Madison Nguyen

Professor Atamdede

Writing 39C

6 February 2022

How the Model Minority Myth Negatively Affects Asian Americans

An influx of immigration from the Asian community into American society occurred in the 60’s and became the origin period of the model minority myth. Because these immigrants consisted of generally wealthier, educated individuals, the myth began as a stereotype where Asian Americans became seen as hard working and high achieving minorities compared to other people of color. In the modern era, this stigma continues to persist into the lives of POC (people of color) communities, and can have detrimental effects to particular groups, such as when we focus on Asian students. The model minority myth negatively impacts the mentality of students of color, especially those of Asian descent, which can be seen by the increase in mental health issues, the “yellow peril” phenomenon during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the history of extensive stereotyping of Asian people and their culture.

Within the POC community, mental health issues appear in students at an increased rate when compared to those of non-POC and at different levels between major racial groups. For instance, a study was conducted in 2015 on 3,837 high school students to scan for social anxiety rates and it was found that “Asian Americans were between 1.53 and 1.83 times as likely as White students and between 1.89 and 3 times as likely as Black students to screen positively.” (Brice). This difference can be reasoned to be partially caused by the effects of the model minority myth, as it brings pressure to succeed for many Asian students. Commonly, in Asian American families, students are expected to maintain perfect GPA’s, have extensive lists of extracurriculars, and overall stay at the top. This can create a harmful environment for them that relies on unrealistic expectations stemming from the historical Asian stereotype. This increase in social anxiety can be caused in indirect ways, such as passively seeing their peers as competition because the student needs to be successful in comparison to others in order to be acknowledged often by parental figures. In another case study conducted in 2007, it was found that  “Asian-American women ages 15-24 have the highest suicide rate of women in any race or ethnic group in that age group.” (Cohen). The survey included interviews from 41 different women who had thoughts or attempts at suicide, and concluded that they all experienced some form of pressure whether that be in an academic, work, or home setting. Within Asian culture, there are still gender role expectations that persist even in modern day families, as women are expected to be feminine, submissive figures. Hence, an environment is produced where they are almost forced to passively bottle their problems to themselves by societal pressure. Despite the push for feminism, many Asian women feel a divide between their two cultures, one of their families and the other being American culture. With the two cultures being completely different in a sense of traditionality, these mental health issues become amplified corresponding with the pressure they face.

Along with the detrimental mental health effects caused by the model minority myth, the stereotype itself also factors into being an obstacle to receiving professional help or therapy.  In one study done by the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), it was found that “8.6 percent of Asian-Americans sought any type of mental health services or resource compared to nearly 18 percent of the general population nationwide.” (Nishi) Often, cultural influences are the main factor in preventing the outreach of the Asian American community towards getting mental health help because it is common in Asian families to view seeking this type of help as a “taboo.” They often resort to more traditional remedies like natural oils or acupuncture with the belief that seeking help is a sign of weakness rather than the individual tackling the issue themselves. With this, the model minority contributes to supporting families’ beliefs as it insinuates that these mental health problems can be solved simply through perseverance and hard work when, in reality, receiving such help is far more complex. 

This issue becomes even more dire as students go through higher education, where they often see that the standards put on them become less easily achievable, and their achievements become less validating and more of an expectation. A case study was done through an interview of a student who has a common experience of feeling pressure for success and a need for academic validation. Fuchs interviews Shannen Kim in asking why the stereotype has such an impact on her and her community, where she explains how “it's like you’re supposed to be performing well so you don’t need help. So then when I needed help, I felt like I couldn’t go and ask.” (Fuchs). As she is a student at Harvard, she felt the need to uphold her standards that she has been maintaining all her life that allowed her to attend her school. Essentially, she was working endlessly to prepare to get into a “good” college, where the standard for good is Harvard, a top tier ranked university. This standard of “good” is unreasonably high, and a regular person cannot maintain a healthy mental state when faced with a difficult academic environment and continuously expected to excel. For example, Shannen received her first “D” on her first midterm at Harvard, and it was the first time she felt such disappointment in herself. When such a student fails to meet these expectations that they have achieved their whole life, it often causes them to burn out, and waver their sense of self-worth. Combined with the lack of outreach to receive therapy or mental health help for the stress caused by these factors, it often leads Asian American students into a state of bottled up stress. This lack of aid by students’ own community forces many into states of isolation, where they internalize the belief that they are able to overcome their own issues on their own without the help of external support systems.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a new wave of sinophobia and xenophobia targeting the Asian community was introduced. Unemployment rates for all groups skyrocketed, but increased the most for Asian Americans in a study done in New York City, which found “a jobless rate of 3.4 percent at the beginning of the pandemic in February'' and “by May, the rate had surged to 25.6 percent.” (Yam). In general, this surge is likely caused by the lack of access granted to those who struggled with unemployment. Language barriers, for example, have become an issue in employing Asian immigrants in particular because the workforce often refuses to cater to POC foreigners. Racism stemming from older generation’s distaste for foreigners has been a rampant issue since the start of immigration period, and the casual discrimination of these workers, who are often first generation, creates a blockage to the very success that is expected of Asian Americans. The expectations from the model minority myth also play a role in this as it is stereotyped to say that  “Asian Americans are high earning and well educated.” (Jin). While it has been debunked several times, such as in a LAAUNCH survey that showed leadership roles in Asians are the most underrepresented, the myth is still prominent within American culture. It creates a scenario that undermines Asian struggles, in this case, the high rates of unemployment, as there is a hidden expectation that the community will be able to get through it simply because they are perceived by often conservative, older employers as hardworking and persevering individuals.

For Asian American students, they are likely to experience racism and discrimination often in the form of stereotyping, microagressions, and new-wave hate criming. In a study using 152 college students in 2019, students who said they experienced these forms of racism through a two week period “were associated with shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality the following day.” (Ogbeena). As negative experiences cause physical effects, the issue of the model minority myth’s pressure on students can apply not just to Asian students, but all students of color as well. Furthermore, this decrease in quality of sleep is even more impacted if the student has been a part of American culture for longer periods of time. This can imply that the stereotype generally exists outside of Asian culture itself and has become a stigma against Asian Americans. Oftentimes, students’ problems become overlooked when comparing issues between POC communities in a way pitting them against each with common microaggressions such as “good, hardworking, quiet, passive people who come to the United States and they don't cause any trouble. Unlike the way that black Americans are currently causing trouble for the United States.” (Ho). The stereotypes for both groups are damaging, calling Asian Americans to perfection and labeling Black people as criminals. As Asian Americans fall into an awkward placement between the black and white viewpoint that many still view race as, they have privilege from the falsely positive perceptions of the model minority myth but also receive discrimination due their foreign status. In many cases, this causes the racism they receive to be through internalization or casually repeated, often beginning during early education when a student is truly exposed to racism for the first time by their peers. 

Seeing the increase in mental health problems, the racism caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the persisting stereotyping of Asian people, Asian students can attribute these harmful experiences partially to the model minority myth. These issues of discrimination are still an ongoing issue to this day, where students face peer pressure not only from their classroom environment, but in the real world as well. With cultural influences from students’ families continuing to stand in the way as an obstacle for them to receive proper help and support, the myth is able to persist and remain a prevalent societal standard within the community. Beyond schooling, a student’s education prominently plays into maintaining the racist, and inaccurate stereotyping of the Asian perspective, and it is vital to tackle the issue from this root in order to minimize the harmful impact the myth plays in the community. 

Works Cited

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Cohen, Elizabeth. “Push to Achieve Tied to Suicide in Asian-American Women.” CNN, Cable 

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Fuchs, Chris. “Behind the 'Model Minority' Myth: Why the 'Studious Asian' Stereotype Hurts.” 

NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 Aug. 2017, 29 Jan. 2022, 

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Ogbeena, B., Ryu, S., Lee, S., & Slopen, N. (2021, October 10). Discrimination and sleep among 

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NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/mental-health-toll-being-model-minority-2020-n1249949