociological phenomenon that refers to the stereotype of, as well as data on, [1] certain minority groups, particularly Asian Americans, as successful, and well-adjusted, as demonstrating that there is little or no need for social or economic assistance for the same or different minority groups. The model minority stereotype emerged in the United States during the Cold War in the 1950s and was first explicitly used as a term in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement as an antithesis to African American claims of racial oppression and has perpetuated notions that other minority groups can achieve the same success through hard work and that discrimination and systemic barriers do not impede upward mobility. [2] The model minority myth has been widely criticized as oversimplistic and misleading, and for being used to justify discriminatory policies and neglect of marginalized communities. [3] [4]
During World War II, when Japanese Americans faced immense pressure to behave as model citizens in order to quell racist sentiment toward those of Japanese heritage, the image of a model minority emerged. [5] The image of a model minority continued to grow in prominence after World War II because the Japanese American community had experienced significant economic and educational success. Post World War II, the conception of a model minority fit with American nation building efforts during the Cold War in the 1950s. [6] In this era, the United States was particularly concerned with the threat of communism, and race mixing. Specifically, the United States was concerned with the expansion of a communist China, and made every effort to contain the expansion of Chinese influence throughout Asia and beyond. [6] While at home, following the racial liberalism era of the 1940s, the United States pursued a policy of racial assimilation to manage the country's growing diversity that carried over to the Cold War era. [6] [7] This policy of racial assimilation showed to nations threatened to be influenced by communism that the United States was a liberal democracy where people of color could achieve socioeconomic prosperity. [6]
It was only until the 1960s Civil Rights Movement that the concept "model minority" was made explicit. [5] [8] [6] A prominent The New York Times article in 1966 by sociologist William Petersen ("Success Story, Japanese-American Style") is most commonly credited for the origination of the model minority concept. [5] [8] [9] [7] In this article, Petersen contrasted the economic and educational success of Japanese Americans to the "problem minority", other racial groups whose lack of perceived economic and educational success proved that Japanese Americans had risen above discrimination. [5] Petersen's article framed Japanese Americans as an embodiment of success through hard work and ultimately, justified the United States as a meritocratic society in which so-called "problem minorities" could also rise above racism and discrimination to succeed. [5] Because the 1960s Civil Rights Movement was marked by African American claims of racial oppression, many scholars argue that Petersen's article served to present economic and educational success amongst Japanese Americans as an antithesis to such claims of racial oppression. [8]
Petersen's article is credited with originating the model minority concept, but one common misconception is that Petersen also coined the term "model minority". [7] Reference to a "model" minority group first appeared in a U.S. News and World Report article in 1966 ("Success Story of One Minority Group in the U.S."). [7] Though Petersen's article only made reference to Japanese Americans, the U.S News and World Report article applied the model minority concept to Chinese Americans, and claimed that they overcame racial discrimination faced by other minority groups, namely African Americans, through so-called traditional values of "hard work, thrift, and morality". [7] In addition to Chinese Americans, the model minority term was later applied to Asian Americans groups like Korean, and Indian Americans, who were also seen as highly educated and successful.
Post Civil Rights Era to Present Day
Following the Civil Rights Era, the model minority term continued to grow in prominence and has been perpetuated by United States media, academia, and popular culture. It is often used to compare model minorities to other minority groups, such as African Americans and Latinos. [10] The growing acceptance of the model minority myth may be partially attributed to the 1965 Immigration Act, which abolished national origin quotas and based admission on skills and profession instead. [11] As a result, from 1965 to 1979, many immigrants from Asia were highly-educated professionals, like physicians and scientists, and this demographic and their children makes up a significant portion of the Asian American community today. [11] By the 1980s, many media outlets reported that Asian Americans had skyrocketing college enrollment rates, fueling praise for Asian Americans as a successful minority group due to their superior work ethic. [9] [11] A Fortune magazine article in 1986 by Anthony Ramirez ("America's Super Minority"), for example, stated, "Asian Americans are [simply] smarter than the rest of us, and they push their children to excel in school." [9] The Fortune article, when addressing whether it is a problem that Asian Americans have problems moving up the corporate hierarchy, asserted that Asian Americans would "solve that problem themselves by being self-starters and adapting to American management culture". [9] Another famous example of the model minority myth perpetuated through media was the 1987 Time magazine which featured a cover photo of, "Those Asian American WHIZ KIDS." [12] [13] Today, similar to the skilled-based immigration resulting from the 1965 Immigration Act, many Asian American immigrants who are highly educated are often selected through student visas for higher education, H1-B skill-based visas, or merit-based immigration systems that favors those with advanced degrees or specialized skills. This has led to a disproportionate concentration of highly educated and successful Asian Americans in certain professions, such as medicine, engineering, and technology, that continues to fuel the model minority myth.
Because the model minority myth suggests that those designated as model minorities, such as Asian Americans, are a homogenous group characterized by a singular conception of educational and occupational success, [5] critics of the model minority myth argue that it oversimplifies complex issues of race, class, and discrimination, and ignores the many obstacles that Asian Americans and other minority groups face. [14] This can lead to a neglect of policies and programs that address systemic barriers of success and can also contribute to inter-minority tensions and further discrimination. [15]
For instance, some scholars argue that the model minority myth has been used as a tool to assist the advancement of color-blind ideologies and agendas within politics that argue against the existence of racial oppression or its alleged impact on economic outcomes, and reinforce the attainability of the American Dream. [5] [9] [16] By using the model minority myth as a tool to perpetuate the American Dream and blame other people of color for their own struggles, critics of the model minority myth worry that it could erode support for government assistance programs. [9]
Additionally, many critics of the model minority myth argue that the model minority myth masks intra-group inequality. [5] For Asian Americans, a common criticism is that their classification as a model minority obstructs the diversity that encompasses an Asian American identity and the inequalities experienced across Asian Americans. [5] Asian Americans belong to more than twenty-four distinct ethnic groups, with distinct cultures. [5] Even within a specific ethnic group, there are significant differences in religious practices, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, and much more. The reality is that many Asian American groups face discrimination and poverty, with particular Asian American groups, such as Cambodian Americans and Hmong Americans, having poverty rates higher than that of European Americans. [17] [18] [9]
Critics of the model minority myth also argue that the model minority myth leads those in the dominant group, like White Americans, to believe that racism against the model minority, like Asian Americans, does not exist. [5] [9] This can perpetuate the belief that Asian Americans do not need resources nor support, and delegitimize their voiced struggles. As such, a study conducted by McGowan and Lindgren found that those who view Asian Americans as hard working and intelligent are more likely to believe that Asian Americans face little discrimination in areas such as job recruitment and housing, demonstrating how positive perceptions of the model minority myth could impact an individual's ability to recognize and support instances of socioeconomic inequality. [9] Affirmative action policies that exclude Asian Americans due to their incorrectly perceived universally high rates of educational and occupational attainment are another commonly cited example used to illustrate how the model minority myth can further perpetuate social and economic inequalities. [5]
The model minority myth is also commonly criticized for serving as a tool that divides racial minorities to ultimately maintain systemic White supremacy. [8] [9] By applying critical race theory, scholars have examined how the model minority myth fits into broader racial dynamics within the United States. [8] Application of critical race theory has classified model minorities as examples of middleman minorities. Middleman minorities are often granted economic privileges but neither economic nor political privileges, leading to tension and hostility from the elites and the masses they are situated between. [8] Coupled with an understanding that the model minority term was historically and is still especially attributed to Asian Americans, applying the middleman minority theory to the use of the model minority term places Asian Americans in a racial bind between White Americans and other people of color. [8] [9] In this arrangement, the model minority term serves to present Asian Americans as self-sufficient and high achieving, whose stereotype of success is used to maintain White dominance by blaming other people of color for their struggles [19] and to distract individuals from noticing and criticizing systems of White dominance. [9] [20]
Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racism refers to violation of racial equality based on equal opportunities or based on equality of outcomes for different races or ethnicities, also called substantive equality.
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their race, ancestry, ethnicity, and/or skin color and hair texture. Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain group. Governments can discriminate explicitly in law, for example through policies of racial segregation, disparate enforcement of laws, or disproportionate allocation of resources. Some jurisdictions have anti-discrimination laws which prohibit the government or individuals from being discriminated based on race in various circumstances. Some institutions and laws use affirmative action to attempt to overcome or compensate for the effects of racial discrimination. In some cases, this is simply enhanced recruitment of members of underrepresented groups; in other cases, there are firm racial quotas. Opponents of strong remedies like quotas characterize them as reverse discrimination, where members of a dominant or majority group are discriminated against.
Racial color blindness refers to the belief that a person's race or ethnicity should not influence their legal or social treatment in society.
Discrimination based on skin tone, also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice and discrimination in which people of certain ethnic groups, or people who are perceived as belonging to a darker-skinned racial group, are treated differently based on their darker skin tone.
The term "person of color" is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the United States; however, since the 2010s, it has been adopted elsewhere in the Anglosphere, including relatively limited usage in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and Singapore.
The term model minority refers to a minority group, defined by factors such as ethnicity, race, or religion, whose members are perceived to be achieving a higher socioeconomic status in comparison to the overall population average. Consequently, these groups are often regarded as a role model or reference group for comparison to external groups (outgroups). This success is typically assessed through metrics including educational attainment, representation within managerial and professional occupations, household income, and various other socioeconomic indicators such as criminal activity and strong family and marital stability. The prominent association of the model minority concept is with Asian Americans within the United States. Additionally, analogous concepts of classism have been observed in numerous European countries, leading to the stereotyping of specific ethnic groups.
In social justice theory, internalized oppression is a recognized understanding in which an oppressed group accepts the methods and incorporates the oppressive message of the oppressing group against their own best interest. Rosenwasser (2002) defines it as believing, adopting, accepting, and incorporating the negative beliefs provided by the oppressor as the truth.
Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, age, and weight. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality.
Covert racism is a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. Concealed in the fabric of society, covert racism discriminates against individuals through often evasive or seemingly passive methods. Covert, racially biased decisions are often hidden or rationalized with an explanation that society is more willing to accept. These racial biases cause a variety of problems that serve to empower the suppressors while diminishing the rights and powers of the oppressed. Covert racism often works subliminally, and much of the discrimination is done subconsciously.
Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States are ethnic stereotypes found in American society about first-generation immigrants and their American-born descendants and citizenry with East Asian ancestry or whose family members who recently emigrated to the United States from East Asia, as well as members of the Chinese diaspora whose family members emigrated from Southeast Asian countries. Stereotypes of East Asians, analogous to other ethnic and racial stereotypes, are often erroneously misunderstood and negatively portrayed in American mainstream media, cinema, music, television, literature, video games, internet, as well as in other forms of creative expression in American culture and society. Many of these commonly generalized stereotypes are largely correlative to those that are also found in other Anglosphere countries, such as in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as entertainment and mass media are often closely interlinked between them.
Reverse racism, sometimes referred to as reverse discrimination, is the concept that affirmative action and similar color-conscious programs for redressing racial inequality are forms of anti-white racism. The concept is often associated with conservative social movements, and reflects a belief that social and economic gains by Black people and other people of color cause disadvantages for white people.
Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which a presumed superior race are consistently ranked above other races. These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo.
Laissez-faire racism is closely related to color blindness and covert racism, and is theorised to encompass an ideology that blames minorities for their poorer economic situations, viewing it as the result of cultural inferiority. The term is used largely by scholars of whiteness studies, who argue that laissez-faire racism has tangible consequences even though few would openly claim to be, or even believe they are, laissez-faire racists.
In the United States, economic competition and racial prejudice have both contributed to long-lasting racial tensions between African Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. There have also been inter-racial tensions between African Americans and Asian Americans.
In the United States, housing segregation is the practice of denying African Americans and other minority groups equal access to housing through the process of misinformation, denial of realty and financing services, and racial steering. Housing policy in the United States has influenced housing segregation trends throughout history. Key legislation include the National Housing Act of 1934, the G.I. Bill, and the Fair Housing Act. Factors such as socioeconomic status, spatial assimilation, and immigration contribute to perpetuating housing segregation. The effects of housing segregation include relocation, unequal living standards, and poverty. However, there have been initiatives to combat housing segregation, such as the Section 8 housing program.
The sociology of race and ethnic relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of systemic racism, like residential segregation and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups.
In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races and ethnicities. Asian Americans have the highest median income, followed by White Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. A variety of explanations for these differences have been proposed—such as differing access to education, two parent home family structure, high school dropout rates and experience of discrimination and deep-seated and systemic anti-Black racism—and the topic is highly controversial.
Second-generation immigrants in the United States are individuals born and raised in the United States who have at least one foreign-born parent. Although the term is an oxymoron which is often used ambiguously, this definition is cited by major research centers including the United States Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center.
According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), women and racial minorities are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Scholars, governments, and scientific organizations from around the world have noted a variety of explanations contributing to this lack of racial diversity, including higher levels of discrimination, implicit bias, microaggressions, chilly climate, lack of role models and mentors, and less academic preparation.
In the Western world or in non-Asian countries, terms such as "racism against Asians" or "anti-Asian racism" are typically used in reference to racist policies, discrimination against, and mistreatment of Asian people and Asian immigrants by institutions and/or non-Asian people.
