Model Minority

Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been hailed as the model minority of American society. Seen as the exceptional group of immigrants and the example of successful assimilation, they are presumed to have achieved the American Dream and to be free from racialization. This chapter disrupts the idealization of the myth by analyzing the ways it contributes to maintaining social injustice. Grounded in Michel Foucault's (1977) notion of the norm, this analysis demonstrates how an affirmative stereotype that reflects exceptionality and exemplariness fosters and reproduces relations of discrimination and alienation. Butler's (2004) work on vulnerability is used to illuminate how this paradoxical effect of the norm takes place through the structuring of relations between Asian Americans and White mainstream Americans, between Asian Americans and other minorities, as well as among Asian Americans. This chapter challenges the reader to re-examine the myth and to explore ways to transform societal relations.

“You Speak Good English”

This chapter describes how the first author, Rong, has experienced stereotyping as a Chinese female immigrant and doctoral student in America, as her experiences typify the experiences of the model minority. Drawing from Rong's personal journal reflections, the authors use autoethnography as the methodology to present her lived experiences as research. Through reflections on Rong's own understandings, this writing seeks to connect individual experiences to larger social, cultural, and political conditions of the United States (Ellis, 2004). The authors recount four different personal encounters with stereotyping in Rong's local community and in the process of pursuing higher education, and discuss the psychosocial impacts resulting from this type of discrimination. Through this work, the authors seek to contribute to the discourse of the social problem of stereotyping for the so-called “model minority.”

From Model Minority to “Angry Asian Man”

In various social media formats, Asian Americans have posted angry and creative reactions to cyber racism. This chapter discusses the benefits of using social media discourse analysis to teach students about the modern societal impact of the model minority stereotype and Asian Americans who resist online. Methods and theories that support this interdisciplinary approach include racial identity development theory, racial formations, critical race theory, feminist perspectives, and culturally relevant pedagogy. As a result, students learn to deconstruct cultural productions that shape the sociopolitical meanings of Asian American identity while critically reflecting on their own experiences with the stereotype. The work discussed in this chapter is based on participatory action research principles to develop critical media literacy, foster counter-hegemonic stories, and promote social change that expands our knowledge, institutional support, and compassion for the divergent experiences of Asian Americans, particularly in college settings.

The Intersection of the Asian American Model Minority Myth and Sports

While the model minority stereotype depicts Asian Americans as having somehow “made it” in American society, rarely does the discourse involve Asian American athletes. The purpose of this chapter is to delineate how race and the model minority myth were an integral part of the media coverage and affected perceptions of the phenomenon known colloquially as “Linsanity,” which charted the unprecedented rise of Jeremy Lin. In 2012, Jeremy Lin became one of the most famous players in the NBA. By exploring the popular press coverage of this event, fueled by the Internet and social media, the intersection of the model minority myth and athletics are investigated. Through a combination of media critique and analysis, narrative, psychological literature, and coverage of other Asian and Asian American athletes, the authors illustrate how racism was a prominent factor and a significant part of the everyday discourse that permeated the coverage of Jeremy Lin.

A Double-Edged Sword

The model minority stereotype of Asian Americans creates a multitude of identity crises for Asian minorities. Asians who cannot meet the incredibly high standards set before them by such classifications face crises and end up either rebelling against their culture and the dominant White culture or wallowing in shame for their failure to meet said expectations. On a larger scale, the stereotype does not consider class or habitus and forms of capital that this heterogeneous and diverse community possesses. This chapter provides a theoretical examination of the effects of the model minority stereotype on Asian immigrants, with a focus on West Asians. The chapter reveals economic and cultural inequities the model minority stereotype causes within immigrant communities and the larger U.S. society, demonstrating how the stereotyping operates as a subsystem of Whiteness used to promote the inequitable ideology of achieving the American Dream through hard work while bringing racism to the forefront.

“I Hate My Own Race. The Teachers Just Always Think We're Smart”

The chapter examines how Asian American female youth resist the Model Minority Stereotype (MMS). The author reports findings on the identity struggles of three youth who are raced as the “smart Chinese girls,” gendered as “the Chinese sorority sitting in the back of the room,” and classed as “low-income kids at a ghetto school in Chicago.” The findings discuss how teacher-student relationships impact youth identity formation, and how youth desire cultural identities free from racist discourse perpetuated through “racial epithet” (Embrick & Henricks, 2013). Re-conceptualizing the MMS as a “racial epithet” challenges educators to disrupt racialized discourses.

Thwarting or Embodying Model Minority Stereotypes

This chapter provides a critical review of research on Asian international students' educational experiences in American higher education, highlighting key findings and identifying trends and dominant narratives that account for adjustment struggles, issues, stresses, and challenges. The authors argue that despite a large amount of research on the complex realities associated with Asian international students' adjustment experiences, such as the academic, the psychological, the sociocultural, and the linguistic, the discourse on model minority stereotypes has yet to include meaningful research on Asian international students. In an effort to advance the theoretical underpinnings for research on Asian international students, a new Transitory Accommodation Model (TAM) is presented, focusing primarily on academic pressure and motivation, academic self-efficacy, and acculturation to a new academic environment. The model builds on existing theoretical principles associated with academic self-worth, coping ability, and social connectedness within a new culture and academic setting. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Spelling Otherness

In the last 15 years, as many as 11 young Americans of Indian descent have won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This pattern of one small community's dominance in academic competitions has been seen not just in the spelling bee but also in geography bees, math competitions, and science Olympiads. This has led mainstream media to resurrect the notion of the “Model Minority,” with Indian Americans becoming the new holders of this eponym. This chapter analyzes the discursive construction of Indian Americans as racial emblems in media reports and online message boards. Using Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's notion of “color-blind racism” and Edward Said's theory of Orientalism, the chapter discusses how these children have become exemplars of racial assimilation even as they are indelibly marked as “forever foreign,” and why Indian-Americans feel the compulsion to attempt to conquer “the master's tools.”

Narratives of Asian/American Educators

Asian/American educators are often reified as the model minority and are regarded as smart, quiet, and reserved, and willing to conform to the dominant discourse and culture (Fairclough, 2001; Ramanathan, 2006). When they do not mold to this ascribed role, they can be avoided, found peculiar, and isolated (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). This chapter examines the narratives of three Asian/American teachers in the Midwestern United States. These narratives are instructive in individual and collective racial identity development, as well as the cultural formation of emerging definitions of what it means to be an Asian/American professional in U.S. public schools.

The Model Minority Narrative and Its Effect on Asian American Identity and Social Status

Asian Americans have been conceptualized as a model minority for their apparent success in socioeconomic, academic, and professional settings, where other minorities have struggled. However, studies have suggested that this image is only a popularized stereotype, with academic underachievement, poverty, mental health issues, and cultural struggle prevalent amongst different Asian American communities. This chapter is a meta-analysis of studies on the model minority narrative, its influence on the social perception of Asian Americans, and its effect on shaping self-identity for Asian Americans themselves. This chapter also discusses the role the narrative plays in hindering racial parity and inter-race relations through furthering the marginalization of minority groups, silencing the voices of social change while maintaining the imbalance of status and power that currently exists in the United States.