The Model Minority Myth: How Its Generalizations Have Hurt Asian America and Other Minorities

Growing up, I was labeled the “smart kid.” This was despite how my grades looked. My peers always assumed that I had aced every exam or excelled academically, especially in math or science, and they never needed to see my actual grades to come to this conclusion. I quickly learned that the only reason that others assumed I kept to myself, followed all the rules, and solely focused on my studies was because of one reason; I am Asian. No one genuinely felt the need to truly get to know who I was before making these character judgments.

When you think of Asians, you may think of intelligent, obedient, quiet successors. And this is likely not through any fault of your own but rather evidence of the detrimental effects of the “model minority myth.” The name may not seem familiar, but the concept certainly is. The term “model minority” was coined to describe the ideal minority, the ones who could entirely escape oppression, racism, and discrimination to succeed in their academics and career fields: Asian Americans. The harmful stereotypes imposed by the model minority myth perpetuate a racial wedge between Asian Americans and Black Americans by differentiating them as the “good” and “bad” minority, respectively. This essentially pits minorities against each other instead of encouraging them to work together to fight racism in America. This has been caused due to a portion of the white American population failing to acknowledge Asia’s diverse cultures, disregard the oppression faced by Asian Americans today, and faultily compare the struggles undergone by Asian Americans with those of Black Americans in the United States.

The model minority myth carries an intriguing history and evolutionary pattern. Asians, as a minority, were initially heavily discriminated against. The incarceration camps of Japanese Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act are examples. However, as history continued, the U.S. government repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act as the U.S. became allies with China in World War II. Japanese Americans were paid reparations as part of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Asians evolved from outcasts to receiving praise as the “ideal minority.” However, this “praise” now hides the reality of what makes the experience of being an Asian in the United States.

The model minority myth fits all Asian Americans, regardless of ethnicity, into a stereotype where they are simple, law-abiding citizens who succeed in their academics and pursue careers in fields such as medicine, technology, or engineering. One might think: well, is it not good to be perceived as a high-achieving member of society? Is it not good to be ranked at the top regarding academics, job placement, and income? And they are not wrong, it would be. The problem with the model minority is not quite emphasized in the stereotype itself but rather in its generalizations and the arrogance and consequences that the stereotype induces. It generalizes all Asian ethnic groups into one stereotype. It claims that if Asians could make it in the United States as a minority, so should every other non-white ethnic group. In addition to this, it creates the impression that Asians in America have completely defeated oppression and can all be considered the white man’s equal in terms of achieving success and financial stability in the United States. This is true, except when they are no longer considered equal to white Americans. To elaborate, the model minority allows for the white American population to treat Asians as equals, but only when it benefits them, ultimately meaning that white Americans can recognize Asian achievements and say that as a minority, they were able to completely defeat oppression and succeed just like white citizens. However, the term also gives them the power to continue treating Asians as inferior, thus enabling white supremacy and the othering of the Asian minority from American culture.

An immediate problem is presented when Asian hate and oppression are claimed to be overcome entirely. When there are cases of discrimination against Asian ethnic groups, they either do not receive enough attention from the public or end up going completely unrecognized. The model minority myth offers what can be perceived as an outlet for white guilt, in which white people can excuse their bigotry by pointing to examples of Asian American success. In other words, white Americans can ignore Asian hate and its consequences with this myth, thus making the excuse that racism, discrimination, or oppression towards Asians cannot be horrible or perhaps even truly exist if we see Asians succeeding so much. This thought process is faulty and the leading cause of the invisibility of Asian hate. Hate crimes against Asians occur much more than the media let on. After 9/11, South Asians of all ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds became a target of hate crimes. To emphasize, “In this same period, places of worship were increasingly vandalized and attacked, including the tragic shooting of the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and hate crimes against Muslim community members (and other community members racialized as Muslim) grew in numbers” (SAALT). Hate crimes have only increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As illustrated in Confronting the Invisibility of Anti-Asian Racism, “1 in 6 Asian American adults reported experiencing a hate crime in 2021, up from 1 in 8 in 2020” (Lee). Unfortunately, crimes like this occur frequently and go unnoticed due to the false perceptions created by the model minority myth. Additionally, as previously mentioned, white Americans can get away with making such discriminatory generalizations, calling them derogatory names, and committing an increasingly large amount of hate crimes towards the Asian American community. It eventually all gets pushed under the rug because the “model minority” term focuses more on our successes as a minority group rather than the struggles we still encounter.

The model minority myth fails to recognize the disparities within the Asian population. Asia is composed of 48 countries, all of which are very culturally diverse. Alongside the cultural variation of these nations are disparities in financial, career, and academic success. For example, a Learning for Justice article states that for every $1.21 an Indian woman makes, a Burmese woman makes 50 cents. In terms of academic disparity, South and East Asians tend to do very well, as shown by high test score averages. However, the same is not proven to be true for Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander students. Nevertheless, since the model minority term groups all Asians together, the expectation of high academic achievement is placed upon all Asian students. Besides generalizing an entire continent to fit into one standard, it creates harsh and, many times, stressful and unrealistic expectations for Asian American students.

As made apparent, the model minority myth poses explicit dangers and false stereotypes towards Asian Americans, but its consequences affect more than one minority group. This label has created a racial wedge between Asian Americans and Black Americans. The idea of the “model minority” was coined by a white man, William Petersen. After the formation of this term, a portion of white America has used it to say that if Asian Americans can do well as a minority in the United States, what is stopping Black Americans from doing the same? This statement incorrectly and unjustly compares two different minorities, both of which have experienced racism and oppression but in different ways and through different experiences. By saying this, there is a complete disregard for the years of systemic racism and oppression faced by Black Americans, beginning with slavery. This is further explained by Claire Jean Kim, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, in an article published by NPR:

‘Racism that Asian-Americans have experienced is not what Black people have experienced,’ Kim said. ‘Sullivan is right that Asians have faced various forms of discrimination, but never the systematic dehumanization that Black people have faced during slavery and continue to face today.’ Asians have been barred from entering the U.S. and gaining citizenship and have been sent to incarceration camps, Kim pointed out, but all that is different than the segregation, police brutality and discrimination that African-Americans have endured. (Chow)

African Americans were first brought to the United States to be documented as property, which is just one of many ways white supremacists established African Americans’ inferiority. The first enslaved people brought to the colonies arrived in 1619, and slavery, or the identification of Black Americans as property, was first established as a legal institution in 1641. The United States was founded in 1776, to put the timeline into perspective. It was not until 1787 that Black Americans were not seen as just property but as somewhat of a person. Specifically, they were counted as three-fifths of a citizen for purposes of taxation and representation. And although slaves became recognized as three-fifths of a citizen, it was only done for the benefit of white America. Thus, as one can see, this treatment of minorities according to how it benefits white Americans has been a common theme throughout history. On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified, which abolished slavery as a legal institution. In addition to the 13th Amendment, the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed, which gave Black citizens citizenship and the right to vote. Nevertheless, we were nowhere near close to equality and equity for Black Americans, as seen by laws permitting segregation. The Jim Crow Laws, laws legalizing segregation, were introduced right after the ratification of the 13th Amendment. It was not until 1964 that the Jim Crow Laws were overturned by the signing of the Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Despite this, years of oppression and systematic hate have left a detrimental impact on the Black American community. Slavery and segregation have labeled Black Americans as inferior and created racial prejudice around the community. Its effects can still be observed today in the workforce and other legal institutions.

As for the Asian American population, it is crucial to acknowledge their oppression and discrimination as a minority group. However, it is just as important to see how it differs from what Black Americans have faced. The model minority myth does a good job of hiding hate against Asians, including the discriminatory history of the United States government towards Asian citizens. For example, The Chinese Exclusion Act heavily restricted the immigration of Chinese citizens to the United States. As the U.S. National Archives pointed out, “This act provided a 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States. For the first time, federal law prohibited the entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities” (U.S. National Archives). This is just one example of the many moments of inequity, intolerance, and prejudice experienced by the Asian minority group.

Due to the push of Eastern values and the emphasis on academic achievement, overall success, and family relationships, many Asian ethnic groups have made it high on the academic and socioeconomic ladder. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that Asians, as a minority, could do this because they were not facing an entire system rigged against them since the start of settlement in the Americas. Furthermore, as many Asian ethnic groups have continued reaching high levels of academic and career success, many employers recognize the qualities of hard work, dedication, and intelligence held by this racial group, as the model minority suggests. Thus, because Asians do not face racial or systemic hurdles and negative racial prejudice on the same scale as Black Americans do, it ultimately allows the process of obtaining a high-paying salary and comfortable lifestyle to be more accessible to achieve in terms of overcoming racial obstacles.

It is unreasonable and inequitable to compare both racial groups who have different experiences of being a minority in the United States. The only thing this constant comparison achieves is pitting two minorities against each other. The model minority creates what has been deemed as a “racial hierarchy.” In an article by Jerusalem Demsas and Rachel Ramirez for Vox News, the authors explain that some Black Americans begin to feel economic competition with the influx of other minority groups immigrating to the United States. This causes a competition of which minority group will fall directly under white Americans in terms of socioeconomic status. It is the creation of the racial hierarchy, which infamously continues to place Black Americans at the very bottom. This racial hierarchy, again, encourages this faulty idea that if Asian Americans can succeed in American society, there is no reason that Black Americans should not be able to. Once these minorities are pitted against each other, they become more susceptible to listening and accepting each other’s racial stereotypes and depictions. As the article by Vox goes on to explain,

Espiritu added that an additional barrier was that both groups had already been primed to mistrust each other. As Koreans consumed American media, they internalized racial depictions of Black Americans as violent, uneducated, and poor — similarly, Black Americans had watched (with the rest of America) as Koreans were depicted as untrustworthy during the Korean War (Demsas and Ramirez).

This all sparks from this model minority myth as its effects rank minorities and continue to leave white Americans on the top. With minorities focused on beating each other in this racial hierarchy, they forget what they should really be focusing on: fighting against racist stereotypes and prejudice, which continues to place all minorities as inferior to white Americans in 21st-century America.

Ultimately, in order to combat racism, white supremacy, prejudice, and stereotypes, such as what has been induced through the model minority myth, it is necessary to form bonds between minorities. Despite the history of conflict between Asian Americans and Black Americans on how to address racial, political, or social issues, it is most important to recognize the role of America’s government and legal system in pitting these minorities against each other so that they can work together to combat these racial disadvantages that they have been placed in. Cat Brooks, the co-founder of a Black-led group, Anti Police-Terror Project, further explains the way that America tries to put minorities against each other.

Ms. Brooks said people of color have been pitted against one another by America’s political and legal systems. ‘If me and you are starving and someone, after two weeks of us starving, puts a piece of bread down on the table between the two of us, what’s going to happen?’ she said. ‘We’re going to fight to the death for that bread’ (Browning and Chen).

Asian Americans and Black Americans have been fighting to the death for high socioeconomic status, to gain respect from white superiors in the job market, and, overall, to be taken seriously as students and professionals. It is a competition created by the white man, specifically William Petersen. A competition that only reinforces the power and control that white people continue to hold over non-white groups.

Ultimately, the most significant change comes from those in power. White America must realize that generalizing an entire continent of ethnically and culturally diverse populations into one stereotype produces harm that protrudes any expected beneficial outcomes. It is not until those in power, the white people in power, recognize that labeling us as the “model minority” only further ostracizes us. It is not until they recognize how much we continue to face racism, discrimination, and bigotry. It is not until they recognize that naming Asians as the model minority perpetuates a racial hierarchy that gets structured by white Americans and reinforces white supremacy. It is time for those in power to recognize these factors and make the change.

It is easy to identify the danger within the implications and consequences of the model minority myth. The myth does not establish equality or prove that Asian oppression has been eliminated. Additionally, the ways in which the model minority myth has torn minorities apart, specifically Black and Asian communities, have been exemplified. If we continue to accept these consequences, we are letting ourselves become submissive to the consequences of white supremacy. Essentially, Asian and Black Americans have allowed this one term, created by a white man, to split them apart, putting them on “opposing sides.” Simply recognizing these impacts puts us one step closer to myth-busting this term and allows for progression in the fight for racial equity.

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Works Cited

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About the Author

Simrath Parmar is a rising sophomore at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. She is majoring in economics and is on the pre-law track. Simrath grew up in New Jersey and visited the city frequently when she was young. She fell in love with the diversity that the city has to offer. She especially loved the amount of culture in Jackson Heights and the various museums to visit all throughout Manhattan. She cannot wait to explore more of NYC throughout her college career.