Framing the Model Minority myth
HIST/PSCI 250: Politics, Multiple Identities and Transnational Experiences: Asian American Communities
Among the many deep and compelling details our community speakers revealed about the model minority myth was the ways in which it inflicts harm on individuals, families and neighborhoods within Asian American communities. These include broken families, deportation and incarceration. There are many ways to look at it, but power, race, competition and history are active factors.
Power. Understanding the model minority means an examination of power. The powerful determine the rules, who is dominant and who is subordinate.
Race. Power is exercised through racial categorization. As we have read, the Supreme Court could not clearly define whiteness except how it was "popularly understood". But still, if whiteness is the majority and the norm, then others are the minority (or minorities). White power determines that among minorities one is a model for others to follow.
Competition. In this scheme of power exerted through race, minorities compete against one another. The model minority stands above the fray. The center of power is never challenged.
Community. This social order of white power encourages minorities to “act white” or conform to white expectations (“white adjacency”) as a means of achieving community. It is thoroughly racist answer about how to behave in a racist society. In contrast, Black Lives Matter proposes “The Beloved Community”, that is, a society united by social justice, equality and fairness. In such a scheme there are no outsiders or subordinated groups or model minorities.
History. Our readings from history illustrate the absurdities and contradictions contained in the idea of a model minority and why it is harmful to all.
Power. Understanding the model minority means an examination of power. The powerful determine the rules, who is dominant and who is subordinate.
