Week 2 Readings
The issues discussed here were very appropriate in light of the lawsuit against Harvard admissions that is key to the affirmative action debate. In particular, the first paper I read presented the term "mascotting", or the adoption of Asian Americans or other "model minorities" by pundits of other races on both sides of the debate:
"The term 'racial mascotting' was first proposed by Professor Sumi Cho at a conference in 1994 and soon was adopted by scholars in the field. Professor Cho introduced it thus: "The adoption of a racial group, or even an individual of color by a white political figure or constituency-a practice I refer to as mascotting-is necessary to deflect charges of racism and preserve the redeemed status of whiteness. Indeed, is it possible to imagine a winning campaign by the anti-affirmative action movement absent the conservative deployment of racial mascots? It hasn't happened yet." (p. 69)
This is the most easily recognizable tactic by Edward Blum, an anti-affirmative action activist heavily featured in the news articles which I have linked to above.
The first paper also featured a Wall Street Journal the "white flight" narrative regarding white parents pulling their kids out of elite Silicon Valley high schools and prep schools because they were becoming increasingly majority-Asian:
"To many of Cupertino's Asians, some of the assumptions made by white parents-that Asians are excessively competitive and single-minded play into stereotypes. Top schools in nearby, whiter Palo Alto, which also have very high test scores, also feature heavy course loads, long hours of homework and overly stressed students ... But whites don't seem to be avoiding those institutions, or making the same negative generalizations, Asian families note, suggesting that it's not academic competition that makes white parents uncomfortable but academic competition with Asian Americans."(p. 81)
Overall, the above paper mentions the "amorphous" status of Asian Americans in racial conflicts in America. Ultimately, its approach in favor of both Asian Americans leveraging their statuses as people of color and as perceived academic equals among white people at the same time, and of affirmative action, was very appealing:
"It is clear that Asian Americans fall on both sides of the affirmative action debate. What is not apparent is whether affirmative action programs are unquestionably 'good' or 'bad' for Asian Americans as a whole. Attempting to prove one or the other is to fall into the same 'model minority' trap-treating Asian Americans as a monolithic ethnic group without any differences or subtleties. While it is true that affirmative action may now serve to "cap out" certain groups of Asian Americans, it is equally true that other difficulties will almost certainly arise should these 'barriers of merit' be removed. A 'model minority' student may be changed into the 'yellow peril' in the blink of an eye, yet the student remains unchanged. Rather, what is different is merely society's perception of her; and universally valid are the realities of racism and racial disadvantaging in society. Removing affirmative action in its entirety will do nothing but harm society as a whole, and Asian Americans are no exception." (p. 84)
The bolded part is where I stand.
Regarding the second reading, I liked it a lot. It was a very welcome one, mostly due to its implications:
"Dominant mass media continues to portray Asian Americans as a monolithically high-achieving population collectively invading the nation’s most elite colleges and universities, driven by domineering Tiger parents. However, this study challenges these stereotypes by presenting a more complicated picture. According to our findings, ethnicity, college-going generation and gender play intermediate roles in how influential individuals and information sources can be in Asian American college choice experiences. Even though students in this study indicated that parents’ opinions remain most important, first-generation college students could not depend entirely on their parents to guide them on their college pathways since their parents were not as familiar with the process. Men were also less likely to acknowledge their parents as playing important roles in their processes. Throughout the study, it was clear that teachers and school counselors also played key roles in students’ college choice process, reminding us that parents are not the only influential actors in Asian American college choice experiences. Indeed, Tiger Mom is not always queen." (p. 29)
I thought they were right to present the counterargument that Amy Chua's parenting style was better seen as Chinese parenting through stereotype-based white American eyes.
I naturally latched onto the parts that mentioned Filipino Americans. The surveys' findings that Filipino Americans tended to give more weight to "their relatives’ views and the proximity of colleges to home in the final stage of college choice (Teranishi et al. 2004)" (p. 24) resonated with me. My mother, who herself went to college in the Philippines, actually had final say in my choice of college after I learned I was rejected from my top choice of UC Berkeley. (For the record, we live in Woodland, only 10 miles from Davis.) Ultimately, financial reasons, rather than "teachers' advice" per the Filipino American respondents (p. 27) factored the most into my decision.
Questions: How should we consider the Filipino American experience now, given they are perceived as lower than East Asians and "acting black", in light of the affirmative action debate?
Video: The truTV show Adam Ruins Everything provides a possible origin for the "model minority" myth, framing it as motivated by Soviet use of "whataboutism" mentioning treatment of African Americans.
Sources:
Poon, O.Y.. and Byrd, A. 2013. Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices. Journal of College Admissions.
Allred, N.C. January 2007. Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again. Asian American Law Journal
https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/01/harvard-affirmative-action-trial
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/us/harvard-affirmative-action-asian-americans.html
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