Same Old, Same Old—"Model Minority" Unfair To Asian Doctors, Mathematicians, Dentists And Professors
06/10/2008
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The NYT runs another hard-hitting, informative article conveniently accumulating in one place all the cliches I've been reading for the last 30 years about how the "Model Minority Stereotype" is actually unfair to Asian Americans.

Report Takes Aim at ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype of Asian-American Students

The image of Asian-Americans as a homogeneous group of high achievers taking over the campuses of the nation’s most selective colleges came under assault in a report issued Monday.

The report, by New York University, the College Board and a commission of mostly Asian-American educators and community leaders, largely avoids the debates over both affirmative action and the heavy representation of Asian-Americans at the most selective colleges.

But it pokes holes in stereotypes about Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, including the perception that they cluster in science, technology, engineering and math. And it points out that the term “Asian-American” is extraordinarily broad, embracing members of many ethnic groups.

“Certainly there’s a lot of Asians doing well, at the top of the curve, and that’s a point of pride, but there are just as many struggling at the bottom of the curve, and we wanted to draw attention to that,” said Robert T. Teranishi, [Email him] the N.Y.U. education professor who wrote the report, “Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight.”

“Our goal,” Professor Teranishi added, “is to have people understand that the population is very diverse.” ...

“The notion of lumping all people into a single category and assuming they have no needs is wrong,” said Alma R. Clayton-Pederson, [Email her]vice president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, who was a member of the commission the College Board financed to produce the report.

“Our backgrounds are very different,” added Dr. Clayton-Pederson, who is black, “but it’s almost like the reverse of what happened to African-Americans.” ...

The report quotes the opening to W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1903 classic “The Souls of Black Folk” — “How does it feel to be a problem?” — and says that for Asian-Americans, seen as the “good minority that seeks advancement through quiet diligence in study and work and by not making waves,” the question is, “How does it feel to be a solution?”

Pretty damn good, I would hope.

But if you want to be a Professional Asian who gets paid by foundations and the like for being an Asian Spokesperson, then, it's not so hot. Thus, this report. And, Asians not needing affirmative action makes Professional Blacks feel worried and angry. So the only feasible solution is for Asians to get in on the Race Gravytrain, too. It's a Win-Win solution!

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