Model Minority: (as defined on Wikipedia)
Model minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. This success is typically measured in income, education, and related factors such as low crime rate and high family stability. Critics of this terminology say that it amounts to racial stereotyping, and that its use may be a political tool and its implications incite jealousy and fighting among ethnic minorities, an example of leveraging majority power dynamics to provoke ill sentiments between minority groups.
As a student of Asian American Studies, I realize the topic of Model Minority could warrant its own 12 week course, but let’s just take a whack at it shall we?
Is the Model Minority a myth? What truth(s) lie in this?
What are the positives of the “Model Minority” stereotype? Negatives?
Are good stereotypes good? Are good stereotypes bad?
Why should (or shouldn’t) Asian Americans fight the Model Minority stereotype?
Discuss.
About jozjozjoz
jozjozjoz is a taiwanese-american gal who lives and blogs underneath the hollywood sign and who doesn’t clean her fishtank unless the fish starts to do the backstroke. she is also able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but cannot stop from bumping into door handles, cabinet doors, and anything else that protrudes or has a sharp edge. she does not run with scissors for this same reason. she can pet the fur off a dog but don’t ask her to go anywhere near a horse. or a moth. or a roach. her dealings with L.A.’s finest (aka the parking violations department) are legend, as are her giant sneezes.
Other than the two too many joz’s, jozjozjoz is a perfectly normal, relatively sane individual who defies the odds, reaches for the stars, and carries moonbeams home in a jar. She’d rather be a fish… but not in her own dirty fishtank.
http://www.jozjozjoz.com
Model Minority: (as defined on Wikipedia)
