AAST 200 EXAM 2
Stereotype:
smart, good at math, STEM disposed (biological)
Wealthy, saves money
Hardworking and reliant
Docile and submissive, obedient and uncomplaining (social)
Don't ask for help or need help
Origin of the Model Minority Myth:
Post 1965 immigration - Factors that attributed to Model Minority Myth
1965 immigration act enabled hyper selectivity for preference based and skilled workers
H-1B visa prograM created in 1990 and accelerated hyper-selectivity
Perpetuation of Success Frame by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou 2015; Asian American Paradox
“A for average”, “B for Asian fail”
Regardless of parental education level, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity
Upside of MMM→ helps poor and working class override class disadvantage
Reinforced by family, community, educators, and society
First origins of Model Minority Term
Article written by Willam Peterson naked “Success Story, Japanese-American Style”
Peterson concluded japanese overcame marginalization due to their culture vs the african americans
Context for the development of term
1. Hart Cellar act
2. Not long after japanese-american internment
3. During civil rights movement
Model minority term cont…
Japanese americans responded to their wartime internment by us gov by saying i'll become an even better american
Conventional measure of success dictates that Japanese americans were more successful than majority of americans
1978 washing post article “Korean americans: pursuing economic success” shares similar sentiment as japanese americans of success
Transition from success stories in the economy to education
1987 Time magazine article “Those asian american whiz kids”
Harm of Model Minority:
Pressure and stress
Reference group includes even higher achieving co-ethics, creating an exceptionally high bar
Lots of tension and stress among asian american students
Dissatisfaction with own achievements causing the “achievement paradox”
Ethnicity and achievement get coupled; aka 2nd gen AA distance from their ethnic identity due to high unattainable achievement from their view
Limits occupation and Mobility
DEL = Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer
Ignores diversity within and issues
- overlooks certain asian groups that needs assistance
Divisive and resentment between groups
Model minority myth used as a racial wedge
Pits ethnic groups against each other to downplay racism
Barriers to coalition building and alliance across race-ethnic groups
Encourages anti-Asian sentiment and harassment and violence
Anti-asian violence in school
Minimizes accomplishments
The view of asian americans as high achievers is so significant that it becomes a threat to the ethnic and racial divisions
Model minority myth; educational attainment
Myth 1: AAPI students are taking over US higher education
Fact: increasing AAPI students parallels to other groups
Fact: AAPI densely populated in a small % of institutions give off a false higher admission/enrollment in education overall
2000, ⅔ of aapi students attended college in 8 states
Fact : AAPI students have wide range of academic interests beyond STEM
Myth 2: AA are concentrated in only selective 4 year universities
Fact: aapi are evenly distributed in two year and four year schools with majority attending public institutions
Fact: aapi enrollment in public 2 years increasing at faster rate than their enrollment in 4 year schools
Some states over half of aapi students attend public community colleges
Affirmative action and asian americans
1980s increasing populations of AAPI students results in informa quotes to limit quotas
The regents of Univ of California vs Bakke 1978
Upheld affirmative action using race as factor but did not allow quotas
White plaintiffs needed to use asian representation to support argument against quota
Asian american penalty; scoring asian americans lower on the social level in terms of admissions/enrollment
Used to dismantle affirmative action
Significant portion of financial donation to support legacy admission = money gets you in
Asian americans benefit from A.A as well
Between two worlds documentary
- Hard to balance family time with parents both working so much; sacrifice for better life of children (common experience theme)
- language barrier between grandparents and grandchildren communication
- opposing traditons/values between older and younger generations
- finding the balance between preserving cultural language and roots while maintaining american identity
- sharon chang
- deals with korean american identity and korean cultural views,
- ideas, personal choices such as eating american food, constant criticism from dad for eating American food
- sharon deals with identity discrepancy stemming from her cultural background integration with american life
- personal take; uniqueness and differences is a good thing rather than focusing on “trying to fit in and look or be like them”
Types of acculturation across generations
Consonant resistance to acculturation
Both parents and children are separated and isolated within the ethnic or immigrant community
Example; kids growing up in america with an accent
Consonant acculturation
Disonant acculturation
1st gen chooses to remain to their ethnic ties/culture
Not learning english, living in ethnic enclave, children seek to abandon cultural, lingual, and geographical association
Selective acculturation
1st generation and children learn language of dominant society but still maintain and carry traditions and cultural ties of ethnic origin
Effects of immigration/acculturation
Acculturative stress
Intergenerational households and filial piety (feeling of owing and paying back to parents)
Language brokering and “Parentified Children” = having to be translator for parents for purposes of daily communication school, doctors, documents, etc
Causes stress for children, and studies proven to affect children negatively
Differing or clashing around parenting
Challenges confronting immigrant family
Disruption of extended family and friendship networks
Findings suggest that there is sense of isolation, leaving family on their own to raise their kids
Role changes within family
Sole to dual earners, latch-key kids (kids who go home right after school with no one around and until parents get home)
Generation culture gap
Traditions and cultural views are not in synch or aligned with modern asian-american generation children
Generational gap
Parents; kids to go to ivy league, be your own boss, etc
Children; desires to fit in, attend sports games, and fit in with image
Sensitive pressure points
Cultural gap
Chinese immigrant parents- filial piety is expected
Notion of unconditional obedience or submission to authority, parents, seniors, elderly
Little room for individualism (honor/shame saving face)
Narrow success frame, education is most effective and only means to achieve success
For children, different american cultural norms creating a “pressure cooker”
Work ethic
For chinese parents, hard work is the key to educational success (not natural ability or innate intelligence)
As result, children often find themselves working twice as hard as their american peers and simultaneously feeling that their parents never think that they work hard enough
Thrift
Parent emphasis on savings and educational resources vs. for material possessions
Dating
too early or interracial
Multi gen households
Asian american households more likely to make up of multi generation households
5x more likely to make up multi gen households
Asians 24%
Whites 13%
Many factors for this
Grandparents do have impact on how parent-children relationship goes
Huge variation across ethnic groups
Cambodians 42%
Prevalence and timing of marriage
More asian americans are married than others in the same age range; Among men 35-44
Asians 78
Whites 69
Blacks 52
Same for women (only a bit higher with exception of black women)
Asian Americans tend to marry at later ages than do whites
Multiracial asian americans
2020, 10.2% of americans identify as being multi-race
2014 2.9%
15.3% of asian americans identified as multi racial
Much higher than for whites
While much lower than pacific islanders
Anti-miscegenation laws
Crime for people of different races to have sex
In place of U.S. inceptions
Deemed felony
1967 Loving v. Virginia case ended this law
Elevated to supreme court case
Increased rate since 60’s
Intermarriage
Individual choice
Marriage markets theory: marriage rate depends on demographic proximity—what and who is available in that geographic area
Marital assimilation
Hypergamy theory
Marrying up; marrying someone who is taller
Has more money and resources
Has higher status
Marrying up in terms of racially aka marrying white race (top of racial hierarchy)
Stereotype effect
Internalized racism; believing the same stereotypes about their own race
Stereotype is amplified through media portrayal most prominent
AA WOMEN: centiering their perspective
Intersectional approach;
Understanding multiple ways of understanding inequality and disadvantage that sometimes overlap and create barriers not thought of in conventional ways
Relations of power or inequality by race, gender, class, and intersection of
AA women face certain pressures, expectations, and structural arrangements
Confucian moral code = emphasis on male superiority and authority over women in family and social relations; influenced patriarchal system in vietname and korea
When they immigrate, there may be a shift in gender arrangements
Ex: centering on men’s loss of economic power and increased dependency on their wive’s wages
Many maintain ethnic patriarchal system to hold parental authority
Patriarchy
Couple with kinship systems
And son preferences in families
Media and popular images of asian american women
Domestic violence
Conceptions of beauty and internalized racism
Depression and suicide
Patricarchy reinforces male privilege by prescribing bounded roles for women, often in domesticated duties
Son preferences over daughters
Sex-selective abortions, dowry
Traditional expectations for male and female differ
Differences in sex may lead to different amount of treatment and investment in children
Lotus Blossom
chastity , sexual availability, powerlessness, and desirabality for male control and possession
Dragon lady
Decieving and conniving, utilizing sexuality for advantage
Example: Imagery of petite and exotic beauty remains a common visual theme
In relation to the depiction of white men; commonly used trope
Hyper-sexualization of asian american women in subservient roles, ojectified and
Domestic violence
One study of AAs showed that 42% of respondents knew of a woman who was abused
Up to 55% of API experienced some form of abuse in their lifetime
⅓ young respondents saw their father abuse their mother growing up
Barriers (victim blaming, financial, language barrier, cultural/religious expectations, immigration status)
Can’t be addressed by traditional approaches (individualism; AA women not viewing themselves as individuals rather than a culturally bound family unit prevents them from escaping abuse and seeking support)
Conception of beauty
Trying to fit into westernized standards of beauty:
Examples of surgical procedures
Double eyelid surgery; surgery to have the fold in the eyelids
Nose job prevalent in Asian to cater to more western nose, higher bridge, narrow nostrils
Skin whitening
Sign of internalizing a gender ideology that validates their monetary and time investment but also racial ideology that associate their natural feautures with dullness, passivity, and lack of emotion (Kaw 1993)
Results to internalized sexism and racism
Believing the stereotypes and myths about their own race
Believing the stereotypes and myths about their own sex
Can result in lower self-esteem
Color prejudism/colorism
Self hatred
On a structural level, it can result in
Decision making
Ex: resume is selected based off picture attached to resume in korea vs US
Resources
Standards
Naming the problem (people in leadership has and lack of addressing issue)
The white woman is the considered ideal body type
Ethnic women are further away from that ideal, weight is an issue, but its not the only issue
Not just white beauty standards ideals but also asian beauty standards ideal AA women dont meet
Eating disorders are on the rise for asian american women but are often not recognized
Depression and suicide:
According to the center for disease control in 2019;
Suicide is 3rd largest leading cause of death among young americans (15-24).
1st among asian and pacific islanders
Asian american college students had higher rates of depression
Nearly 16% of aa women have contemplated suicide in their lifetimes (compared to american women 13%)
2nd among highest rate of suicide among all women aged 15-24 for asian american women
AAPI women over 65%
World war II
Post ww2 - govenrment suspected japanese of recruiting Jap. Amer. to be spies
Anti-japanese sentiment; John DeWitt and Dept. of war made successful case against japanese americans
Applied to japanese that were living on the west coast
Fred Korematsu; US born Jap. Amer. convicted for evading interment and later would be overturned 40 years later
Many returned back to find nothing, no family, no property, possessions, starting back over from nothing
Jan 1945 executive order was rescinded and all jap prisoners freed
Redress movement JACL; launched restitution
Restitution for $250000 per internee
Apology by congress acknowledging the wrong
Funds to establish education trust fund
Aug 10 1988 reagan signed civil liberties act
To date over 82000 individuals have been issued a presidential apology and monetary redress payment of $20,000
WWII philippines was a US common wealth
US military promised full veterans benefits to filipinos who volunteer to fight; more than 250,000 joined
1946 truman signs rescission act; taking that promise away
Filipinos activists and their supporters fought for full benefits for decades
Bush, Clinton, other presidents promised false hope and benefits still not restored.
2008; obama signs as a part of stimulus bill that releases $198 million for hte Filipinos Equity Compensation Fund
Families of decease veterans not eligible to receive the money
To this day, Congress still working to compensate for filipino compensation fairness
USA Patriot Act - Post 9/11
6 weeks post 9/11 gives U.S to enhance surveillance powers
Takes away due process rights from non-citizens
Can place individuals in mandatory detention and deportation
Act violates constitutional rights of due process and free speech
South asians sikhs and muslim americans experience intense scrutiny as potential enemy threats and are subject to racial profiling
80% of americans use to be against racial profiling (Driving while black etc)
Post 9/11 12000 muslim immigrant men were rounded up and detained
Many were deported
2002, fed gov established national security act
3 months post 9/11 national asian pacific american legal consortium doc’d 250 incidents of anti-asian hates crimes and 2 murders
Majority occured at school or in the workplace
Large majority target S. Asian americans particularly Sikh
Asian American Politics
AAPI 6% of voting population
Previously:
lower voter registration rates
Lower voter rate
Barriers to political involvement:
Language barrier
State voter ID law; additional req’d documentation
Lack of outreach from political parties; overlooked by political parties due to small asian population
Growth of elgible AAPI voters in recent years…
Experts argue the interests of other groups are not equally of interests as AAPI population
If they vote as bloc, in larger share of populated areas like Hawaii or CA then they can affect the outcome
Lack of concentration of AAPI in areas and “Apolitcal” identifying for easy convenience for political parties to speak to (Court)
Asian american political participation
Immigrant socialization
How are they being socialized to politcs of US
racial/ethnic identity
Prominent with vietnamese population due to historical events
parties/politcal institutions
How are they reaching out to these communities
Political orientation
Where they lean or identify with
Civic engagement
Where are they socialized? schoolboards, etc?
Sociopolititcal context
Different factors of influence; i.e Gen-Z
Religion in Asian American
Sikhs in America
racial/ethnic identity strongly tied to Sikh religion
Arranged marriage is prominent
AA religious affiliation:
AA are at the lowest % who say religion is important compared to white, black, and hispanics
Least likely to attend regular services
Declining share of Asian Americans who identify as christians
Functions of asian immigrant church/religion institutions
For parents …
= religious center
= social and cultural center (preserve ethnic culture)
= serve as educational function
= social/community support for parents
= keeps nationalism alive (keeps them connected to origins)
= Pseudo-extended family (broker between congregation and larger society)
= emotional support
= as a primary place to facilitate adjustment to life in the US (assimilate/acculutrate)
Will it be the same for children of immigrants?
3 types of 2nd generation Korean teenagers in the church:
Ethnic/religious
Ethnically identified
Neither ethnic nor religious
After they leave the parent’s church:
Join campus ministries (major ones or creation of their own)
1990’s UC Berkeley had 64 separate Asian Christian Orgs
UCLA had 13 Korean American Christian groups in 1999
Many campuses in west, n. East…
Young adults post youth church affiliation:
Silent Exodus
Will successive asian americans continue the ethnic religous institutions, will be incorporate into other “main stream” religous institutions, will they lose their religious affiliation?