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Ly, Thong (Tong)

ESL - 33B

Dr. Carlisi

18 May 2018

Thesis Statement

Despite the fact that such a positive stereotype is thought to have many benefits to Asian-American

students, the prevailing “Model Minority” image can negatively impact academic success of this

racial group of students.

Detailed Outline

I. Introduction

A. The original definition of Model Minority is derived from the article “Success Story,

Japanese-American Style,” written by a sociologist William Peterson. It referred to Japan-

Americans, who raised above other racial minority groups to become economic success in

the wake of wars, racism, and segregation.

B. Later on, the term reached beyond Japanese and Chinese Americans to integrate other

Asian groups as well, including Indian Americans, Korean Americans, etc.

1. The Model Minority stereotype grew in popularity, becoming a new phenomenon to

ultimately describe the high-achieving Asians in education and socioeconomic.

2. However, based on the research conducted by Oyserman and Sakamoto, more than

50% of Asian college students refused to associate themselves with the model

minority image for varied reasons (435-453, as cited in Thompson et al. 109).
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C. Thesis statement: Despite the fact that such a positive stereotype is thought to have many

benefits to Asian-American students, the prevailing “Model Minority” image can

negatively impact academic success of this racial group of students.

II. The stereotype has negative effects on Asian students’ psychological well-being.

A. One negative aspect of the stereotype is the internal pressure.

1. Many Asian youth attempt to perform exceedingly well so that they can prove to be a

part of Model Minority, which puts them under intense stress as a result. “Scholars

have argued that the pressure of the model minority stereotype can interfere with

seeking help for emotional problems” (Das and Kemp 25, 23-33, as cited in Kim and

Lee 99).

2. There are two harmful reasons for concealing their mental issues.

a. That is, first, because of “[…] the cost of embarrassment or shame of not living up

the model minority myth” (Das and Kemp 1997; Zhou, Sm, and Xin 2009, as cited

in Yoo et al. 114-127).

b. The second reason is “perhaps because Asian Americans are motivated to bury the

issues that contradict the stereotype” (Lee, Wong, and Alvarez 69-84, as cited in

Kim and Lee 99).

B. Another negative aspect of the stereotype is the external pressure.

1. Asian American parents, as well as Asian immigrant parents, place a lot of pressure on

their children because they have high academic expectations on youth. They expect

their children to be financial success and able to take care of their families (Tokunaga

975). Therefore, Keltner revealed in her article “It Isn’t Easy Being an Asian-
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American” that “If you have great grades, but not supersonic, epic, straight A-pluses in

all AP classes, you are just considered a loser. By your own family.”

2. The failed attempts to live up to parental expectations are detrimental to many youth’s

mental development associated with a lack of self-esteem and social skills (Soodjinda

296-297).

C. As a result of the pressures of the internalized Model Minority, the severely depressed

Asian students chose to commit suicide.

1. In the article “It Isn’t Easy Being an Asian-American,” Keltner voiced her concern

about the issue by stating that “Asian parents, some of you are driving your kids to

suicide.”

2. Based on the data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, it reports that the

suicide rates of Asian American girls and young women in the 15 to 24 age range are

the highest, when compared to the numbers of other ethnic groups (Tokunaga 976).

There are many causes are attributed to their suicide rates, but one of which is the

pressure of model minority stereotype (Tokunaga 976).

III. In addition to the negative effects on the mentality, Asian-American students are the victims

of the race-based admissions due to the Model Minority stereotype.

A. When facing competitions for college admissions, Asian American applicants receive

profound disadvantage for being model minority leading them to be perceived as low

priority. The privilege of admission opportunities is given to other racial groups indeed,

including Latinos and African-Americans (Soodjinda 298).

B. Daniel Golden, the author of the book “The Price of Admission,” labels “Asian-Americans

the “new Jews,” referring to admissions policies at Ivy League schools in the first half of
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the 20th century that discriminated against high-achieving Jewish students” (qtd. in

Maxwell 26-29).

C. The Princeton sociologist Thomas J. Espenshade stated that Asian American students need

to outperform their white counterparts in SAT scores (140 points higher) in order to win a

position in one of the elite colleges (Zimmerman A26).

D. One study shows that Asian students have a 30 percent lower chance of being accepted into

prestigious universities than their white peers (Espenshade et al. 1431).

IV. Equally important, the mistaken idea of Model Minority obscures the fact that Asian

students face up to classroom bullying and racial discrimination.

A. The success of Asian Americans is often used to indirectly denigrate other people of color.

The misuse of the Model Minority term traces back to the article “Success Story of one

minority group in the U.S.” published in December 1966, eleven months after the original

term appearing in Peterson’s article. Its anonymous author used the success stories of

Chinese-Americans to insinuate that African-Americans was a “problem minority” and

suggested that they learn from other model minority groups, such as Japanese-Americans

and Chinese-Americans (Pham and Lee 530).

B. In other words, the Model Minority image, which is commonly used to strengthen the

notion of American meritocracy that success happens as a result of diligence, leads to

diminishing the importance of other ethnic groups (Tokunaga 975).

C. Needless to say, consequently, such a faulty stereotype causes a rift between Asian-

Americans and other racial groups, perpetuating anti-Asian violence (Pham and Lee 534).
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1. The U.S. Justice and Education Departments revealed that “Asian-American teenagers

had the highest rates of being victims of classroom bullying across any racial groups

[…]” (qtd. in Tokunaga 976).

2. In the book “Asian American Issues: Contemporary American Ethnic Issues,” Danico

and Ng claimed that, “Asian-American students have high self-reports of depression,

poor self-image, and hostility directed at them from peers in other racial groups and

feel racially targeted for discrimination” (qtd. in Pham and Lee 533).

a. Suffering racial attacks, many of Asian American youth drop out of school and

become depressed as a result (Tokunaga 976).

b. What’s even worse is that Asian-American students, who are the victims of

racial violence, receive little public attention in society and schools the majority

of non-Asian populations assume that Asian-Americans face no discrimination

against them (Suzuki 462).

V. What’s more, when it comes to educational achievement, it is certain that the term of Model

Minority reaches beyond the reality to become a myth.

A. The Model Minority myth plays a negative role in major-decision making among Asian-

American students.

1. The perception that Asians do well in STEM-based professions steers them toward

science, math, and engineering, dismissing their talents and interests in non-STEM

fields, such as English, sociology, or history (McGee et al.).

2. In Tan’s narrative essay “Mother Tongue,” the author mentioned that her teachers and

counselors had advised her to major in math and science for being Asian-American
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even though she had a fascination with language and writing (Tan, as cited in Spack

50).

B. Another harmful effect of the Model Minority myth can clearly be seen when it comes to

college admissions.

1. “Asian-American students have been unfairly portrayed as being too narrowly focused

on academic achievement and disregarded in qualities favored for leadership, athletics,

and politics” (Nguyen 169).

2. One study shows that being a recruited athlete or having an athlete status is more

significant than any other admission preference in the competitions to renowned

universities (Espenshade et al. 1445).

C. Due to the Model Minority myth, many Asian-Americans are not considered as potential

candidates for administrative positions (Suzuki 462).

1. The term classifies Asian-American students into a nerdy and unsociable group

(Hartlep 685).

2. A study shows that Asian-American men are depicted as passive and powerless by

whites, causing them to be denied the administrative positions regardless of their

abilities and skills (Wingfield).

VI. The Model Minority label is used to assert that Asian American students do significantly well

in term of educational performance, which in turn, is used to obscure the fact that many Asian

students that are in intense need of academic assistance are not paid attention.

A. Due to the Model Minority stereotype inflation, Asian-American students are assumed by

their teachers that they are academically supported at home through parental involvement;
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consequently, they are given little assistance from their teachers who focus their attention

to other racial groups of students who lack parental support at home (Soodjinda 296).

1. In the same way, many Asian youth, especially those who are underachieving students,

lack educational attention because teachers tend to stereotype them, assuming that

Asian students as a whole have higher academic achievement. As a result of the

stereotypical assumptions, these youth choose to suffer in silence (Tokunaga 975).

2. In Nguyen’s article “Never Good Enough: The Educational Journey of a Vietnamese

American Woman,” the author shared her painful high school years’ experience in

which she was not offered any help with her failing grades from her teachers due to the

fact that her need for assistance was overlooked for being Asian (168).

B. Asian-American students are denied the support by many institutions that are qualified for

Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander program (AANAPISI), a grant

created by Congress to financially support schools with high populations of low-income

Asian American students. To illustrate, “The U.S. Department lists 153 institutions as

being eligible for AANAPISI grants, yet only 21 have been funded” (Soodjinda 298).

1 Since Asian students are model minority and because they are believed to succeed even

with little support, their need of help and support are being overlooked (Soodjinda 298).

2 The belief that Asian-American students are free of mental issues has encouraged

schools and institutions to cut down on hiring Asian counselors (Suzuki 462).

VII. Conclusion

In conclusion, the Model Minority stereotype causes more harm than good to Asian

American students in terms of their educational success. First, the internalized Model Minority

stereotype makes them suffer for depression. Second, the stereotype unfairly puts Asian students
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in a position where they have to outperform other racial groups of students in order to be accepted

into renowned universities. Third, the mistaken idea of the Model Minority results in anti-Asian

resentment. Forth, the Model Minority myth limits the development of this racial group of students

in certain fields such as history and linguistics. Last but not least, Asian students in need for

educational assistance have been overlooked because of the stereotypical assumption that Asians

are able to succeed without any support.

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Introduction

A recent report shows that there is such a large community of Asian American students at

elite universities that some of these schools are depicted with nicknames to indicate this

presence. For example, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is short for “Made in

Taiwan;” or University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is referred to as “United Caucasians

Living among Asians” (Danico and Ng 23-41, as cited in Pham and Lee 533). In another

instance, an Asian student shared a deep feeling of anger over remarks received from peers at

school “Whenever I get a good grade, everyone says it is because I am Asian. It makes me feel

judged and people don’t really know me for who I am as an individual” (qtd. in Thompson et al.

112).

The instances shown above exemplify the fact that the majority of Asian Americans are

often seen by other groups of races in the United States through a lens of the Model Minority

stereotype. Historically, the original definition of the Model Minority is derived from the article

“Success Story, Japanese-American Style,” written by a sociologist William Peterson in 1966, a

year after the Watts Riots in 1965. The label mainly referred to Japanese-Americans, who rose

above other racial minority groups succeed economically in the wake of wars, racism, and

segregation. Later, the term reached beyond the Japanese to label other Asian groups as well,

including Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, and Korean Americans. The label Model

Minority grew in popularity, becoming a new phenomenon to ultimately describe Asians’

success socioeconomically and particularly in education. Nonetheless, based on the research

conducted by Oyserman and Sakamoto, more than 50% of Asian college students refused to

associate themselves with the model minority image for varied reasons (435-453, as cited in

Thompson et al. 109). Despite the fact that such a positive stereotype is thought to have many
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benefits to Asian-American students, the prevailing “Model Minority” image can negatively

impact academic success of this racial group of students.

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