A Study of Asian American Issues in the United States - Nicoline Pedersen - Krista Celo - Eden Stilman - Seren Ventullo

QUIET

MATHEMATICALLY SUFFICIENT

ACADEMIC

ORIENTAL

A+ STUDENT "Model Minority" The characterization of members of Asian descent as people more likely to achieve socioeconomic success than that of the average minority group. The myth THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH:

COMPLIANT

distinguishes Asian Americans as “reference groups” to other minority groups seeking to attain the perceived success of these model minorities. The myth creates an arena of competition between minority groups, as other groups are more inclined to distinguish their struggle from that of Asian members, by reason of the Asian group’s “elevated” status. However, perpetuating the conception of the model minority neglects the trauma rooted within the myth

DILIGENT

The myth is rooted within the American conviction that Koreans [Asians] were more inclined to be submissive and law-abiding citizens. In other words, the perception that Asians were inherently compliant signified that they would be less inclined to derail the American agenda of a white, heteronormative, and anticommunist social order. We cannot neglect the militarized assimilation of Asians into American dominion as a principal constituent to the foundation of the model minority myth

SUCCESSFUL

OBEDIANT

The focus placed on these diasporic categories demonstrates a governmental logic that selectively identified which racialized and gendered subjects, even if “nonwhite,” “different” and “problematic”, could assimilate into and faithfully reproduce the American national populace

CRYSTAL MUN-HYE BAIK

PASSIVE

SMART

DOCILE

Asian/Americans were progressively depicted as hardworking, passive, and obedient citizens committed to the American work ethic and steadfast anticommunist nationalism

WEAK

CRYSTAL MUN-HYE BAIK

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