Becoming a Model Minority: Acquisition,

Construction and Enactment of American Identity

for Korean Immigrant Students
Gilbert C. Park
Published online: 25 May 2010
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract While the model minority stereotype of Asian Americans and its
negative effects has been documented elsewhere, relatively little attention has been
paid to how recent Asian immigrant students begin to embrace the stereotype while
in schools. This study explores the identity formation process for a group of recent
Korean immigrant students as model minority in an urban high school to
empirically document the process. Through interviews and observations, I learned
that the immigrants acquired an unauthentic American identity as a racial minority,
constructed their status as model minority in response, and enacted the stereotype
as they sanctioned those who couldnt live up to the stereotype. The aim is to add to
the body of knowledge on the school experiences of recent Asian immigrants.
Keywords American identity formation Model minority stereotype
Immigrant school experiences Korean immigrants
Introduction
Although there are Asian Americans who immigrated as early as the nineteenth
century, a large number of todays Asian Americans arrived after 1965, and this
trend continues today. Census 2000 shows, for instance, the Asian American
population had increased 75% to approximately twelve million since 1990, and
Asian immigrants make up a large portion of todays Asian America (US Bureau of
Census 2002). As a group, foreign born and recent Asian immigrants perform better
in schools than their American born counterparts (Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Mouw
and Xie 1999; Portes and Schaufer 1996; Rumbaut 1995). In explaining this
G. C. Park (&)
Department of Educational Studies, Ball State University, Teachers College 820,
Muncie, IN 47306, USA
e-mail: gcpark@bsu.edu
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Urban Rev (2011) 43:620635
DOI 10.1007/s11256-010-0164-8
pattern, studies (Zhou and Kim 2006; Hao and Bonstead-Bruns 1998; Zhou and
Bankston 1998; Waters 1996; Min 1992; Matute-Bianchi 1991; Gibson 1988) point
to, among others, the recent immigrants stronger connection to their ethnic
communities, which serve as social support networks to deal with the stress of
acculturation and to help succeed academically.
Along with the academic success of recent Asian immigrants, the literature also
reports academic, psychological, and social struggles facing the students. Academ-
ically, schools often prioritize English acquisition over content knowledge and leave
recent immigrants ill prepared for post secondary education (Park and Lee 2010;
Callahan 2005; Olneck 2004; Hakuta 1986). Psychologically, balancing Ameri-
can and Korean cultural values and norms may negatively affect the
immigrants mental health (Yeh et al. 2005; Berry et al. 1987; Yeh 2003). Socially,
the immigrants frequently nd themselves marginalized from English speaking
peers and develop a sense of inadequacy or inferiority (Lee 2005, 2001; Olsen 1997;
Hodne 1997; McKay and Wong 1996). This article seeks to contribute to this
growing body of literature on Asian American school experiences by taking a close
look at the school experiences of a group of recent immigrants from Korea in an
inner-city high school. The focus is the American identity formation of the
immigrants through their own interpretations and actions to result in a particular
trajectory towards model minority as an American racial minority. Specically,
becoming a model minority was a coping strategy for the recent Korean
immigrant youth who are facing status marginalization and social isolation in the
high schools racial hierarchy.
Model Minority Stereotype
Suzuki (1995) explains that the model minority stereotype portrays Asian
Americans to have nally succeeded in becoming accepted into white, middle-
class society through hard work, uncomplaining perseverance, and quiet accom-
modation (p. 113). While seemingly positive, scholars (Wing 2007; Lew 2006,
2005; Louie 2004; Suzuki 1995) challenge this stereotype. Suzuki (1995) argues, for
instance, that the model minority stereotype is a myth that was created in part to
invalidate the calls for racial justice in the late 1960s. People of color protested
against racial injustices throughout the history of the United States, and one of the
recent demands was in the 1960s when people of color had successfully mobilized
themselves and made an effective alliance with sympathetic whites. It was during
this time that the nations media began highlighting the success stories of Asian
Americans. This caused a sense of resentment towards Asian Americans by many
people of color who did not see them as an ally in the struggle against racist
institutions. For instance, Lee (1996) observed that other minority students at
Academic High were resentful of some Asian American students success and felt
Asian American school success was brought about at their expense. More recently,
Wing (2007) argues that it has been used to support the notion of meritocracy in
schools. By pointing out Asian American school success, ones failure to succeed
becomes an individual failure; thereby, the stereotype shifts the blame away from
the system.
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The myth also works to pit Asian Americans against one another: academically
successful good Asian Americans versus bad Asian Americans who could not
live up to the image (Lee 2005; Lew 2006). As an example, Lee (1996) found that
high achieving Asian Americans regarded academically struggling Asian Americans
as a drag to their path toward becoming real Americans. In her more recent study
at University Heights High School, Lee (2005) found that such division existed
between traditional and good against Americanized and bad Hmong
Americans. Related to this is the idea that the myth portrays Asian Americans as a
homogenous group who experience success (Wing 2007; Lew 2006; Ngo 2006).
While some Asian Americans attain more education and earn higher income than
other people of color, there are many Asian Americans who are illiterate and poor.
Ignoring these differences, the Asian American students in need of service are less
likely to receive the help they need. While the stereotype has been studied and
contested as discussed above, relatively little attention has been paid to how Asian
immigrant students acquire, construct, and enact the stereotype in a school setting.
This article aims to ll this gap in the literature by illuminating the process through
which a group of recent Korean immigrants begin to see themselves as model
minority and its implications in an inner-city school.
American Identity Formation: Acquisition, Construction and Enactment
At the risk of oversimplication, I will look at American identity formation for the
recent Korean immigrants in three interdependent and non-sequential processes:
acquisition, construction, and enactment of the model minority stereotype. By the
acquisition of the stereotype, I am referring to the process where immigrant children
acquire, in a sense take on, a pre-constructed American identity that existed in the
US society prior to their arrival (Olneck 2004; Olsen 1997; Lee 1996; Lew 2006;
Fernandez-Kelly and Curran 2001). One way that schooling can play a role in this
process is by expanding or limiting the range of American identities for the
immigrant students. In her study of recent immigrant students, for instance, Olsen
(1997) argues that different groups of students were hierarchically organized along
the lines of English uency and race, which placed English uent white students at
the top of the schools social world. At the top of the hierarchy, they simply called
themselves American and hyphenated American identity becomes a matter of
choice (Waters 1996; Tuan 1998). On the other hand, non-English uent and
students of color occupied social locations according to the perceived academic and
social proximity to English uent white students, and this organization closely
mirrored the academic and social status of the non-whites in their school (Olsen
1997). Concerning the Korean immigrant students, equating real American to
mean English uent whites may limit the range of American identities that does not
include the unhyphenated American label.
During the construction process, the students actively construct their meanings to
the acquired identity as Asian Americans (Olneck 2004; Mehra 2003; Gibson 1988;
Lee 1996; Ogbu 1974). Olneck (2004) posits identities are not inheritances or
preservations, but are, rather, on-going active constructions that emerge out of
interactions among groups within socio-political and institutional contexts (p. 396).
622 Urban Rev (2011) 43:620635
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In other words, an American identity is a social construct where individuals, groups,
and social institutions (i.e. school) create a new meaning, or alter the previous
meanings, in collaboration both at individual and collective levels (Olneck 2004).
Implied fromthis is the notion that students American identity construction is, in part,
a response to the academic and social context of school. In seeking to nd a way to
present a more positive image, the students might nd the model minority stereotype,
which presents Asian American students to be on the way of becoming whites, to be an
attractive option for the Korean immigrant students as honorary whites. In the
process, the acquired identity as Asian American can be constructed to mean
honorary whites as they seek to place themselves higher in the perceived racial
hierarchy.
Lastly, the American identity enactment process is where the immigrants display
or perform their acquired and/or constructed American identity (Lew 2006; Lee
2005; Mirua 1995; Delgado-Gaitan and Trueba 1991). The enactment of American
identity may take the form of policing one another as a way to strengthen their
acquired and constructed American identity as model minority. Zhou and Bankston
(1998), as an example, observed that Vietnamese immigrants in New Orleans
rewarded the students who conformed to the norms of the community with access to
the social capital embedded in the ethnic community while punishing those who
assimilated into the local inner-city American cultures thereby being less
traditional. Similar ndings on the role of co-ethnic communities in placing
sanctions to their own students to uphold their perceived identity was reported in
Gibsons (1988) study of Sikh immigrants, Lees (2005) study of Hmong
Americans, and Valenzuelas (1999) study of Latinos. Looking at Korean American
students, Lee (1996) posits that the co-ethnic peer group in a school can play the
role of the co-ethnic community on campus when she said, the role of peer group
pressure in getting Korean students to conform to a particular image of being
Korean (p. 23). She found that the means of social control were peer pressure,
gossip, and social reward/punishment for the members of the Korean Student
Association, which in turn helped to maintain ethnic identity that was in line with
the image of Koreans as the model minority.
Social sanctions may target not only those who could not live up to the
stereotype but also those with mere association to a group with an antithetical
public image. Consider Waters (1996) observation of some black immigrants who
sought to stress the difference in status between themselves and local African
Americans. Internalizing the racism against African Americans, they called
themselves Haitian or Haitian Americans as a way to stress the difference in status
between themselves and local African Americans whom they claimed to be lazy
and hopeless. While this was an effort to escape some of the racism directed at the
people of African descent, the Korean immigrant students who may have
internalized racial hierarchy and their place in it could seek to sanction one of
their own who they perceive to endanger their desired image as model minority.
In other words, enacting the model minority identity may mean for some of the
students to punish those who undermine the desired status as honorary whites
to further strengthen a model minority identity.
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Site, Participants and Data
Data for this article were generated as part of a larger ethnographic study that
looked at the Americanization process of recent Korean immigrant students at an
inner-city high school over the period of a one and one-half-years. I visited the
school weekly spending two to three consecutive days during the academic year.
This often meant Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The school, which I named
City High, is located in one of the largest cities in the American Midwest with
Latino students in the majority at 35.6%, followed by whites (27%), Asians (23%)
and African Americans (11%) during the time of data gathering. As with other
inner-city schools, a large portion of the students, over 86%, were from low-income
households, and approximately 20% were labeled LEP (Limited English Procient).
Most students at City High aspired for higher education where approximately 90%
of the students had taken the ACT (American College Testing) college entrance
exam. Also like other inner-city high schools, the students seem under prepared for
colleges when their average composite score was 16.5, which was below the
national (20.1) and the state (20.3) averages. The data for this article focuses on 22
Korean immigrant students, nine females and thirteen males. At the time of data
collection, they had spent less than 5 years in America. All of their parents were
employed in co-ethnic owned local small businesses without benets. Initially, I
received help from school staff to identify appropriate students for the study. Once a
few students agreed to participate, they introduced me to other potential participants
during the course of observation and shadowing, creating a snowball effect.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used to bring the issue of race to the forefront of
the data generation and analysis. Ladson-Billings (2003) explains that CRT is based
on the assertion that racism is deeply ingrained in our society so that it appears to
be normal and ordinary to the members of the culture (p. 11). As a research
paradigm, this aims to make visible the impact of race as a social phenomenon
through understanding its social, and historical, context (Bernal 2002; Delgado
1995; Ladson-Billings 1995). From this perspective, Ladson-Billings (2003) further
explains, CRT serves to make plain the racialized context of public and private
spheres in our society, [by employing] narratives and counter-narratives to add
context and complexity to the micro-aggressions people of color experience daily
(p. 1011). Thus, this framework allows me to pay close attention to the perspective
of the subordinated, while highlighting what people see as usual. This holistic
approach by takes how, where, and why into consideration, in addition to what,
when, and who. This unique approach helped me to closely examine the patterns of
peer relations (intra- and inter-ethnic and racial interactions) that appeared normal
to the members (school staff and students) at the school. As an analytical tool, CRT
helped me to analyze the impact of race on their identity formation process, as was
the case in the role of social control the Korean students put on one another as an
enactment of the model minority stereotype.
Interviews and participant observation were used to generate these narratives and
counter-narratives and to situate their identity development process in the context of
race relations at the school. The interviews were both structured and unstructured
and solicited their understanding of their sense of selves and their academic and
624 Urban Rev (2011) 43:620635
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social environment at the school. Structured interviews were guided by broad
questions that asked for (1) who they are, (2) what their school or work experiences
were like, (3) their perception of the racial relations in the school or the society, (4)
and how they would situate themselves in it. These open questions allowed the
participants to speak freely about the topic, using their own words from their
perspectives. Most of the interview data were gathered informally during casual
conversations with the participants, which was often hand-recorded with permission
when relevant. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed whenever possible. As
a participant observer, I took notes on the school culture looking for the meanings
constructed and displayed by both schooling and peer interactions.
The data were analyzed at three levels. First, I looked for location features like
how individuals identify themselves and others as well as their vantage point in
narratives. Second, I identied key words, concepts, and themes to identify cultural
models that suggested such things as their understanding of race relations in the
school and the society, and where they place or see themselves in the picture. Lastly,
I sought to analyze the structure of unspoken yet apparent meanings in the
narratives. The generated data were segmented and coded according to topics, key
concepts, themes, and cultural models in regards to racial and ethnic identity
construction and race relations in school and societal context. After the data were
broken down into manageable units, these were organized in a fashion that allowed
me to see social signicances or alternative explanations. In doing so, I attempted to
link the local meaning generated from interviews and observations to external social
forces in the analysis; thereby, linking the micro level explanations with macro level
explanations (Graue 1998; Emerson et al. 1995). In analyzing the data, gender as an
analytical category was not used because I found insignicant gender differences
regarding the participants understanding of themselves as a model minority.
Similar to other researchers (Sibedi 2006; Beoku-Betts 1994; Narayan 1993) who
studied her or his respective community, I found that my positionality to the Korean
immigrant students was under constant negotiation. Initially, it was clear to me that
the participants did not see me as a peer because I was older. As they became
comfortable with me and learned that I am a bicultural American from Korea who
grew up in their neighborhood, I felt that I was seen as one of the members of the
local ethnic community. For instance, the participants addressed me using terms like
hyung (older brother), sunbai (one with seniority, predecessor), sunsaengnim
(teacher), or samchun/ajussi (uncle) in Korean. This helped me to establish a rapport
with the participants who saw me as someone who understood what it was like to be
a Korean student at a school like City High.
Findings
I found that the Korean immigrant students identication as the model minority
was a response to their perceived racial hierarchy. This process took place in three
interrelated stages of identity formation process towards model minority. In the
acquisition process, the students learned that they are not real Americans because
Americans often meant English uent whites. Situated as unauthentic Americans,
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these students embraced the model minority stereotype for themselves as they
associated honorary white status with Asian Americans. The construction and
acquisition of a model minority identity are further reinforced as they enacted the
constructed meaning of model minority by socially punishing those who did not
live up to the stereotype.
Acquisition of American Minority Status
Earlier studies (Espiritu 1992; Waters 1996; Zhou and Bankston 1998; Rumbaut
1996) showed that racial minorities face limited options in ethnic and racial
identities as Americans. For instance, Waters (1996) says in Optional Ethnicity:
For whites only? that white Americans have a great deal of choice in terms of their
ethnic identities. They can choose to claim any specic ancestry and include their
ethnic ancestry into their description of their own identity. In addition, Waters
further explains that they can choose not to claim any ancestry and just be
Americans (p. 445). For instance, an American of Irish ancestry can choose to use
a hyphenated term as in Irish-American to describe who they are. On the other
hand, they can just call themselves Americans because American ultimately
means whites (Tuan 1998). Waters claims that racial minorities do not have the
option to choose because their lives are strongly inuenced by their race or
national origins regardless of how much they may choose not to identify themselves
in terms of their ancestries (p. 451). Similarly, the Korean immigrants as students
of color at City High faced a limited range of American identities that did not
include a plain American label.
In speaking about his friendship pattern, Timmy told me that he has more Asian
friends than any others at the school because his father wanted him to befriend the
real mikuk-sarahm (American). His father was convinced that associating with
the whites on campus, whom he regards as real Americans, would be best for his
son. Concerning Asian Americans, Timmy told him, his father made an exception.
When asked why, Timmy responded, its because theyre like us. Were good in
school. Overtime, I witnessed several occasions where the Korean immigrant
students made similar references as they included themselves into a larger category
of Asians who are good in school, the model minority. While these students didnt
make specic reference to other racial minorities like African Americans or Latino/
as, it was clear that they werent mikuk-sarahm (Americans) as Timmys father
viewed.
When real Americans are narrowly dened as Euro-Americans, the range of
American identities available to the Korean immigrant students were limited to
unauthentic and hyphenated American identities. Below are some of the responses
to a set of questions concerning their identity as Americans. The questions included,
What words would you use to describe yourself? How do you dene an
American? Are you an American?
Heesoo: Im a kyopo [Koreans living abroad]. Im a Korean person but Im not
like those who live in Korea.
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Koomi: Korean. Because Im not white and Im not black! Besides, I will
always have an accent.
Sungwoo: I wont use American to say who I am because I dont think they
will consider me as an American. I think they will laugh at me. They? Like the
Americans. Like, white people. Because Im not white, I am more like a
Korean American.
Timmy: I dont know, [Americans have] blond hair, blue eyes.. I think of Ms.
Peterson [his U.S. History teacher].? Well, they [Ms. Shirley or Ms. Steve] are
different Americans, I guess. Like Ms. Shirleys white but shes got that [Eastern
European] accent. Ms. Steve [an African descent], I guess, is more American
because she sounds like American [without an accent]. But, accent is something
that you can work on [to get rid of]. Skin color, you cant. I guess Ms. Shirleys
more American.
Two themes arise from their words concerning their sense of American identity.
First, the students associated the American label with a particular race and
English uency. For instance, Koomi and Sungwoo felt that using an American
label was inappropriate for them. Sungwoo seems to have a racial image of
Americans as white while Koomis image of Americans was of English uency.
Using his teachers as an example, Timmy elaborates this view on real American
identity. Ms. Peterson, an English uent white person with blond hair and blue eyes,
is a real American while Ms. Shirley, a non-native English speaking white, and Ms.
Steve, English uent immigrant from West Indies, are not quite Americans.
Between Ms. Shirley and Ms. Steve, it seems clear that Ms. Shirley is closer to
being a real American than Ms. Steve due to the difference in skin color. In other
words, skin color takes precedence over English prociency. All Korean immigrants
participants and most non-Korean immigrant students of color whom I spoke with
echoed this view that real Americans are English uent whites. Secondly, the
students range of American identities did not include a simple American identity
as the students shied away from it. Instead, Korean or hyphenated American as in
Korean- or Asian American was the label of choice. In explaining why, students like
Heesoo point to similarities in biological and cultural heritage they have with other
Koreans. At the same time, four students were quick to point out that they are
different from Koreans living in Korea. At least in the words of Heesoo, the Koreans
living in the U.S. or kyopos were different from those living in Korea because they
are situated in different societal contexts. These show that the students began to see
themselves as an American minority who are not quite real Americans.
Construction of Koreans as Model Minority
In a study mentioned earlier, Olsen (1997) showed that the academic and social
maps at Madison High could be seen as social constructs where the students take
part in making sense of where they and others belong. Such was the case at City
High where the non-English uent and non-white students sought to carve out their
own location within the hierarchical arrangement of students. While the students of
different backgrounds constructed different maps for themselves and placed one
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another in a different section of the maps, English uent whites were situated in a
place of importance in these maps. Similarly, Korean immigrants struggled to locate
themselves and others within the hierarchy and embraced the model minority
stereotype of Asian Americans to situate themselves in a more favorable position.
Briey put, embracing the stereotype was a coping strategy for these Korean
immigrant students facing social marginalization.
Timmy and his fathers attitude towards Asian Americans reveal their perceptual
location of Asian Americans in close proximity to whites. Such was also visible in
the Korean clubs reception of Anna, a white American of Bulgarian decent who
took part in their ethnic dance performance at Ethnic Fest. Ethnic Fest was an
annual school-wide multicultural event that included the celebration of different
cultures represented in the student body. Taking part in this, female members of the
Korean club performed a traditional fan dance, and Anna was asked to participate
because of the low number of female volunteers from the club. After diligent
preparation, Anna dressed in a Korean costume and performed in front of an
audience as a member of the club. Kunchae and Chulho, the treasurer and president
of the club, respectively, shared how they felt about Annas performance that
represented the Koreans on campus.
Kunchae: I dont see any thing wrong with it. It looks good, doesnt it? [a long
pause] well the white girl [Anna] doing the dance with the Koreans It looks
good I think. Maybe You know, shes an American doing a Korean thing.
Doesnt that mean something?
Chulho: We were the only Asian club that had a white person taking part in the
performance, right? It seems like, you know, its more important [and] cool!
Both Kunchae and Chulho seemed to understand the informal yet clear racial
hierarchy that exists in the larger society and at the school where people are often
arranged hierarchically according to skin color. In their views, the association with
whites who are at the top of the hierarchy could give higher status to the Korean
immigrants on campus. In other words, Kunchae and Chulho saw that having Anna
perform as a member of the Korean club presented an image that Koreans are closer
to whites than other persons of color on the campus to present themselves as
honorary whites (Tuan 1998). Similarly, Lee (1996) found that Korean identied
students sought to establish and better valued social relationships with whites over
other students of color at Academic High.
As discussed, the model minority stereotype implies that Asian Americans are
succeeding in becoming accepted into white, middle-class American society (Wing
2007; Suzuki 1995). In this sense, this stereotype presents an image of Asians
Americans that is seemingly at odds with the forever foreigner stereotype that
situates them as unauthentic Americans. In doing so, constructing their image as the
model minority may be considered a form of self-assertion as Americans- or closer
to the real Americans than other non whites- in response to social marginalization
at school. I found that nineteen Korean immigrant students, with the exception of
three boys who were labeled as troublemakers by the teachers, played this role as
hard working, uncomplaining, quiet Asian students. Of the nineteen, Jaewoo,
Timmy, Kunchae, Chulcho, and Namjoo specically stated how easy it was to
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receive a passing grade of C just by showing up to the class and keeping their mouth
shut throughout the semester. Consider Jaewoos passing grade in US History.
During lunch, he asked me for help with an assignment. The assignment was to
answer four questions at the end of each chapter. It became clear to me, after a short
conversation, that he didnt understand the chapter. This surprised me because hes
been getting Bs and Cs on his previous quizzes and exams. When directly asked,
Jaewoo answered that the teacher likes him because he doesnt cause any trouble in
the class, and he tries hard. In other words, Jaewoo and others like him learned that
playing the role of quiet and hardworking Asian is rewarded in the classroom.
In embracing the model minority stereotype, the participants seemed to share the
attitude of Timmys father towards other Asians as they showed pan-ethnicism
stressing their membership to the Asian American community. While a pan-ethnic
identity (i.e. Asian American) may have been presented to the participants as an
available American identity option, the point is that they associated the pan-ethnic
identity with school success. Below are the voices of students on their views on
Asian American as the model minority.
Hyunwoo: It was weird at rst. Im Asian? I never thought that I had anything in
common with other Asians. I mean we dont even look alike [he went on to talk
about his stereotypes about the physical features of different Asian people].
But now, I think its not too bad. At least they think Asians are smart. I guess
thats not a bad thing.
Namjoo: We [Asian Americans] are always studying. Were always talking about
school. We want to do well in school. Thats just how Asians are.
Listening to Hyunwoo and Namjoo conrms their perception of Asian American
students as the model minority and they are, or desire to be, a part of this group.
Although Namjoos circle of close friends included only a few Asian American
female students (mostly high achieving Vietnamese students), she singles out one
particular aspect of her friends, studiousness, and generalizes it to all Asians
including herself. In presenting academic success as a shared trait of Asian
Americans, they operated within the academic hierarchy that placed English uent
whites at the top and located themselves close, if not equal to them. These
comments underscore that the Korean immigrant students socially constructed their
acquired identity as an American minority to mean model minority for themselves
and other Asian Americans.
Enactment of the Model Minority Stereotype
Their coping strategy in embracing the stereotype came at a high cost to those who
were unable to live up to it in addition to the students like Jaewoo whose academic
needs are overlooked because he played the silent Asian role. I found that the
members of the Korean club who embraced the model minority stereotype enacted
upon this image by seeking to achieve social distance from other Koreans who could
not or did not conform to the stereotype via social rewards and punishments. Social
rewards and punishments frequently came in the form of granting or denying access
to social and academic support to those students who found themselves on the
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margins of the school community as mentioned earlier. As an example, the students
like Jaewoo were embraced as one of their own in the Korean club because he
played the hard working and quiet Asian role. As a member of the club, they were
rewarded with friendship from other high achieving Korean and Asian students that
offered benets such as someone to sit with during lunch and much needed help
with school assignments. Others like Sookang and James who didnt conform to the
model minority stereotype werent welcomed at the Korean club. They were not
invited to meetings and they were ignored when attended. The students at the club
complained that Sookang and James werent hard workers and caused trouble in
classes. I also noticed they didnt always do homework; spent much time catching
up on sleep during class instead of being attentive; were more absent than present;
and they spent more time in the lunchroom than the classrooms during the day.
Once situated at the margins of the school as seen earlier, these students are further
marginalized as they received sanctions from the members of the Korean club for
their failure to live up to the model minority stereotype.
In addition to mere distancing, I witnessed a situation where a female student was
singled out and received treatment commonly known in Korea as wangtta.
Wangtta is similar to bullying in the US, where a child is intimidated by physical or
verbal abuse of others (Lee 2007). The students told me that its a social problem in
Korea where a group of young people, often in a school setting, identies one of
their own members and targets the person with verbal and physical harassment that
often leads to social isolation. Wangtta seems to be different from bullying,
however, in that the goal is social isolation, and that is often achieved in ways other
than aggressive means. In some cases, Hyunwoo told me that a whole school,
including teachers, would act as if the target student of wangtta did not exist. Other
times, the student would suffer public humiliation and abuse at the hands of all the
members of the social unit (i.e. the whole class). It appears that the students who
participated in harassing the targeted student were motivated by the fear that they
might be the next target. This fear, in turn, often called for a more cruel kind of
harassment as a way to eliminate such a possibility. Having been exposed to the
culture of wangtta in Korea, most of the Korean immigrant children at City High
were not strangers to the practice, as well as the fear of being targeted. The student
that was singled out at City High was Youngmi. There are certain things that were
never clear about this situation. For one, no one involved as the aggressor or the
victim is very certain why Youngmi was targeted. It started with a rumor, which
then led to more rumors. In the process, the true reason was either forgotten or never
explored.
One day, Youngmis mother came to school and told Ms. Kim, one of the two
Korean school staff members, that Youngmi became a victim of wangtta by the girls
in the Korean club. She said Namjoo, the president elect of the club, spread rumors
about Youngmi and told several Korean girls not to socialize with her. Soon,
Youngmi felt the full effect of wangtta as the clubs girls ignored her as if she didnt
exist. What was the most painful to Youngmi was the loss of a good friend, Minhee,
who also took part in this. When Youngmis mother heard what was going on, she
called and spoke to Namjoo. Her intention was to help the girls to sort out whatever
differences they had. Namjoo, however, didnt respond in the way she had hoped.
630 Urban Rev (2011) 43:620635
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According to Jaewoo, who heard from Minhee, Namjoo cried without saying a word
during the whole phone call that lasted more than ten minutes. The matter became
worse for Youngmi after the phone call as Namjoo and the girls spread worse
rumors about her. When I asked Jaewoo why the boys didnt help her out, Jaewoo
told me that it was difcult because Namjoo asked her boyfriend, Peter, and his
friends to stay out of it if they wont take part in it. Isolated from the club, Youngmi
transferred to a different school within a matter of months.
Although the true reason for the social alienation is not clear, what is said
about her was everywhere. Some rumors alluded to her being sexually over-
experienced, upsetting the image of a good Korean girl. Further, Jay, her brother,
informed me later that Namjoo claimed to have seen Youngmi kissing an African
American boy. Whatever the reason was, what is clear is that the ones who started
or helped to spread the rumors were aware that other members of the Korean club
would be motivated to socially exclude Youngmi by hearing that she was
romantically involved with an African American. With this in mind, Namjoo used
social punishment through associating Youngmi down to their perception of the
racial hierarchy. This may have been seen as a threat to their effort to construct
their image as honorary whites. This, however, couldnt be conrmed since
neither Namjoo nor Youngmi chose to talk about the topic and others like Timmy
denied that was the case. In general, the students saw it as a conict that was
caused by the differences between Namjoo and Youngmi. Despite such
uncertainties, what emerged clearly is that the students in Korean club saw
romantic interactions with another student of color, especially an African
American whom they placed on the bottom of the racial hierarchy, was an
offense that called for social punishment as harsh as wangtta. This may have also
served as a reminder to other club members not to make similar offenses to the
model minority identity.
Conclusion
My data shows that becoming a model minority as a coping strategy against
status marginalization in City Highs racial hierarchy for the recent Korean
immigrants came at a high cost to some of their own. Faced with limited options
that excluded unhyphenated American, the Korean immigrant students chose the
model minority stereotype to construct and reinforce their status as honorary
whites. First, the association of real Americans to European Americans left
them with a limited range of American identities. This led to the acquisition of a
status and sense of selves as an American minority. This nding supports the
argument that hyphenated American identity is not entirely a matter of choice for
racial minorities in the United States. Situated as unauthentic Americans, my
participants embraced the model minority stereotype that portrayed them as
honorary whites who are on their way to becoming real Americans.
Construction of a model minority identity, in part, is a reaction to the hierarchical
arrangement of Americans that situated European Americans as insiders and the
immigrant students of color as outsiders. Situated as outsiders, the promise of
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honorary white status situated the club to welcome an English uent white female
student to take part in performing the traditional Korean dance. The students
construction of themselves as the model minority suggests that embracing the
stereotype was to assert honorary white status as an alternative to unauthentic
Americans. In embracing the stereotype, the Korean club socially punished some
students like Sookang, James, and Youngmi for their inability or unwillingness to
conform to the stereotype. Such were attempts to manage their own perceived
proximity to the white students.
The ndings on acquiring, constructing and enacting the model minority
identity add to the critiques of the model minority stereotype. As seen with the
case of Youngmi, the stereotype negatively affected inter-racial relationships as
the students sought to locate themselves closer to whites than other students of
color. Also, the stereotype negatively affected intra-ethnic relations as it helped to
socially isolate Sookang and James for their failure to live up to it. Even those
who sought to live up to the stereotype like Timmy and Kunchae were helping to
reinforce the status of English uent whites as the real Americans. While the
model minority stereotype delivered its promise of honorary white status in the
eyes of these students, it led them towards becoming an American racial and
ethnic minority.
This underscores the need to better understand the role of schooling in creating
the contexts that construct and endorse real Americans to be European
Americans. To do so, it calls for studies that look at teacher student interactions,
inter- and intra-racial relations amongst the students, curriculum and school
organization, and other aspects of schooling that help to normalize the experiences
of European Americans alone as legitimate American experiences. Also, it calls
for the need to challenge the students to critically examine race relations both in
schools and the society. Furthermore, it calls for a meaningful conversation to nd
ways to create an environment that fosters nurturing and democratic school
environment where immigrant students learn that whites are not the only real
Americans, but also that this country belongs to them as well. Ladson-Billings
(1995) assertion that students must be empowered to challenge the system that
situates them as unauthentic Americans is a case in point. In speaking of
culturally relevant pedagogy, she argues that good teaching develops a broader
sociopolitical consciousness that allows them [students] to critique the cultural
norms, values, mores, and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities
(p. 162). Teachers must aim to foster critical thinking in addition to English
acquisition for the students with limited English prociency, and this must be
coupled with the support of school administrators and policy makers. In such an
environment, the immigrant students will not accept the hierarchy along the lines
of English uency and race without critiques, while the range of their American
identities will include the unhyphenated American label. This way, schools can
truly serve todays immigrant students to become full and active participants of
tomorrows America. In such schools, the promise of honorary white status
embedded in the model minority stereotype may lose its appeal for Korean
immigrant students.
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Research Implication
The ndings from this investigation call for a study that takes a close look at the
intersections of race and gender in the American identity formation of these
immigrants. As stated earlier, I did not feature gender as an analytical category
because the participants acquisition, construction, and enactment of a model
minority identity were similar along the line of gender, to the extent that gender did
not make a signicant difference in the process. However, I did nd instances where
the boys and girls responded to the images of Asian Americans differently. For
instance, the immigrant boys like Sungwoo and Jaewoo resisted the feminized
image of Asian Americans by getting in ghts and seeking heterosexual
relationships to prove their masculinity. In contrast, the girls like Heesoo and
Namjoo were content to play along with the quiet and passive Asian American
stereotype. I plan next to focus on the intersections of gender and race in a gendered
Asian Americanization process by exploring the contexts of racial stereotypes that
feminize Asian Americans.
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