Below is my complete annotated bibliography work, which I used as my main source of note taking throughout both the context and advocacy projects. This bibliography was not a new aspect to my writing as I had something similar to take notes with in high school, so the set up was familiar and easy for me to adjust to when I conducted research. I believe that my note taking skills remained relatively constant through the process, as I used it to mainly locate useful quotations and statistics that I would utilize in each of my paragraphs. However, what did improve was my overall efficiency in writing my summaries. I noticed that while writing, I had been able to cut down my time writing each annotated bibliography draft by 10, 20, even 30 minutes at times. After writing and getting used to the process, I think I was able to eliminate distractions and almost get into a "zone" while writing that heightened my pacing. 

 

 

Topic: The Effects of the Model Minority Myth on the Mental Health of the POC Community

 

Annotated Bibliography:

 

Cohen, Elizabeth. “Push to Achieve Tied to Suicide in Asian-American Women.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 May 2007, 13 Jan 2022, www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/16/asian.suicides/. 

 

This news article was published by Elizabeth Cohen of CNN which provides potential reasons for the increased suicide rates in Asian-American women, particularily concerning that of the model minority myth. She includes the statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services that “Asian-American women ages 15-24 have the highest suicide rate of women in any race or ethnic group in that age group,” and how “suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian-American women in that age range.” Cohen surveyed 41 different women in this category who either attempted or thought of suicide in order to try to find the cause of these alarmingly high rates, and found that many of the women she interviewed were experiencing a large amount of pressure whether it be from their families or from society. Culturally, an Asian woman is expected to not go out, be limited in what they choose to pursue in life, and become the ideal feminine or motherly figure. She elaborates on several stories, however, all are similar and do not specify much more than how they were pressured by the perfection that was expected of them, and were shamed for wanting to receive help.

 

Brice, Chad, et al. “Social Anxiety and Mental Health Service Use Among Asian American High School Students.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2015, 13 Jan 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4393335/.

 

In a research study conducted by Chad Brice from PMC, the article highlights how Asian Americans are more likely to experience social anxiety in frequencies higher than other ethnic groups, due to potential reasons such as peer pressure, or racially motivated discrimination. He conducted a survey that “included 3,837 high school students in grades 9–12 and between the ages of 13 and 19 recruited from suburban middle to upper middle class schools” and 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 depending on the screening measure used.” The sample size and type used gave a variety of students ranging from their ethnicities and gender, providing statistics that show Asian Americans are more likely to be socially anxious. This research also found that women are more likely to have social anxiety than men as well. Brice hypothesizes that these differences in social anxiety rates can be attributed to factors such as cultural differences among Asian American families, including expectations from parents and other family members that align to adhering to the outlines of the model minority myth. However, the study fails to be conducted in a wider range, such as those in more impoverished situations or other age groups.

 

Jin, C. H. 6 charts that dismantle the trope of Asian Americans as a model minority. NPR. 25 May 2021, 13 Jan 2022. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/999874296/6-charts-that-dismantle-the-trope-of-asian-americans-as-a-model-minority 

 

Jin wrote this article debunking several aspects of the model minority myth, as he claims that it has been used as a “racial wedge” to downplay the racism contributing to the discrimination of status between races and ethnicities. He points out several key disparities between myths, such as how “Asian Americans are high earning and well educated” by including a chart showing ethnicities and rates of bachelor’s degree earned, or how “Asian Americans are fairly represented in leadership positions'' using a survey by LAAUNCH that revealed that Asian Americans were in fact the most underrepresented group. The model minority myth is proved to be a relatively false notion through this article, which can lead to detrimental effects on those who become victim to it by discrimination or pressured by these false standards laid upon them. However, some obstacles towards Jin’s article are how he used polls for several of his claims, which can be supported far more strongly with broader research.

Ogbeena, B., Ryu, S., Lee, S., & Slopen, N. (2021, October 10). Discrimination and sleep among Asians and Pacific Islanders adults. Academic.oup.com. Retrieved January 21, 2022, https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/44/10/zsab109/6257851?login=true  

 

The authors’ purpose in writing this article is to show how discrimination can affect mental health based on ethnicity and race. While all minorities are shown to have a shortened sleep duration compared to that of white people, the focus on Asian Americans can be attributed to modern discrimination. The covid-19 pandemic has contributed an influx of “yellow peril” and sinophobia of the Asian community, creating an increase of microaggressions, AAPI violence, and stereotyping of the group. The study was conducted for 14 days utilizing the responses of 152 college students, and found that sleep quality and duration worsened from “daily racial microaggressions and the extent to which the respondent anticipated being stereotyped by others (i.e. stigma consciousness) that were associated with shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality the following day.” This stereotyping can be contributed to by not only the recent yellow peril development, but the continuous cycle of the model minority myth as well, as the myth generally exists outside the Asian American community’s respective countries as the study depicted “individuals who are more acculturated or who have lived in the United States for a more extended period have worse sleep outcomes.” While the study does not specifically target the cause to be the model minority myth, a speculation can be made that the more the student was likely to be exposed to the effects of the myths stemming from generally American discrimination, the worse their sleep quality was documented. 

 

Richardson, S. S., & Center for Public Integrity July 29, 2020. (2021, March 19). How does the model minority myth feed into racism? Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://publicintegrity.org/inside-publici/newsletters/the-moment/how-does-the-model-minority-myth-feed-into-racism/  

Richardson in the article states how Asian American stereotypes negatively affect other POC communities and the history behind the myths. The model minority dates back to the the 60s where an influx of immigrants from Asia in particular was seen. However, the only immigrants that were granted access to the US were those of wealthy status and high education in order to fill in the roles of doctors and other medical professions. This caused the initial interpretation of Asian Americans to be seen as higher achieving, hard working individuals who came to America and succeeded despite only people who were already successful were allowed to immigrate. Other minorities became pitted against each other under the argument that “if Asian Americans can make it after all they’ve been through then what’s wrong with Black people?” More laborious jobs became associated with particularly Black communities while Asians were associated with engineering, more high status jobs, creating a metaphorical racial hierarchy aimed to exploit POC. While the article details in the history of how the model minority myth exists it fails to make clear or statistical statements of the exact effects of other communities.

 

Yam, K. (2020, December 26). The Mental Health Toll of being a 'model minority' in 2020. NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/mental-health-toll-being-model-minority-2020-n1249949  

Yam writes the article discussing how racism and xenophobia are affecting Asian Americans during the pandemic. Asians have received “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,” which Yam says is the highest surge of any racial group. She also states how the group also had the highest poverty rate in NYC even before the pandemic with “1 in 4 seniors living in poverty.” This can be attributed to racism in the workforce that is not catered to foreigners. Language efficiency especially among the older generation has not seen to be addressed properly or even at all in some cases during the pandemic to aid with the increasing unemployment. The model minority myth can also contribute as it can influence the mentality of public officials that Asians Americans will essentially work their way out of poverty and do not need as much assistance as they give to other minorities. Xenophobia and sinophobia increases have also affected the help Asian people recieve, even in mental health help circles. Yam addresses that there is a specialized help needed for those in the Asian American community that is often ignored, exemplifying the anti-Asian hate crimes that have totaled to 2583 in a five month study during the pandemic, but does not provide specific health effects other than an interview from someone in grief from the pressure they have received from the public and their family to continue to succeed despite marginalization.

 

Fuchs, Chris. “Behind the 'Model Minority' Myth: Why the 'Studious Asian' Stereotype Hurts.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 Aug. 2017, 29 Jan. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/behind-model-minority-myth-why-studious-asian-stereotype-hurts-n792926.   

Fuchs talks about how Asian Americans face pressure through the studious stereotype and how academic validation often becomes a necessity for students. Interviewing Shannen Kim, she discusses how this need for academic success ultimately became a downfall when she received a D on her midterm at Harvard after being told her whole life that all she truly needed to do was achieve good grades and get into a “good” college. With Harvard being classified as the standard for good by her parents, it brings unnecessary pressure and an unreasonable standard for her academics, as Harvard is one of the highest ranked universities. As she describes that the experience had her realize that her “self-worth and value was so closely tied to my accomplishments, and my academic accomplishments, it was like an attack on my identity and who I thought I was,” and she found that it was difficult to think that she could not fix her issues on her own, saying “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.” Approaching mental health for Asian Americans is frowned upon in our culture because of the model minority myth highlighting hard work as the source of success, which I believe Fuchs fails to mention in depth.

 

Nishi, Koko. “Mental Health among Asian-Americans.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 29 Jan. 2022, https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/asian-american/article-mental-health.  

Nishi from George Washington University wrote an article discussing the mental health approaches of Asian Americans. He cites a research done by the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) which states 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.” This is attributed to different factors, as conducted in a research from The University of Maryland School of Public Health research team in 2007, which contains sources of common stress factors to includes “parental pressure to succeed in academics,” that fact that mental health outreach is considered “taboo” often within Asian culture, and the pressure of performing up to the model minority myth. These studies were mostly conducted utilizing a community of 1.5 or 2nd generation immigrants, but can be more solid if 1st generation immigrants were included. However, my prior research shows that less acclimation into American society decreases the effectiveness of the pressure of the model minority myth upon students.

Ho, Jennifer, and Frank H Wu. “Jennifer Ho and Frank H. Wu on the 'Model Minority' Myth.” Jennifer Ho and Frank H. Wu on the 'Model Minority' Myth | National Committee on United States - China Relations, https://www.ncuscr.org/media/podcast/model-minority-myth.  

Ho and Wu, in an interview, discuss how the model minority myth affects minorities. In one case, stereotypes of different racial groups are used to undermine the issues of another, for instance, a common saying comparing Black and Asian Americans as the "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.” The stereotype for both are damaging, especially considering the issue is not Black and White, literally and figuratively. As Asian Americans fall between receiving privilege and discrimination, many times the racism received is through internalization or repeatedly casual. 

 

Advancing justice conference. Asian Americans Advancing Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/advancing-justice-conference 

The Asian American Advancing Justice is an organization aimed at dismantling the stereotypes of Asian Americans and providing the community with an effective voice to create outreach gearing towards political and legal changes. Supporting immigration, preventing hate crimes, and stopping the effects of common harmful stereotypes is the goal of the organization, and they have held movements to successfully complete them. For example, AAJC held a New Americans Campaign which helped increase the number of people that become new citizens by almost 97,000. Besides such movements, AAJC also helps students by providing networking experiences in internships, and even directly educating them for their own rights and promoting advocacy through youth leadership workshops and summits. As educating future generations is vital in order to overcome the previous notions of what Asian Americans should act like, AAJC is helpful in providing effective pathways to properly educate the youth and spread awareness to the importance of the issue, as this is the most basic step to dismantle the myth.

 

Ethnic studies model curriculum. Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum - Curriculum Frameworks & Instructional Materials (CA Dept of Education). (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

This framework outlines California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. Essentially, in high schools, students will be required to complete a semester of an ethnic studies course with the purpose of educating themselves with their own and other cultures surrounding them. The diversity of the curriculum is set to include African American, ChicanX/LatinX, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Native American history and culture studies, which will allow for an increased understanding of other ethnic identities and solidify a history education background without as much whitewashing. In the case of Asian American studies, the model curriculum proposes teaching guidelines and course outlines to include learning about the different cultures within Asia, as it is broad and diverse in itself, as well as addressing the Model Minority Myth that caused racialization of Asian Americans. Immigration and discrimination based on the foreigninity of individuals will also be discussed, such as sinophobia and xenophobia in particular. The framework simply provides guidelines for what should be taught in ethnic studies, and I believe that in order for this to be successful, the classrooms must be monitored for the curriculum to truly be set based on the experiences of the students, especially the more diverse the classroom.

 

Tat, Bellamy-WalkerNBCUniversal News Group. (2022, January 18). Schools are starting to mandate Asian American Studies. more could follow suit. NBCNews.com. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/schools-are-starting-mandate-asian-american-studies-follow-suit-rcna11118 

Bellamy-Walker, in the article, discusses the origin of Asian American studies and its effects on the student community. The whitewashing of Asian history is so prevalent within American society that only by 2022 “New Jersey is slated to become the second state to mandate Asian American history as part of its public school curriculum, after Illinois did so in July.” Reasoning why this was important, Walker highlights an experience of a parent on back to school night who  said “Even though they were in a school with so many kids that look like them, they still choose to draw themselves with a peach crayon,” and “ I feel like it’s because our curriculum is not diverse enough and doesn’t show people of different backgrounds.” Children are taught racism from their youth, and face a disconnect from their own identity whether that is faulted in the media or even their own peers and adults in their life. While the author vividly details experiences and explains why Asian American studies are important, the article does not provide numerical evidence that children who are taught with the fixed education are more culturally connected or experience other benefits. States that mandate Asian American education are aiding America being one step closer to un-whitewashing our own history.

 

Richard Sander, S. T. J. (2021, July 12). The painful truth about affirmative action. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/the-painful-truth-about-affirmative-action/263122/ 

Sander writes the article to explain how affirmative action does not help POC students as it claims to, but rather harms them within the admissions process instead. He explains how racial preferences create “mismatches” among students of different racial backgrounds at the same school, exemplifying a case where a 52nd percentile student was admitted the same as a 89th percentile student. This creates a scenario where students are academically imbalanced between each other simply due to a preference in admissions, for example, he says how “Black college freshmen are more likely to aspire to science or engineering careers than are white freshmen, but mismatch causes blacks to abandon these fields at twice the rate of whites.” For Asian Americans, the model minority myth stereotype also affects affirmative action, as it creates a situation where they are expected to score higher than their other peers simply to compete at the same level, further creating mismatch. The article does not address the issue concerning Asian American students, however through personal experience and knowledge I can assess how this also negatively impacts AAPI students. Affirmative action was an attempt to create change, however it unintentionally further harmed the communities. I did not include this source within my AP or CP because after beginning writing my AP, I realized that while this information did lead me into my other research about how stress for college affects students, the content of the source was too off-topic for me to utilize effectively.

 

Social media as activism and Social Justice. Maryville Online. (2020, June 11). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://online.maryville.edu/blog/a-guide-to-social-media-activism/ 

The article discusses the positive connection between social media and its effects on various social justice movements. It names big movements, such as the Black Lives Matter movement which took a large following through social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, utilizing hashtags to promote spreading awareness of police violence, protests, media manipulation, and overall the viewpoints of the public unseen from TV. More hashtags, such as “Me Too” and “Love Wins” are also other movements that have used social media to spread awareness and promote positive social changes with the feminism and LGBTQIA+ rights movements. Social media creates a relatable and sense of closeness with others who share similar experiences, and can extend to helping dismantle the model minority myth. While the article discusses the overall benefits and exemplifies movements that have had positive impacts, it does not include movements such as the Stop AAPI Hate campaign that are vital to dismantling the model minority myth and bringing awareness.

 

 Dreilinger, Danielle. University, S. (2021, September 7). Research finds sustained impact from an ethnic studies class. Stanford News. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://news.stanford.edu/2021/09/06/research-finds-sustained-impact-ethnic-studies-class/ 

Dreilinger approaches the topic of how ethnic studies benefit a classroom based on a study of a curriculum in the San Francisco Unified School District beginning in 2009. After a few years in 2017, the research reported “showing academic gains at the end of ninth grade (e.g., higher attendance, grade-point averages and credits) among students encouraged to take the course,” and “More than 90 percent graduated within five years, versus 75 percent of their peers. They were also 15 percent more likely to enroll in college within six years.” Ethnic studies being incorporated not only shows academic gains, but helps students develop complicated moral thinking that leads to these increased academic statistics. As students understand their own culture from their own and each others’ experiences, they develop a sense of cultural identity and freedom as they become educated in a welcoming environment about the discrimination faced and perpetrated by the general community. The article well addresses the reasons behind why students who have taken the course tended to do better in school, however the research can be improved through the extension of utilizing more diverse options in school districts.

 

Sprunt, Barbara. “Here's What the New Hate Crimes Law Aims to Do as Attacks on Asian Americans Rise.” NPR, NPR, 20 May 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/05/20/998599775/biden-to-sign-the-covid-19-hate-crimes-bill-as-anti-asian-american-attacks-rise.  

Sprunt notifies the public of the recent event in May 2021 where Biden signs the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Bill. This bill was established as an act against the recent yellow peril following the pandemic due to the violence incited by public figures such as Donald Trump, who coined the disease as the “Chinese virus.” It helps establish guidelines for more accessible reporting services to the public to encourage those affected by the yellow peril to voice their concerns and experiences. It also allows the Department of Justice to grant a person to review hate crimes while also allowing states and governments at their own will to format crime-reduction programs in order to reduce the amount of hate crimes taking place specifically against Asian Americans. This was done after organizations such as Stop AAPI Hate reported “6603 hate incidents” pertaining to those with an Asian identity. As America diversifies more, the senate was able to agree in a 342 to 62 vote that this movement was necessary. While Sprunt does explain the reasonings behind why the bill was enacted, she does not explain in specifics of what impact the bill is planned to have for Asian Americans.

 

Luo, Maggie. “Outreach and Engagement for Asian American Families.” NAMI, https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/May-2020/Outreach-and-Engagement-for-Asian-American-Families. 

Luo is a part of the organization NAMI, or the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In particular, this article was written during AAPI heritage month which tackles the ongoing issues of mental health being a struggle within the Asian American community. Reported statistics have repeated job losses, psychiatric evaluations from courts, and higher suicide attempts by Asian Americans often links to stigma and the lack of awareness between generations of immigrant families. The organization itself is responsible for helping raise awareness and eliminating stigma in California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas for Asian communities. It implements multicultural programs such as the South Asian Mental Health Awareness in New Jersey and the Chinese American Mental Health Outreach Program. It serves to educate families on the importance of mental health and the access that they can have in the modern day, which the outreach has granted families new knowledge on how and where to receive help and service. 

This image is from a tweet deleted from former president Donald Trump’s twitter account in 2020. He weaponizes the use of the phrase “Chinese Virus” within his tweets often during the pandemic in order to label Chinese as dirty disease carriers, pitting them against American citizens who follow the influential beliefs of Trump as president. Blaming the virus on China and Chinese citizens has had a detrimental effect on how Asian Americans in general were perceived after being labeled. As Asian Americans are often not distinguished between ethnicities by a large group of American citizens, those who hold racist grudges against the community use this common phrase of the “Chinese Virus” as a tool of harm and alienation. There is no link for an MLA citation because this tweet has been previously deleted, and this image came from a screenshot on my phone.