THE BLACK MODEL MINORITY

This paper interrogates the fundamental anti-Blackness of model minority discourses and how they are embedded in structures of anti-Blackness and settler colonialism through a genealogical examination of the contradictory history of the “Black model minority” within the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute’s Indian Program. This program educated both Black and Indigenous students throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and purposefully made racialized comparisons between groups. I read this history through present day scholarship on the model minority myth in relation to anti-Blackness and settler colonialism. I argue that the “Black model minority” at Hampton was predicated on upholding slavery through defining it as an educational project and that slavery and settler colonialism are intimately linked through pedagogy. This narrative of the Black model minority demonstrates that slavery and land dispossession were framed as pedagogic by industrial education institutions. Ultimately, this work questions the idea of “valuing education,” which is present in model minority discourses across many contexts, and how it is complicated by this history.

"Too White": Model Minority counter-stories in Canadian institute of higher education

The Model Minority Myth (MMM) is a discursive trait of Asianness in the North American context. It defines East Asian identity as a hardworking and a resilient group despite experiencing discrimination. Marginality in a positive stereotype seems like an oxymoron, however when the MMM is the only representation of the Asian community, it robs individuality of Asians who are excluded from this representation. Historically, the monolithic representation of the Asian diaspora with the MMM was used as a hegemonic tool to oppress racialized groups, including other Asians to legitimize whiteness. In this MRP, narratives of three participants provided counter stories to erode monolithic stories of Asians. Furthermore, it provided the discursive space to have conversations about Asianness with the participants. Keywords : model minority, Asianness, race, gender, narrative approach, counter-story

"Too White": Model Minority counter-stories in Canadian institute of higher education

The Model Minority Myth (MMM) is a discursive trait of Asianness in the North American context. It defines East Asian identity as a hardworking and a resilient group despite experiencing discrimination. Marginality in a positive stereotype seems like an oxymoron, however when the MMM is the only representation of the Asian community, it robs individuality of Asians who are excluded from this representation. Historically, the monolithic representation of the Asian diaspora with the MMM was used as a hegemonic tool to oppress racialized groups, including other Asians to legitimize whiteness. In this MRP, narratives of three participants provided counter stories to erode monolithic stories of Asians. Furthermore, it provided the discursive space to have conversations about Asianness with the participants. Keywords : model minority, Asianness, race, gender, narrative approach, counter-story