Section 3 Presentation – Week 3

Caitlyn Minas
Josh Omoletski
April 14, 2017
A03

Challenging the Asian American Stereotypes

     The two readings for this week, “Asian Americans and Affirmative Action:  From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again” and “Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety:  Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices,” settle lingering debates around the model minority and tiger mom stereotypes by analyzing how Asian American teenagers, especially first-generation, are affected by the expectation that they need to work ten times as hard as their white peers to earn the best educational opportunities.  In the first reading, Chung Allred introduces our nation’s history of affirmative action by using Lowell High School, where the standard for entrance exam scores was raised for only Chinese American children so as to maintain Lowell’s forty percent acceptance maximum per racial category.  This detail of Lowell’s history continues with white privilege and affirmative action controversies in university and professional school admissions.  Chung Allred suggests that although opponents of affirmative action believe admissions should be based on merit alone, the system has already been designed to benefit white Americans despite recent efforts to increase representation.  Therefore, affirmative action has helped more than harmed Asian Americans.  As a result, competition among Asian Americans for the number one spot on any scholastic or talent event on any level continues to rise.  Part of this is credited to their parents.  While some have heard of or experienced strict rules from parents that included sacrificing free time for studies and other competitive activities, resulting in anxious and emotionally dependent college students, many fail to realize other ways how first-generation Asian American students are influenced, particularly as they apply to college.  Poon and Byrd address difficulties some students have navigating the college admission process, including deciding where to apply and attend aside from parents’ opinions.  This places Asian American parents in a different light in the college preparation; rather than enforcing strict rules and high expectations, they are learning with their children and supporting their children through this process.  In the concluding paragraph, Poon and Byrd emphasize not every Asian American family is well-equipped with the knowledge and experience in how college admissions work.  We must become more aware of these challenges Asian Americans face today, challenge these stereotypes, and work to increase equity for Asian American families.

     With the wide array of topics pertaining to this week’s readings, it’s easy to see how these topics are still relevant and sometimes dominate in today’s society. As many people have heard, there was a recent incident involving United Airlines. On Sunday April 9, United had officers from the Department of Aviation beat and drag David Dao, a 69-year-old Asian American doctor, off of Flight 3411 in Chicago. It was confirmed by Dao’s lawyer during a press conference that Dao will most likely need reconstructive surgery. It’s unclear to the public whether race played a part in Dao being picked to be forcibly removed as opposed to any of the other passengers being picked. Asian Americans have been dubbed the “model minority,” yet how can that make sense when they fall victim to the same injustices as any other minority? Something else that is just as interesting is a study conducted back in 2014 by Stanford sociologists on different styles of parenting. The study compared the extremely strict parenting style of Asian American parents to the more lax and permissive style of European American parents. It was found that both methods of parenting are effective, but in different ways. Asian American children succeed by being pushed by their parents’ expectations and pressure. European American children succeed by being exposed to less interdependence. If an Asian American child fails at attempting something, the parent will be right beside them to get them back on track and push them forward. If a European American child fails, it’s their duty to gather themselves and move forward with the new experience. This study showed that even though tiger parents are often criticized, their method of parenting produces young Americans that are just as successful and non-traumatized as European American parenting does. Most recently, a news article has surfaced out of Harvard’s very own newspaper, The Crimson. It covers how the university’s law school has become extremely diverse in the past few decades thanks to the activism of two former administrators. Derek Bok was the university president as well as the law school’s dean before that. Walter Leonard was the assistant director of admissions. During their time at the law school, the diversity of the graduating class slowly increased. The increase was not seen for Asian Americans, who even as a minority, are denied the positive effects of affirmative action. The media questioned if Harvard was implementing a racial quota much like Lowell High School did, but Harvard never disclosed information. Nevertheless, affirmative action was put in a negative light by the media because of it.

    These topics permeate every aspect of society, and it’s no surprise that these subjects touch parts of our lives as well. One of our group members, Josh, grew up with two so-called “tiger parents.” It was a well-known household rule that you finish your homework, do all the studying for any tests and do your chores before you could think of relaxation or fun. They would also sign him up for extracurriculars he didn't want to be in like youth soccer, youth basketball and music lessons.However, this lifestyle growing up meant being prepared for rigorous workloads like taking plenty of AP classes alongside sports throughout high school.  A more extreme case involves a friend's parents who encouraged exploring various activities of interest outside of school, but enforced the belt and open hand and yelled more as their son got older.  This friend is currently a third-year at a prestigious university and commutes to and from campus every day from his hometown, but despite his capabilities of being independent, his parents do not let up.  There are more examples, but these two show the variation of strict parenting within Asian American families and do not always reflect dependency issues or hyper competition in children as they reach adulthood.

     As Asian Americans, we can attest to some truth to the tiger mom and model minority stereotypes.  However, like all stereotypes, they do not tell the whole story.  Most parents just want the best for their children, especially when it comes to education.  After all, pursuing higher education means going after a better future, one that should not be followed by questions or assumptions about how well-deserving students got there.  It is also essential to remember that during the journey, there will be more allies than oppressors.

Chung Allred, N.  (2007).  Asian Americans and Affirmative Action:  From Yellow Peril to Model 
          Minority and Back Again.  Asian American Law Journal, 14(3).  Available at
          http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/aalj/vol14/iss

Karr, M., Natanson, H. (2017, March 22). The Lightning Rod: Race and Admission at
          Harvard. Retrieved from 
          http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/22/race-and-admissions-at-harvard/

Parker, C. (2014, May 20) 'Tiger moms' vs. Western-style mothers? Stanford researchers find different
          but equally effective styles. Retrieved from
          http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/may/asian-european-moms-052014.html

Poon, O. and Byrd, A. (2013).  Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety:  Ethnic, Gender and Generational
         Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices.  Journal of College of Admission
          Retrieved from http://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
          article=1077&context=education_facpubs

Smith, M. (2017, April 13). United Airlines Passenger May Need Surgery, Lawyer Says. Retrieved
          from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/us/united-passenger-david-dao-chicago.html?_r=0