week 6 by yulin Bai

Through this week's reading, I learned that the history of Miao immigrants in the United States is full of difficulties and twists. In the end, they successfully integrated into the United States, which has a huge social and cultural contrast

The mainstream society, but also tenaciously maintain the national cultural characteristics. The labels of "model minority" and "Asian advantage" may sound good, but they only promote the invisible discrimination against Asian Americans.

The theory of Asian cultural superiority often tries to verify the rationality of the label of "model ethnic minority": the success of Asian Americans in the United States is the result of "hard work, stable family, and emphasis on education" of Asian Americans. Although research shows that these prejudices are harmful to the mental health and well-being of Asian American students, some people believe that the positive prejudices do more good than harm to their mental health.

The most serious consequence of the label of "model minority" is to classify the diverse Asian American communities and not recognize the socio-economic and educational gap between them. Not all communities of Asian Americans have an advantage. The high school dropout rate of Southeast Asian Americans is surprisingly high, with nearly 40% of Miao Americans, 38% of Lao Americans and 35% of Cambodian Americans not finishing high school. The income of these Asian American subgroups and Vietnamese Americans is below the national average. Generalizing Asian Americans as "advantaged" and "successful" minorities does not replace the disturbing fact that many Asian Americans face inequality every day, as some disaggregated data show.


Mouavangsou, K. “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of and by Hmong Americans”. Fight the Tower. Rutgers University Press.