The Model Minority Myth is the assumption that all Asian Americans are hard-working, naturally smart, docile, and wealthy. This stereotype often pushes the American Dream that dedication leads to success, casting Asian Americans as the “ideal minority” compared to other races. Let’s take a look at the history of this myth, why it’s harmful, and how it operates today.
When the myth began in the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement had taken off, amplifying racial inequality. As Karthick Ramakrishnan, a public policy professor at the University of California Riverside notes, “[It was] not just the notion that all Asian Americans are successful or high skilled or high income, but also to contrast Asian Americans with African Americans and to hold Asian Americans up as models.” The differences in the African and Asian American experiences became more apparent during this period and white Americans who were resistant to change often deployed stereotypes to deflect from the movement. “‘Instead of complaining and protesting, why can’t they succeed in the same way?’” Ramakrishnan said, regarding the prevailing attitude at the time. “That was the model minority myth.”
“[It was] not just the notion that all Asian Americans are successful or high skilled or high income, but also to contrast Asian Americans with African Americans and to hold Asian Americans up as models.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/behind-model-minority-myth-why-studious-asian-stereotype-hurts-n792926
Today, the myth obscures issues at the heart of the Asian-American community. Income inequality has worsened in recent decades, with the top 10% wealthiest earning nearly 11 times more than the bottom 10%. This gap has increased by 77% since 1970, leading to the most growth for Asian Americans at the top but also the least amount of growth for those at the bottom. Lower-income Asian-American groups have also experienced stagnation in wage increases, leading to higher poverty rates. On average, about 10% of Asian Americans live below the poverty line, jumping to 25% for Mongolian and Burmese Americans. A major contributing factor is education. While the model minority assumes all Asians are well-educated, it varies greatly by ethnicity. Nearly 75% of Indian Americans have at least a bachelor’s degree but that number bottoms out around 15% for Bhutanese Americans.
This stark disparity speaks to the diversity in the Asian-American experience. Despite the model minority stereotype, Asian-Americans are not a monolithic community. While many certainly thrive and even outperform their white counterparts, others are left behind and subject to racism. In 2021, UC Berkeley interviewed Asian-American students on their experiences with the model minority myth. As one student, Vivian Feng, explained, “People internalize the model minority myth and say, ‘You got in, you’re smart. You can get through it, you’ll pass your classes.’ But in reality, I don’t feel like that because I am a first-generation college student who went to an under-resourced high school.” Other students, such as Erinn Wong, express the added layer of racism against black Americans that the myth perpetuates: “It wasn’t until college that I was able to put two and two together and recognize that these stereotypes are rooted in anti-Blackness and white supremacy to show that Asian Americans are the ‘model minority’ and to situate Black Americans as the ‘problem minority’.”
“People internalize the model minority myth and say, ‘You got in, you’re smart. You can get through it, you’ll pass your classes.’ But in reality, I don’t feel like that because I am a first-generation college student who went to an under-resourced high school.”
https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/thoughts-on-the-model-minority-myths-impact-on-asian-americans/
Unfortunately, the effects of this stereotype don’t stop with education. In the workplace, Asian employees are more likely to be seen as unassertive and passive, resulting in less leadership positions and opportunities compared to their white counterparts. In fact, white men and women are nearly 155% more likely to hold leadership positions than Asian-Americans, who are already underrepresented in high level roles. Margaret Chin, a professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College and author of Stuck: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder explains that a “bamboo ceiling” exists in the workplace, where Asian American employees are viewed as competent workers but unfit to lead. For Asian women in particular, there’s an added dimension. Despite being seen as intelligent and hard-working, they are especially susceptible to being labeled as passive and submissive. Worse yet, attempting to break out of this mold often leads to complaints of these women being too bold or aggressive. Unfourtunately, this intersection of racism and misogyny is rarely discussed.
The fact is, all Asian-Americans should be empowered to succeed because of their accomplishments, not because of a racist myth. But reform cannot happen without action and awareness. While the resilience of AAPI should be celebrated, it also requires reflection and change on a national and societal level.