This article on paradigmiq.com written by Maya Godbole, Ph.D.; Jasmine Huang, Ph.D., and Thomas Cho covers a few things you can do now and beyond to combat the harmful effects of the model minority myth of the AAPI community.
While it’s been 30 years since the U.S. Congress officially deemed May Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, it’s clear that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) continue to face systemic barriers to equity, justice, and belonging. But too often AAPI are left out of organizational DEI conversations and strategy, in part because of assumptions stemming from the model minority myth.
As Sarah-Soonling Blackburn notes, “[The model minority myth] characterizes Asian Americans as a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a higher level of success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps immigrant striving.” This idea — operating alongside other ideologies, like meritocracy and the American Dream — predicates a faulty belief that anyone can succeed in the U.S. as long as they work hard, keep their heads down, and assimilate to White culture.
Beyond pitting AAPI against other marginalized racial groups, the model minority myth also erases both individual and group differences among the community, perpetuating a belief that all AAPI have “made it.” In reality, AAPI in the U.S. experience some of the largest intergroup disparities in pay, educational attainment, and healthcare accessibility. In addition to differences among subgroups, each person’s individual experience is further differentiated by their other backgrounds and identities — like whether they are native English speakers, when they immigrated to the U.S., the color of their skin, their religion, or whether they have a disability, among many others.
As allies and DEI leaders, here are few things you can do this month and beyond to combat the harmful effects of the model minority myth.
Tip 1: Reflect on your own internal assumptions.
When you hear the term “Asian” who immediately comes to mind? Chances are if you’re in the US, you might think of a person of East or Southeast Asian descent. If you’re in the UK, you also might think of a person of South Asian descent. These mental shortcuts — shaped in part by demographic trends — lead us to not only hold specific beliefs and expectations about those in the AAPI community but also may influence beliefs about who even “counts as Asian” to begin with.
When we rely on these shortcuts, we may end up excluding certain people or incorrectly assuming the needs of those within a community based on a visible, but limited, subset. Anchoring to prototypical examples can also lead to viewing the group as a monolith and holding the false belief that substantial progress — or even equity — has been achieved for all AAPI.
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