RACISM DISGUISED AS ADMIRATION, THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH

"Why are Asian-Americans so successful in America?" 

White people like LUUUV asking this question. It's been asked and answered again and again for DECADES, ever since the term "Model Minority" was created to reference Asians supposed rise sans any white racist interference (<--not true).  And Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times asked this question yet again on October 10, 2015, which just happened to be on the same day as THE JUSTICE OR ELSE MARCH in Washington D.C.


But before we go on, a definition: 
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/04/dismantle-model-minority-myth/ 



Now, let me write the question that these gutless I'm-not-a-racist posers really want to ask and answer for themselves in public, as often as possible: 

"If we white people are so racist in this country 

and holding non-whites back, non-whites like 

Blacks, 

Latinos, 

Native Americans, 

Pacific Islanders 

(pssst---and darker-skinned Asians) 

then why are Asian-Americans so successful in America?

My question back at Kristof is this:

If Asian American are so successful (and white racism so non-existent a barrier) then why, according to a EEOC website, are Asians sometimes 1) complaining about discrimination at a rate higher than black people? Have double digit poverty rates? Have their kids grades drop to "normal levels" once they are three or four generations removed from the people who did the immigrating( <--from my personal experience as an aide at a highly rated high school)?

1) 

"In a survey conducted by the Gallup Organization which sampled employees’ perceptions of discrimination at work and the effect those perceptions had on performance and retention. The data showed that while much progress has been made in fulfilling the promise of equal opportunity, more remains to be done. The survey data (released in December 2005) indicated that 15% of all workers perceived that they had been subjected to some sort of discriminatory or unfair treatment. When broken down into sub-groups, 31% of Asians surveyed reported incidents of discrimination, the largest percentage of any ethnic group, with African Americans constituting the second largest group at 26%."  http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/reports/aapi.html

I can't find the graphic, but less than a decade ago Asians filed more EEO Complaints than any other ethnic group. The stereotypes that white people love about Asians --non-confrontational, non-assertive-- etc keep them doing the drudge, repetitive labor (since they won't complain) and from being put in charge of anything (since they aren't leadership material)

2)
And whenever you hear about Asians and their low poverty rate, most of the time they must be averaging these numbers across the country instead of looking at poverty rates where Asians actually live in large numbers after entering the country. When I spoke to an Asian Charity representative a couple of years ago, she told me the poverty rate for the Los Angeles area  was 19%. (I thought it was single digits. Guess I bought into the myth too--despite riding through poor Asian neighborhoods regularly) This article with poverty rates adjusted for geography, says the nationwide rate is upwards of 16%

Once adjusted for household size and geography, the poverty numbers shift considerably. 16.1% of Asian Americans live in poverty as opposed to 10.4% of whites. And the numbers are growing fast. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/data-shows-duality-asian-america-high-income-high-poverty-n190031

3)

It isn't just poverty rates that are growing fast. Average type grades are coming on them fast too because it isn't just Asians that have stars in school when their family first gets to the United States. Lots of new immigrants have star pupils in school when they first get here. Work hard and win are what immigrants are told you must do to achieve the American Dream, especially as an outsider.  It's not until they've been here a few generations that they are just as dumb as every other American. But it does not take a few generations for them to figure out they are going to have to work hard AND file complaints about discrimination in order to be promoted as fast as the white guy in the next cubicle over. (See the EEOC link above)


That is, white supremacy is affecting Asians negatively too. That Model Minority Myth itself is holding them back.  But Kristof's that Asians are unaffected are based on the usual garbage--

"It's because of Asian culture!" - LLAG

And this white man, Kristof, is reaching for these claims for the usual colorblind, non-race-based reasons too, as *Love Life Of An Asian Guy* explains below: 

"See, this is the sh*t that perpetuates the white supremacy and anti-Blackness. Don't believe me?

Check it out:

Claiming that Asian affluence is attributed to Asian CULTURE indirectly implies that Black CULTURE is also the reason for Black oppression. This line of thinking was THE EXACT REASON why the model minority myth was created. It wasn't created to make Asians look good, America created it during the Cold War to excuse anti-Blackness. America was being criticized HEAVILY for their mistreatment of Black folks and in return, they said, 'But, our Asians are doing just fine! Trust me, it's just a Black thing.' "

- LOVE LIFE OF AN ASIAN GUY

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