Essay Tran Nguyen - The Negative Effects

 Asian American and the negative effects of model minority stereotype

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Asian Americans are 3x less likely to seek mental health services than other Americans due to the pressure of being stereotyped as the “model minority”.

Model minority is a term that was published in the mid-twenty to describe the group of people, whose roots belong to Asia, as problem-free and achieving prosperity from poverty, to reinforce the myth of the American Dream. While many people stereotype Asian Americans as the “model minority”, many Asian Americans deal with issues that are not ideal, for example, having a higher rate of psychological problems, distancing themselves from their roots to avoid racist bullying, and lacking the essentials of multicultural education.

          Since the 1850s, a large wave of Asian immigrants, especially Chinese immigrants, traveled across the sea to the United States with the hope to earn wealth and send money back to their poor families. Many Chinese immigrants succeed with their hard work and the term American Dream was published. Due to the propaganda, the Asian American population in the U.S. has been growing rapidly in a short time. In the late 1960s, Yuji Ichioka, a historian and civil rights activist, established the term “Asian American” to describe the group of people whose roots belong to Asia. According to the Model Minority article, written by Nicholas D. Hartlep, prior to the term “model minority”, Asian Americans were known as the “yellow peril”. This term emphasizes the presence of Asian Americans would cause harm to the United State. However, in the mid-twenty, the term “model minority” was coined and replaced the term “yellow peril” to reinforce the myth of the American Dream and respond to the African American civil rights movement in the 1960s. The term was published to explain to the African Americans that if Asian Americans can succeed, African Americans can make it too because the United States is the land of opportunity. With that being said, the term “model minority” was not invented to praise the Asian Americans’ hard work but to indirectly control the African American civil rights movement.

          While being indicated as the “model minority”, Asian Americans silently report having a high rate of psychological distress. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), while commit suicide is the leading cause of death among Asian American youths, the rate of having psychological distress in Asian American groups is reported to lower than in other ethnic groups. Psychiatrist Xiaoduo Fan, a Board-certified psychiatrist and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, explained that “In Asian cultures in general, when someone is talking about emotional experiences, psychological disturbances and challenges, it’s considered a character defect or personal weakness.”
Due to shaming and stigma, most Asian Americans attempt to hide their mental problems and tolerate their distress in silence. In this case, statistical data can not properly support the rate of Asian Americans who suffer from psychological distress. Society defaults the Asian American community as the “model minority” by creating stereotypes, such as being problem-free, good at math, playing instruments, being obedient, etc… and define a successful Asian American by considering how close they are to achieving all the stereotypes. These stereotypes have been applied for so long that not only does American society impose them, but also Asian Americans impose the stereotypes on themselves.
The book “Stereotypes: The Incidence and Impacts of Bias”, written by Joel T. Nadler and Elora C. Voyles who are the mentoring expertise in social psychology and social justice issues, states that
“Positive stereotypes can lead to similar detrimental effects just like the endorsement of overly negative stereotypes does” (Nadler and Voyles 169).
Setting up a high-standard is not an incentive but a burden of responsibility, which drags down self-esteem and increases fear of failure. People understand that playing instruments is a special skill that not everyone has, obedience is not always a good virtue because it inhibits the person’s creativity, and especially, no one can be considered as problem-free since we all make mistakes.
Asian Americans, just similar to other ethnicity, must take extra effort in studying and memorizing in order to obtain good grades.

Based on Figure 1, the achievement goes hand in hand with the academic effort. This strengthens the idea that Asian Americans are not naturally good at studying. For instance, the South Asian obtain a low cognitive ability, however, as they focus on elevating their academic efforts, they also increase their achievement. Because of that, becoming the pride of society and family only takes effect if such expectations are within the capabilities of the individuals. Chasing other people's expectations easily caused the person to lose inspiration and be covered by the fear of failure. Once it comes to psychological problems, the patient has to suffer intensely to overcome the struggle. Due to that, instead of spending time and effort on healing, it is more important to exactly support the Asian Americans by allowing them to freely tackle new tasks without the fear of being judged.

          Since the outburst of the pandemic, many Asian Americans distance themselves from their roots to avoid racist bullying. Society blames Asian Americans, who never travel abroad since the pandemic, for spreading the viruses because they are related to Asia. According to the Center for Public Integrity, 32% of Americans have witnessed someone blaming Asian Americans for spreading the virus and 60% of Asians have witnessed the same conviction. Compared to the statistical data in 2017 from the National Center for Education Statistics fast facts, only 7% of Asian Americans reported being bullied at school. The outburst of the pandemic marks the point in which the racist bullying rate increases abnormally high in a short time. Bullying does not only refer to physical bullying but also verbal bullying.
The most common phrase that Asian Americans hear most of the time during this pandemic is “Go back to your own country”. People are obsessed with enmity so that they can’t consider that these Asian Americans can be the ones that are born and raised in the U.S or the ones that immigrated to the U.S before the pandemic takes place. This is nothing as painful as living in a country that does not welcome you and your family.
Besides, Asian Americans are not only mocked by their eyes but also by using chopsticks during lunchtime. Even though chopsticks and forks are just tools that support people to eat without using their hands, people express discriminated attitudes toward Asian Americans, who use chopsticks, because they do not follow the social norms. On the other hand, people tend to be friends with those, who share the similarity with them in physical appearance and gender. In order to make friends, one has to give up their true identity. Due to that, many Asian American youths hate themselves being Asian American and distance themselves from their roots to avoid racist bullying and to join their peer group. However, even though one could completely transform their physical appearance or skin color, they could never completely transform their identities because our roots are our foundations for life.

          While many people might argue that expressing discriminated attitudes and isolating Asian Americans does not mean racist bullying but just to protect themselves from getting the virus. American Journal of Public Health recently publishes the article “Potential Impact of COVID-19-Related Racial Discrimination on the Health of Asian Americans”, which study through surveying several people about the virus racist bullying claimed that “The racialization of disease that results in entire groups of people being portrayed as dangerous others based solely on physical appearance or skin color.” The virus reminds the Asian Americans back to the period of time when they were called the “yellow peril”. Back in the 1950s, the U.S. called Asian American as “yellow peril” because they were worried that these Chinese immigrants would compete for their jobs by offering to receive low wages.
Almost 70 years later, as the virus develops, Asian Americans once again become the harm of the United States because the U.S. is worried that these Asian Americans possess the danger that could take their life. In fact, physical appearance and skin color are not medical symptoms of the disease. Due to that, the call to isolate Asian American does not offer any help but increases the risk of racist bullying and enmity. Instead of expressing discriminated attitudes and isolating, there are so many other ways that help one to protect themselves from the virus such as following the social distancing, wearing masks, increasing their physical health by eating healthy and doing exercises. The pandemic must never be considered as an excuse for discrimination but a challenge that we have to fight hard to overcome.

           While many people fight for anti-racism, American youths are lacking the essentials of multiculturalism education from school and home. Multiculturalism understanding prevents undesired discrimination and helps students to gain pride in their roots. Forming a good assumption of races at a young age is easier than changing the perspective of someone, who has completed their cognitive development. The article “Confronting Racism at an Early Age”, written by Jill Anderson, conveys many strategies that education can reinforce in teaching to gain students’ multicultural understandings. One of the first essential strategies is the role of the teachers.  Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, states “Part of this is because teachers don’t always recognize when Asian Americans are being bullied and stigmatized. They may not acknowledge that certain gestures, like pulling your eyes slanted, can be offensive” (Ching chong! You have Chinese virus). Teachers should have a better understanding of their roots and other races before they can start to teach students about cultural diversity and racial diversity.
According to Mariel Buque, a race and culture columnist for psychology, in the article “Why conversations about racism belong in the classroom” claimed that“ Just because a person of color identifies as a person of color does not mean that they have an understanding of how to best serve a client of color or students of color”. For instance, an Asian American teacher might not be as good at making effective communication with Asian American students as a Hispanic American teacher, who makes an effort to learn about the diversity of cultures.
Besides, a well-prepared teacher of multicultural understanding can overcome bias and express a rational judgment toward racist bullying and stop the misbehavior as soon as possible. As the teacher has a sufficient understanding of racism, the next challenge for them is to figure out how they can open up about multicultural education in the word choice that young students can understand and take interest in the new topic. Teaching young students is a tough task because they are easily bored and refuse to absorb information.
In addition, the understanding of races that are supplied to the students from school and home should go selectively hand in hand.

According to Figure 2, the mismatched information about race education between school and home can cause the students to confuse and develop inappropriate knowledge about multicultural education. Children’s mindsets are like a blank paper and the adults are the ones that write the first word onto that paper. But unlike normal paper, it’s easy to build up a child’s perspective toward life but hard to erase it. Due to that, school and family should figure out a plan that works best and combine their roles in guiding the young students. Besides, books and stories should be meticulously selected. Young students believe in what they are told and what they read. If they are exposed to false information, the child can follow the wrong direction and create misconceptions toward different races. Another way that can help the students to take interest in multiculturalism is school special event celebrations, such as the Chinese new year, mid-autumn festival, etc. These events not only introduce other students to their peers’ country traditions but also support the students to be proud of their parent’s traditions. Selectively educating students at an early age about races is essential and challenging.

          Yet some readers may challenge the view that Asian Americans do not need to understand their parents’ country and traditions because mono-culturalism is more important than multiculturalism. No one can deny the importance of valuing and enhancing your country’s traditions. Patriotism is the source of strength that drives people through challenges to victories. It is known as a great spiritual motivation of the entire nation and a leading factor to create endogenous strength for our nation to live and develop.  However, due to the concept of ethnocentrism, people believe that their countries and cultures are the best ones. As a consequence, wars are becoming a tool for people to influence other countries.
Almost all wars are started by the urge to convey idealism. We desire to make our culture popular so that our global would develop within our control. With that in mind, the first act is colonization. Back in the day, World War II was formed when the German government desired to prove that German is the best country in the world in all aspects. Because of wars, millions of innocent people were dead.
The passion they had toward their country should be used to build up a strong nation instead of a tool to compete for power.  Every country has both positive and negative traditions. The fastest way to get to know someone is to understand their roots. Multicultural understanding gives people more knowledge in life and creates more chances to expand one's relationship networks.

           Model minority is an overly positive stereotype that can lead to the detrimental effect of negative stereotypes toward the individual in the group such as increasing the risk of having mental problems, distancing themselves from their roots, and lacking the essentials of multicultural education. It is impossible to eliminate stereotypes.
However, we can fix and correct them with better definitions and flexibility. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses so that society should never create stereotypes toward a group of people and set their assumptions as a successful standard.
Asian American is not the only community that needs proper recognition but also the other group of people, such as African American, Muslim American, Hispanic American, etc… Social norms should be the incentive for changes instead of the strive for perfection.

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