“While these sorts of comments might seem like compliments or affirmations, they are actually overly simplistic generalizations that reveal the devious and exploitative nature of race and racism in the United States.”
Have you ever wondered where the idea that Asians become doctors, lawyers, or engineers came from? This stereotype stems from the model minority myth. The myth expresses the idea that Asian Americans are the epitome of success, so others should follow. This might seem like a compliment, but what’s so wrong about this picture is that this is a tool of oppression intended to preserve the institution of white supremacy. It pits communities of non-white colors against one another.
Another implication of the myth is that it promotes anti-black racism, an idea I hadn’t considered before. When I had those few conversations about race with my siblings I didn’t realize I was being racist. Not that we were trying to defame African Americans, but we were comparing our lives as Asians to the lives of Blacks. It didn’t come across to us that we were internalizing anti-blackness. We would say things like, “well we grew up living with a frugal lifestyle and still managed to get into college, so they can do it too” or “we don’t get ourselves involved in crime, so they could do the same.” Many Asian Americans have come to fear and avoid the stigma of being “different” or “foreign” in a country where whiteness surrounds us. So anti-black sentiment acts as a defense mechanism for us to avoid that stigma. We may feel that our status of success validates our insecurities of being a minority and places us on a racial hierarchy above other non-Whites, maybe close to or above Whites.
The problem of these racial stereotypes is that it divides different groups of people and puts them in competition against each other. Additionally, it is wrong and unfair to compare the struggles of different communities. Asian Americans have a different history of oppression from African Americans. Many could argue that the history of oppression for African Americans is much worse than that of Asians or any other minority community. But that is still a juxtaposition of different groups of people. And that is the last thing we want to do. We could talk about the different magnitudes of suffering of all groups of people, but that should not make the struggles of one race, culture, or ethnicity worse or less worse than another.
Oftentimes, the success of Asians is contrasted with the “failures” of Blacks. This hides the fact that there are Asian communities in poverty especially first generations struggling without the resources that other Asian communities may have developed over the course of two or three or more generations. The myth trivializes Asian American communities who do not fit the stereotypically “model” Asians. Likewise, there are Black communities thriving with success. Not enough light is shone through African American communities.
But most importantly, to accept any positive stereotype of one’s own race is to accept a white supremacist system that reinforces a racial hierarchy. This is absolutely detrimental to both Asian American communities and other racial communities.
Progress and change cannot happen unless all groups of people – Black, Asian, Hispanic, White, women, men, etc. – come together in solidarity to fight for change. It is how freed Blacks and White Americans united to abolish slavery. It is how the women’s movement became successful in fighting for the passage of the nineteenth amendment by garnering the support of women and men. It is how the Civil Rights movements helped end racist immigration laws against South Asians. It is how, in the 1960s, Asian Americans joined the Third World Liberations Strikes that started the Black power movement and inspired the Yellow power movement. And it is how the LGBTQ community and its straight allies have united to fight for marriage equality. It is only when cross-racial solidarity forms that we can even begin to have conversations about change and finally move towards racial justice.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/04/dismantle-model-minority-myth/
Tara,
I think you make a very good argument that lumping any race into a category, even if seemingly positive, still promotes racism in general. Race is not a good way to judge anyone’s background – for example, Asian Americans who fall in more closely with the “model minority myth” probably have more in common with recent immigrants from Africa who are very successful than with perhaps other Asian American communities. As you said, it’s good to avoid generalizations about race in general!