Madison Nguyen

Professor Atamdede

Writing 39C

6 March 2022

The Path to Dismantling the Model Minority Myth in Education

Asian Americans are stereotyped often as smarter, richer, and overall more successful people of color (POC), and this creates detrimental effects on the mental health and perception of newer generations. For example, students ages 15-24 have been shown to have suicide as the second highest cause of death connected to academic pressure that they face in school (Cohen). Retaining poor sleep quality and even developing social anxiety in school from childhood has also become an issue due to constant microaggressions and again, academic expectations of Asian Americans that are too unrealistic to expect out of such a large and diverse community of multicultural ethnicities (Ogbeena, Brice). 

Now, what exactly is responsible for such a large range of harsh consequences? The answer is simple, it is the model minority myth. This myth is the stereotype that has described Asians as the submissive, hardworking, and law abiding foreigners that are essentially superior to other minority races. Unrealistic expectations hence have been created from this myth for all Asian Americans of all ages and backgrounds and have existed since the period of immigration. There has not been any sight of this myth fading out, especially due to the modern wave of yellow peril and anti-Asian agenda beginning in 2019. Therefore, it is important to educate the public on the importance of dismantling this myth through the improvement of statewide and national curriculum in order to prevent the harmful effects of its perpetuation. Within frameworks consisting of emphasizing cultural awareness, both organizations and the general public must work together on this social issue in order to alter the stereotype that has been ingrained in our society and mindset since youth.

These issues can be linked to the model minority myth stereotype that has created negative impacts on the community. Dismantling such a myth is actually quite simple, as we can take a look at a few graphs and realize that the generalization of the large community of Asian Americans is impossible due to the nature of its diversity. For example, one part of the myth is essentially that “all Asians are rich and educated.” However, taking a look at this chart from the U.S Census Bureau, we see quite a difference between educational background and income between ethnic groups (Jin):

Notes The U.S. Census Bureau classifies a person of Asian descent as anyone who traces their heritage to a subset of countries in the continent of Asia. But there may be people outside of this classification who self-identify as Asian. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey | Credit: Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

In general, the model minority myth tells us a generalization about East Asians, such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean people as those are the most common Asian descents that are publicized in the media. This is due to the period of immigration in America during the 60’s that only let in Asian immigrants from wealthy and educated families, often being only East Asian (Richardson). Because South and Southeast Asians historically do not possess such generational wealth when moving to the states, they are still subject to the same pressures from the model minority myth without as many resources.

The issue only continues to worsen due to the yellow peril caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Falsely negative perceptions of the Asian race were spread by prominent figures such as Donald Trump during his presidency, nicknaming the virus as the “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu” in a mockery, racist manner that insinuated a new wave of sinophobia and xenophobia. However, because Asian Americans are generalized as a whole, the anti-Asian agenda only served to harm all Asian Americans despite the comments targeting China.

Notes: Trump tweets about the Chinese Virus

As we can see, the media and public figures continuously perpetuate negative stereotypes about Asian Americans to the point of causing physical harm. The impact of social media online can be seen to create real life effects. Nearly 2,583 hate crimes were committed during a five month period during the height of the pandemic, and older generation Asian Americans, 1 in 4, were living in poverty due to language barriers that employers refused to work around (Yam). The root base of the issue is in fact the model minority myth, and there have been efforts done recently in order to prevent anti-Asian American agenda as well as cater to the youth who struggle with peer pressure from the public.

Schools have been creating curriculums, for example in New Jersey, which began mandating Asian American studies in their history courses (Tat). As other students learn about the history behind Asian descent in America, it’ll help project their views on their fellow Asian students in a different light that does not follow the model minority myth ingrained in society from childhood. California in particular is another state that has an exceptional curriculum planned for allowing diversified courses to educate students on the complexities of several different cultures in America that are harmed by false perceptions of their community as a whole. They call it the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, and the framework outlines a required semester-long course for high school students to take (Ethnic Studies). It includes historical culture of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Chicanx/LatinX, and Pacific Islanders. The coursework is discussion and rhetoric based as it meant to have students at the forefront of the class detailing their own personal experiences in order for their classmates to gain educational background from both their peers at the same time as the staff teaches. In particular for Asian Americans, the curriculum will focus on targeting the misconceptions of immigration, sinophobia, the model minority myth, and the new anti-Asian agenda. Focusing on such subjects while students are in education will provide a controlled environment for those students who are affected to feel safer as more people understand their stance on the pressures that they face due to the racism caused by false notions. 

These methods of educating students to dismantle the myth are currently in the works of being studied. There has been one instance of a longer case study from 2009 to 2017 in a San Francisco school district that measured the effectiveness of having an ethnic studies course in high school on students’ academics. It was found that students who had taken the course had increased grades and attendance compared to those that have not taken the course. 90% of students had graduated compared to 75% previously, and the rate that students went to 4 year colleges increased by 15% as well (Dreillinger). We can attribute this to the course creating a safer environment for students of colors who were in a school environment that they felt did not connect to them culturally. Making school a safe space for students is vital to their success, and through this study case we see that integrating cultural education into a school system can only provide benefits that students can form and henceforth understand each other as peers as well. Because California is a major influential state within America, the efforts made implementing ethnic studies within a classroom will have an effect that expands throughout all school’s beginning with the San Francisco school district. As the positive effects of the program become known, parents and students will be able to understand the importance of such curriculums, which will expand to positively impact the response to frameworks like the Ethnic Studies Model previously mentioned. The frameworks are a necessary step in order to provide not just Asian American students, but students of all minority backgrounds a comfortable space to share their experiences and grow from them.

Furthermore, besides educating students in a formal setting such as a classroom, we can focus on spreading awareness through media, which newer generation students are already participating in. Movements such as the Me Too movement or Love Wins have become famous for aiding women’s rights and LGBTQIA+ rights in great impact in social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram (Social Media). Leading Stop AAPI Hate has also become a trending movement after the yellow peril in the pandemic started, and the impact of the movement was able to lead Biden who signed the new COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law in May 2020 (Sprunt). Social media is a primary resource of information for modern day citizens, and we can take this as a step to spread awareness of how stereotypes of Asian Americans are negatively impacted by people who perpetuate them. Organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) have been a part of this movement within the media, for example, as they have begun lobbying, protesting, and overall centering activism on the amplification of Asian voices in society. They have started one of the largest Asian movements in the nation, and have helped nearly 97,000 people achieve citizenship through their involvement in aiding immigration to stop xenophobia. Additionally, they have turned to helping students who they believe will be able to assist and continue the legacy as a new generation, providing internships and leadership opportunities for students in youth summits (Advancing justice). Educating Asian Americans from the young is again, a vital step in dismantling the myth, and such organizations are helping achieve this by informing them that their voice matters and that they do not need to succumb to the pressures that society puts upon them. 

Additionally, mental health for Asian American families is often seen as a “taboo” subject. Students are often subject to not gaining outreach for help from others in academia or other general areas within their life, which decreases their mental state in a way that makes it quite difficult for them to obtain the proper help that they deserve. Culturally, this is a difficult topic to find a solution to that expands beyond awareness, as the older generations of Asian families often look towards more traditional remedies for healing, leaving only 8.6% of Asian Americans documented in a study from George Washington University that sought professional help (Nishi). As an indirect way to combat this, schools will often leave behind contact information for help services such as suicide hotlines, therapy or mental health help hotline, or assault hotlines for students to anonymously contact when they are in need of such assistance. This is a standard way of doing so however and it does not necessarily bring the right awareness that needs to be addressed to cater to the unique needs and experiences of Asian American students who generally experience a mental block when it comes to receiving this type of help due to their cultural expectations clashing with their emotional needs. Organizations such as NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, have attempted to raise awareness to these families through their programs targeting Asian families knowing that is where the stigma takes place. Programs such as the Chinese American Mental Health Outreach Program have been started in their state affiliates, such as California and New York, which work to educate families on the accessibility of mental health help services that exist in today’s generation (Luo). The expansion of these organizations and general programs pertaining to raising awareness is a simple but vital strategy to improve the overall mental health of Asian Americans and eliminate the stigma within families about new-age remedies. Students participating in such programs will feel more comfortable with their families stance on receiving help and will hopefully take the countless number of opportunities in order to find healthier methods to improve their own welfare.

As we continue to see the progress of Asian American history and POC education being implemented into schools, we see progressiveness in students becoming more prevalent. These steps we can take will allow students to not fear the pressures and academic stress that they are put under, and they will gain more of an understanding of their culture from a proper educational standpoint. In hopes that these mandates succeed, students will especially not fear getting help from external sources, as many Asian families do not promote subjects like therapy. Leading ethnic studies in formal and informal settings will have a great impact on students’ mental health as they will be able to be actively learning in a new and comfortable environment where their experiences and identity itself are not seen as alien.

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