Natalie Lortz Week 2- A03

Coming from a successful Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant, single mother, who has also achieved higher education, I can speak firsthand to the pressure to flourish academically and financially. Though my mother did experience the college application process, I still felt a similar lack of understanding that other children with first generation parents that didn't go to college. However, the difference was that instead of expecting the experience to be the same as hers, without taking in my interests as well as placing constant pressure to take AP classes, be high achieving and well-rounded in all areas. When I brought home a bad grade, she would say I got it from the Lortz side of the family (my dad is mixed with Japanese and white, and really she meant I got it from my white side of the family) and that there's no way I could be full Chinese, like her. Though she said this jokingly with a smile, I still felt nagged to get good grades in order to prove my "Asian-ness" and to fail to do so meant I took to my dad's less reputable white side. With a sense of pride, my mom, like many others, had internalized the model minority myth with a sense a pride, most likely because she is successful and high-achieving herself. Because she is a first generation immigrant and because I understand her history, I don't doubt that she also felt pressure to succeed from her parents. But I found it odd that she would perpetuate a myth that actually produces harmful effects for Asian Americans by insisting on it's truth and taking it as a compliment, rather than an unbearable pressure like I and so many of my peers did.

Question: Though the model minority myth has downsides, as evidenced in the readings, how to we acknowledge these truths without dampening the "Asian pride" it instills in others?

References:

Poon, O. and Byrd, A. "Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices. " Journal of College Admission, 2013.

Time Magazine (Photographer). (2008, May 20). Asian American Whiz Kids [digital image]. Retrieved from https://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/the-model-minority-stereotype/