<p>If I was Asian, I would be proud to be called a "model minority," even if I wasn't "up to the standard."</p>
<p>While I agree that the model minority stereotype was built on dubious/biased statistics, I think the statistics you bring up fail to disprove the model minority myth. </p>
<p>You say that a large percentage of Asians do not have a high school degree. Yet, that rate is much lower than the rate for Blacks or Hispanics. The median personal income for Asians is slightly lower than for whites but higher than for other minorities. The medial family income for Asians is actually higher than for whites (probably due to the fact that there are lower rates of one parent families among Asians-yet another stereotype). The percentage of Asians living below the poverty line is half the rate of other minorities and only slightly higher than the rate for whites. In fact, you can argue that without certain discriminatory institutions in American society, Asians would've outpaced whites in every category by now.</p>
<p>Am I trying to perpetuate the model minority myth? Of course not:) But statistics cannot be fought with statistics. We must look for deeper explanations as to why the statistics are the way they are. Are Asians truly smarter than Hispanics or is it because the US only lets in the brightest of the brightest for Asians while many Hispanics are able to cross the border illegal into the US? Are Asians truly more entrepenuerial than blacks (Asians have the highest self-employment rates in the country while blacks have the lowest) or is it because blacks are often discriminated against in securing loans and insurance to start a business?</p>
<p>glucose101: The term "model minority" is not a compliment. It is a construct used to exacerbate minority-minority relations (ex: black-Korean conflict of the early 1990's). I'm Asian. I personally will not accept this tag. I do not believe myself to be superior to other minorities nor do I consider myself inferior to whites (which are the two implications of the term).</p>
<p>I concede that statistics cannot be fought with statistics and that underlying reasons must be sought, going beyond the surface of statistics. There are attributing factors as well, such as, as you mentioned, the discrimination of African Americans, etc.</p>
<p>However, I beg to differ in your question "Are Asians truly smarter than Hispanics or is it because the US only lets in the brightest of the brightest for Asians while many Hispanics are able to cross the border illegal into the US?" </p>
<p>Though used as an example, the concept that the U.S. only "lets in the brightest of the brightest" of Asians and Hispanics must cross the border illegally, resulting in higher statistics in education does not hold when one looks at the immigration of Asian Americans. </p>
<p>Firstly, Asian Americans were not able to immigrate freely with McCarren Act in 1950s as well as the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1880s and Geary Act a decade or so later. Illegal immigration allowed many Asians to enter the United States during the period resulting, after the burning of the records office in San Francisco, "paper sons."</p>
<p>Today, illegal immigration comes not from Hispanics coming over the border, but Asian Americans coming in by plane and taking residence in the United States without proper papers.</p>
<p>Actually SAT statistics for 2000 have Asian Americans getting a higher average of scores than caucasians. Also look at the # of high income asian families and they are much hgiher than those of black or latino descent. Also it has to do a lot with culture many Asian Am. families push their kids harder than black and latino. I know this b/c my mom teaches at a low income school where most of the population is hispanic and many can't speak english. Many of her students think a job paying $10-$15 an hr is good for making a living. Many think that a college education isn't necessary. However many middle to upper class white and Asian students know that they are going to college since they were in grade school. Especially girls in Latino societies where there families think that a HS education is all they need. There are plenty of stories at my mom's school where girls have wanted to go and there families coudn't afford it/didn't want them to go. Poverty levels cause scores to go down. This is fact and many black and latino families are not middle to upper class. There is also a language barrier with latino families. So there are many reasons why Asian Americans are the so called "model minorities". Unfair? yes Untrue? unfortunately not completely.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there aren't as many latinos and blacks in college. especially in engineering. When I went to a hip-hop competition once and my friends and I got back and they (white girls) started complaining about the boos when GWBush's name was mentioned and (the guy on stage asked really ignorant questions) the lack of cheers when asked if anyone got over a 30 on their ACT. they just said "well they were all black." I said "you know my family is white (I'm adopted) and they are democrats and as for the ACT scores well there is more to this college than engineering I know white people that got in with 24s so saying they got in because of their race is ridiculous. Unfortunately there aren't as many black engineers. I also think there wasn't as much shouting for over 30 scores b/c they (I mean I was in shock) hated the commentator and thought his question was ignorant. I did." So unfortunately ignorant people still believe in stereotypes. I thought that would disappear at college (it lessened a lot) but it didn't completely. I just thought I'd add that little story in.</p>
<p>eiffelguy87-again, you must look deeper into the situation. The Asians who are coming to the US (illegally or not) are NOT of the lowest class back in Asia. The farmers, etc. simply do not have enough resources to get themselves over here. The immigrants who come to the US, although not wealthy by US standards, are mostly educated and have a small amount of wealth (esp. when compared with their peers back at home). I do not think you can argue the same with the Mexicans who come across the borders. I would love to see a comparison of the education rates of illegal immigrants from Asian vs. Mexico. Based on this assumption, of course it is reasonable that Asians would have higher social mobility than Hispanics since they are more educated to begin with. Also, keep in mind, the model minority myth is self-perpetuating. Given a choice between a Latino worker and an Asian worker, many employers would take the Asian worker because of the stereotype that they work harder and are more dependable. This just augments the myth.</p>
<p>IlliniBravoEcho: Personally, I think the difference in expectations arise out of these stereotypes. As I have said before, I'm Chinese but my parents never talked to me about going to college during my high school years. It was just a given that I would get straight A's and work hard and go to college and get a high paying job because that's what Asians do. Many of these Latino kids see the stereotype that they were destined to work as maids or farmers and at the same time they experience discriminatory practices used to keep them at that level and eventually they begin to accept that as their fate. Although I did not come from a privileged background, I do believe it is generally easier as an Asian person to try to succeed in college than an African American or Hispanic person. I get into an Ivy League school and everyone recognizes me as a hard worker. A black person gets into an Ivy League school, everyone assumes they got in because of affirmative action.</p>
<p>Are there differences in cultural thinking? Yes. But are those differences leading to the racial stereotypes or are the racial stereotypes leading to such thinking?</p>
<p>By the way, Mexico is by far the largest source of illegal immigration today. Illegal immigration from Asia was a big problem years ago when the US had anti-immigration (esp. anti-Chinese) laws in place. Not today.</p>
<p>Out of the est. 7 million illegal immigrants present in the US in 2000, an estimated 69% were believed to have come from Mexico. Only 6 other countries had more than 100,000 illegal immigrants (compared with the 4.8 million from Mexico). Illegal immigration is much less prevelant in Asian countries than in Mexico. Simple logic would dictate as such since Mexico is only a border-crossing away.</p>
<p>Can a stereotype that says you're smart really be that bad?</p>
<p>Except the point of the stereotype is not to say that Asians are smart (although Asian Americans have embraced it that way) but rather to say that blacks and Latinos are lazy and parasitic.</p>
<p>Hmmm, the situation you have described ("self-perpetuating") leads me to think that society is unable to remove stereotypes.</p>
<p>Rather society is unwilling to remove stereotypes. Those, along with racism, violence and war (amongst others), will always survive as long as we humans do.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that's the truth.</p>
<p>Sociologist William Peterson first used the term model minority in 1966 to describe Japanese-Americans. The term model minority then appeared in a Newsweek on the December 6, 1982 issue (not U.S. News and Reports). The article was titled Asian Americans: A Model Minority and was written in consultant with Paula Chin in New York. On Feb. 1, 1987, CBSs 60 Minutes aired a program called The Model Minority. Mike Wallace aksed the question, Why are Asian American doing so exceptionally well? They must be doing something right. Lets bottle it. </p>
<p>After the appearance of the 1982 article, stories appeared to celebrate the Chinese achievement. In 1986, both the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour and the NBC Nightly News praised the academic prominence of the Chinese and Asian American community, writes the late author Iris Chang.</p>
<p>Coinciding with the appearance of the term "model minority" to describe Asian-Americans in the 1980s was the increased immigration of the Chinese in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1989, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the people of Hong Kong began a huge wave of migration to the United States in order to secure their assets (because Hong Kong would return to the PRC in July 1997). This led to many wealthy millionaires and billionaires to bring their families over here. The fathers of these families maintained a business in Hong Kong, flying back and worth and were called "astronauts." </p>
<p>In 1996, Taiwan held its first direct presidential elections; PRC was threatened by the thought of the pro-Independence groups coming into power and began to demonstrate their military power by missile launches near the coast of Taiwan. Along with the strict education system of Taiwan, wealthy businessmen began to move their families overseas to the United States. However, most could not move their entire families over and instead, they sent their children--ages 8-18--to the U.S. alone to receive an education. These children were called the "parachute" children. The Los Angeles Times ran an article on this incident in the 1990s. This children often received monthly allowances of $4000 and drove BMWs and Mercedes. Psychologically, they were scarred and grew distant from their families.</p>
<p>Thus, in the 1980s and 1990s, the United States saw an influx of wealthy Chinese Americans--particularly those from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This could act as a possible reason to explain the development of the term "model minority" as they were well-established already when they arrived in the United States.</p>
<p>I seriously wish you would do better research. I'm looking at the article right now. It says 1966 US News and World Report. Title is "Success Story of One Minority Group in US"</p>
<p>Actually, my research is quite reliable. </p>
<p>Peterson (the sociologist mentioned in my previous post) first used the term in print in an "Success Story: Japanese American Style" in the New York Times Magazine in January 1966. The U.S. News article described Chinese Americans in December 26, 1966 after the publishing of Peterson's article in January.</p>
<p>In 1971, Newsweek did release an article using the term model minority, and reused it as a headline in Dec. 1982 "Asian Americans: 'A Model Minority.' "</p>
<p>Therefore, though US News and World Report did use the term "model minority" in December of 1966, the term was used in print by Peterson in his article earlier that year and used by Newsweek 1971 and 1982. </p>
<p>Note: There is a conflict of dates regarding Peterson's article. Iris Chang cites 1966 as does Prof. Jerry Kang at UCLA School of Law; some cite 1960 however. Nonetheless, it is well-established that Peterson first used the term in print before the article appearing in *U.S. News and World Reports.</p>
<p>[Edit] *Note: The aforementioned 1971 article from *Newsweek was titled "Success Story: Outwhiting the Whites" in June 1971.</p>
<p>I’m first generation as are all of my cousins and a majority of them ended up at Ivy League schools or at least rather elite schools. But the catch is my family is from West Africa and we’re black. Often times, people often think that Asian American students are exclusionary and are the “model minority”, but from personal experience, parental pressure is basically the same for African immigrant children when it comes to maintaining grades. So its not just an “asian thing”. Most of my black friends whose parents aren’t immigrants aren’t as strict as mine so it depends on individual experience. But that’s just me.</p>
<p>Someone’s been necroing.
Five year-old thread, anyone?</p>