model minority

The term model minority refers to a minority racial group that is unusually successful in their country. Taking into account that some minority groups are able to become even more succesful than the majority racial group, even with historical racial discrimination, some sociologists believe supposed institutional racism is not the root cause of socioeconomic disparity between racial groups.

Asian Americans

In the United States, Asian Americans are spoken of as a 'model minority' group because the group has been more successful than the majority racial group. In this context, the term Asian Americans is used to describe those of East Asian descent, particularly the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Other groups that are geographically considered Asian, such as South Asians or West Asians, are usually not refered to as part of the Model Minority. According to (African American) Dr. Walter E. Williams, distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, Asian median family income is $55,525 USD, the highest of any other racial group in America. According to Williams, more than 44% of Asians age 25 and over have bachelor degrees, where the rate for all other Americans is 26%. Other indicators of group success include low crime rate and high family stability.

Asian American status in affirmative action

Because of their unusual success as a group, Asian Americans do not generally benefit from affirmative action policies the way other racial minority groups do. In fact, some schools have had restrictions on the high proportion of Asian students admitted, in favour of lower scoring students of other racial groups. (see Affirmative action: Model minorities.

Media coverage

Media coverage of the increasing success of Asian Americans as a group began in the 1960s, reporting high average test scores and marks in school, winning national spelling bees, and high levels of university attendence. One such example is the University of California system. For instance, at the University of California, Berkeley, Asians account for 41% of the undergraduate student body as of 2003, 10 times the proportion of Asian Americans in the national population (4%).

History of discrimination

The success of Asian Americans as a group has occurred despite severe discrimination in the previous century, such as, prior to the 1950s, being stereotyped as cheap, uneducated labourers. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many Americans of European descent feared that the western part of the US would be overrun by "the Yellow Peril," prompting initiatives to reduce immigration from Asia, and WWII saw additional difficulties for Asian American citizens. In addition, numerous Asian Americans were recent immigrants or their offspring, since immigration laws had limited Asian immigration prior to the mid 1960's. In the mid 1900s, the Yellow Peril stereotype began to give way to recognition of the racial group's socioeconomic accomplishments.

Criticism in the United States

Self-selecting immigration

One possible influence on the good performance of Asian Americans as a group is that they represent a small self-selected elite of Asians because the difficulty of emigrating filtered out many of those not possessing more resources, motivation, or ability. For example, there are only 2 million Chinese-Americans in the U.S., and worldwide the total amount of overseas Chinese is about 43 million, whereas the total worldwide Chinese population is almost 1.3 billion. Emigration to the U.S. has always been strictly limited by factors such as the high cost of trans-Pacific transportation, language and cultural barriers, strong racial prejudice against Asians which did not wane until the early 1970s, historical state laws that once prohibited Chinese from working most jobs or owning land and, of course, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which limited Chinese immigration to about 100 individuals per year from 1882 through 1943. Self-selection could be continuing even today, as the current quota of about 25,000 per year is still small compared to the millions of Chinese who would like to emigrate to the U.S.

Genetic factors in racial disparities

Both the self-selecting immigration explanation and the explanation that the racial group simply worked hard for its success are challenged by the observation that the average IQ scores of East Asians living in the US and Asia are similar, and both are higher than the average IQ scores of whites living in Europe and the US. Additionaly IQ scores for Blacks are lower on average than those of Whites, perhaps providing evidence for why they have failed to acquire model minority status. This suggests that genetics play a role in the success of racial groups (See Race and intelligence). Notable academics who advocate this position include Richard Lynn, the political scientist, Tatu Vanhanen, Charles Murray and Richard Hernstien, authours of The Bell Curve, the definitive study on this question.

Cultural factors in racial disparities

Before attributing the supposed success of the Asian American to innate genetic differences alone, it would also be wise to consider that cultural factors might be at play. East Asian societies themselves, in general, will often place enormous resources and emphasis on education. For example, the Chinese culture places great value on work ethic and the pursuit of knowledge. This cultural value is associated with Confucianism. In traditional Chinese social stratification, scholars were ranked at the top -- well above businessmen and landowners. This Confucianistic view of knowledge is evident in the modern lifestyle of many Asian American families, where parents will push their children to study very hard and achieve high marks. Ironically, many Asian Americans believe greatly that work ethic and education trumps natural-born intelligence on the road to success. Many Asian-Americans will say that a not-so intelligent person who works diligently in his or her studies will surpass one who is naturally gifted with high intelligence but is lazy or unwilling to work hard.

Effects of the stereotype

Asian Americans being the most successful racial group in the US can create a stereotype as a side effect. Asian Americans may also be commonly stereotyped as being studious, affluent, and non-violent. In some cases this may have the effect of those with learning disabilities being given less attention than they need. Asian Americans as a group have a very low crime rate, but a side effect of their success may be a downplaying of the presence of Asian criminal behavior and gangs in several cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as in the State of Hawaii. Occasionally however, news of Asian American criminals receives widespread media coverage, such as the infamous Han Twins Murder Conspiracy in 1996.

Cultural references

The film Better Luck Tomorrow played on the model minority stereotype by depicting a group of Asian American teenagers who use their academic achievements to cover up their criminal activities.
In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold is faced with the stereotype of the intelligent and nerdy Asian guy.