Overlooked and Underestimated: The Damaging Effects of the Model Minority Myth on Asian Americans
Racial tensions and injustices often take the spotlight in the media as our society continues to work harder to make America more just for every race. However, many times race seems to be a black and white issue, leaving model minorities in the dark and out of the equation– allowing a form of Asian American racism to continue to grow unchecked. The model minority myth is based around the idea that Asian Americans are the ideal minority– a skilled, high-income, hard-working, and docile working class of people engineered for the sciences. The model minority stereotype is commonly referred to as a myth because it is not reflective of even close to the entire Asian American population. Moreover, Asian Americans, like all minorities, are also under the influence of microaggressions and stereotype threat. Microaggressions are day-by-day minor insults that can enforce a stereotype of a group of people by assuming that the people conform to it. Stereotype threat is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person’s performance is hampered when he or she attempts tasks that are negatively stereotyped or not aligned with the person’s label. Indeed, the model minority myth is harmful to Asian Americans because it prevents Asian Americans from fully assimilating as Americans, enforces ingrained societal boundaries, and pushes them to adopt a damaging stereotype threat.
Because of the model minority myth, most Asian Americans are unable to fully assimilate into America. Asian Americans are almost always referenced to with underlying racial undertones that prevent them from truly being seen as American. The American identity is based on the idea of a rags-to-riches model of success, a model based on equality, liberty, and leadership. The model minority myth limits Asian Americans’ usefulness to science and technology careers, which bars them from positions of leadership and politics, and makes it more difficult for Asian Americans to assimilate into America. Moreover, many times Asian Americans are set apart from other American minorities by “using their perceived socioeconomic status, academic success and docile nature to compare and contrast with black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans” (Mead 11). By ignoring the complexity and diversity of Asian Americans and grouping them all into a box of skilled, high-income, and hard-working immigrants, the model minority myth creates an invisible barrier between the American people and Asian Americans. This barrier also prevents Asian Americans from being able to fully adopt an American identity. Furthermore, microaggressions against Asian Americans force a barrier of racial and cultural differences between them and the “American” stereotype. This barrier prevents Asian Americans from being able to integrate themselves as Americans. Microaggressions constantly enforce underlying stereotypes and labels on a group through small interactions and passive-aggressive encounters in which people assume that Asian Americans conform to the stereotype defined by the model minority myth. For many Asian Americans, “Microaggressions are constant reminders that you don’t belong, that you are less than that you are not worthy of the same respect that white people are afforded.” (Ijeoma 11) . Because of the underlying racial undertones that people always assign to minority immigrating groups such as Asians, Asian Americans are always seen as apart from the American identity. The model minority myth is damaging to Asian Americans because it prevents them from ever fully assimilating as Americans.
The model minority myth is detrimental to Asian Americans because it entraps them solely within their perceived stereotypes. Asian Americans are often unable to pursue interests that fall outside of the strict societal boundaries that are created by the model minority myth. Asian Americans are portrayed as “naturally excel[ing] at math and science…” (Ijeoma 6), and this pressures them to conform to this stereotype. This hinders their likelihood of pursuing humanities and social-science based careers, which creates a vicious cycle of being defined by the stereotype and then reinforcing the stereotype based on the predicted results. Asian Americans are also forced to accept the fact that their identity will be based on racial undertones which define their scope of progress. Moreover, Asian Americans often deal with microaggressions daily, which only reinforces the exclusive stereotype defined for them by the model minority myth. These passive-aggressive remarks pile up over time and only contribute to the pressure to conform to the Asian-American stereotype. Indeed, “Regular exposure to microaggressions causes a person of color to feel isolated and invalidated” (Ijeoma 6). Many Asian-Americans who do not conform to the model minority myth by default feel invalidated by the pressure to conform. The model minority myth cages Asian Americans into a singular type of person which impedes their ability to pursue interests outside of their perceived racial stereotype and curbs their capacity to progress without experiencing racial stigma and microaggressions in parallel. The model minority myth makes it harder and harder for Asian Americans to expand their options further from this predefined stereotype.
The model minority threat unconsciously coerces Asian Americans to address a damaging stereotype threat. Because of the model minority myth, whenever Asian Americans attempt to redefine their group’s boundaries, they unconsciously face pressures to compensate for deviating from their race’s predefined norm. Under the model minority myth, Asian Americans are stereotyped to be more inclined towards the sciences. This not only makes it more difficult for Asian Americans to pursue careers in the humanities and arts but also “keeps those who do pursue those careers from being taken seriously in their fields”(Ijeoma 8). This makes Asian Americans more likely to underperform in the humanities and arts because of the added pressure to defy the model minority stereotype. The model minority myth pressures Asian Americans to conform to their stereotype threat, so when Asian Americans attempt to deviate from it, they tend to underperform in areas that defy the model minority stereotype. Asian Americans are underrepresented in the humanities, leadership positions, and politics, mainly because they have to deal with “the prospect of living a significant portion of their lives in a domain where they may forever have to prove themselves — and with the chronic stress that goes with that.”(Steele 111). The model minority myth makes it not only less likely for Asian Americans to pursue humanities and art careers but also makes it harder for Asian Americans to excel at these careers because of their stereotype threat. It is a racial stigma, and it carries the weight of a damaging stereotype threat with it.
Allowing a stereotypical model like the model minority myth to label Asian Americans not only introduces a new form of division in our society but also pushes Asian Americans to conform to a narrow stereotype, which can hinder their progress. This, in turn, will actively affect the amount of progress we as a nation can make as a whole. Indeed, the model minority myth is harmful to Asian Americans because it creates immovable societal boundaries for what Asian Americans can and can’t do. Moreover, it also secludes Asian Americans from the American identity and unconsciously coerces them into adopting a stereotype threat. Racism is a high-profile issue in today’s world, but discussions on race are usually limited to white versus black. Any attempts to subdue racism will be for naught unless we look at the whole picture, including the damaging effects of the model minority myth.
