Week 3: Charlene Chan, Section Two

Week 3: Model Minority, Tiger Mom, Affirmative Action, and Newer Debates in Higher Education

April 16, 2017

Charlene Chan

Week 3: Model Minority, Tiger Mom, Affirmative Action, and Newer Debates in Higher Education

On Nancy Chung Allred's "Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again"

Allred’s piece challenges the upholding of Asians as the “model minority” and analyses this stereotype’s harmful effects in the context of affirmative action and race relations.

This piece hit pretty close to home, as I’ve always felt out of place in the discussion of race relations as the perpetual foreigner not only in appearance, but also as a member of the so-called “model minority”. As an Asian, I have certain privileges that other minorities do not, but instead, have “‘historically been located somewhere between black and white’” (Allred, 73). It is difficult to find a foothold in the discussion of race relations when you are perpetually being shunted between being upheld as the model minority and being demonized as the yellow peril, as Allred summarizes— “at once people of color and then outwhiting the whites” (Allred, 74). As such, Asian Americans have historically been used as props by systems supporting white society to dismiss the necessity of affirmative action programs, citing our successes as Asians as proof of other minorities’ inferiority — “if Asians can succeed, why can’t the blacks?”--- a sentiment I've often heard in this context. This leads to a balkanization of minority groups, pitting people of color against one another in the fight for equality. In turn, this has lead to Asians (whether consciously or unconsciously) accepting the model minority stereotype in our bid for whiteness, without realizing that we will never be white enough. We are “isolated from both sides of the black/white paradigm” (Allred, 72). Nevertheless, our vying for whiteness has lead to adoption of anti-black racism in the Asian community.

The image I have included below is David Diao’s 2000 piece IMPERILED, a painting that addresses the perception of otherness, specifically regarding Asians.

Question: How do we as Asian-Americans navigate the narrow path between the privilege we hold and racism we face as Asians in a constructive manner?

References:

Chung Allred, N. (2007). Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again, 14 Asian Am. L.J. 57

Diao, D. (n.d.). David Diao. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http://www.officebaroque.com/artists/8/david-diao#works-5518e70ed3e23

Lee, D. (2013). A Bitter Pill - David Diao. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http://www.dioramaprojects.org/a-bitter-pill-david-diao/