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Asian American Pacific Islander poverty remains invisible 

“The numeric growth of AAPI poverty represents almost a third of the total increase in poverty among the general population. Further, while the rates of growth in poverty population have slowed somewhat for other groups as the economy has improved, AAPI poverty is continuing to increase.”

Asian Americans are only 5% of the U.S. population but represent almost a third of poverty growth in the country. I highly recommend reading more about why no one seems to notice or care here: 

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"As well-meaning as it may be, the model minority myth ought to be rejected for three reasons. First, the myth is a gross simplification that is not accurate enough to be seriously used for understanding 10 million people. Second, it conceals within it an invidious statement about African Americans along the lines of the inflammatory taunt: "They made it; why can't you?" Third, the myth is abused both to deny that Asian Americans experience racial discrimination and to turn Asian Americans into a racial threat" (Wu 49).  

In this article, Frank H. Wu goes into the plight of the Asian American racial group and the effects of the model minority characterization. Right at the beginning of the article, Wu denounces all connections to the model minority term. He views it as a negative term that not only wrongfully describes him but ineffectively describes an entire race. In the above quote, Wu outlines the three main reasons behind why the term is harmful to Asian American people. The term model minority unfairly describes a group of people that have varying traits--whether it is being from different socioeconomic classes or even countries. In addition, the term also isolates Asian Americans from other minorities, putting it on a golden pedestal to be admire by all races besides white. And finally, Wu describes how the term molds Asian Americans into a threat that must be looked upon with fearful eyes and watchful stares. 

This article also goes into the history of the model minority term and how it holds a "germ of the truth." The article goes into how their is a general misconception of the careers of Asian Americans and how they all have high paying jobs. For example, at one point in the article, Wu claims that people think that all Filipinos are nurses. Now, being Filipino, I found this statement to be incredibly profound. I was raised to think that all Filipinos for the most part work in the health care field but that is not entirely the case. My parents are not nurses and to be grouped together as nurses is a clear representation of the model minority term. The model minority sets expectations for Asian Americans and when those expectations are not met (no matter how crazy), they are looked upon as inadequate and most importantly, a failure. 

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The following is a reflection on a few of the issues raised in the recent Gavin McInnes satirical article “Tackling Asian Privilege,” published on the libertarian magazine website Takimag.

Upon opening the webpage for McInnes’ article, the viewer is confronted with the image of an Asian male with black sharpie scrawled across his face. The most prominent phrase written on his forehead declares, “WE’RE LUCKY WE’RE ASIAN.” McInnes claims Asians are more educated, more privileged and richer, among other things. The article rests on the assumption that unlike the narratives of other minorities, who are oppressed and living in a system that isn’t to their advantage, the Asian American narrative is the opposite. He is saying that, as Asian Americans, we don’t experience this minority struggle and are actually the ones doing the oppressing.

McInnes executes satire in the article by equating privileges usually attributed to whites to Asian Americans instead. He tries to demonstrate that white people aren’t the only ones who are “privileged.”

He lumps all people of Asian descent into the convenient stereotype of being conventionally successful and educated by the markers of American society without any regard to how many different nationalities and experiences are ubiquitously labeled as “Asian” by this country’s census.

Asian Americans overall have a poverty rate of 12.6 percent compared to the national average of 12.4 percent. This is compared to the national averages for blacks and non-white Hispanics living below the poverty line, which are 26.7 percent and 25.3 percent, respectively. By these numbers, Asians are disproportionately less poor than other people of color in this nation. For context, whites in America have a poverty rate of 9.9 percent.

However, these statistics and McInnes’ analysis do not show the strife of Asian Americans of Southeast Asian descent that came to America as war refugees in recent decades. The poverty rate among the Hmong is 37.8 percent, the highest in the country for any one ethnicity. The rates for Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese follow close behind at 29.3 percent, 18.5 percent, and 16.6 percent, respectively. Clearly not all Asians are wealthy. Furthermore, on top of this harsh economic reality, these demographics have also had their fair share of difficult experiences: war, civil unrest and immigrating to a culturally unwelcoming place where they don’t know the language.

Additionally, I take issue with the assumption that racial oppression is only measured through wealth and education. Many Asian Americans appear to be as successful as their white counterparts because East Asian cultures incidentally value education by virtue of Confucianism. This emphasis on education often translates to monetary success in American society, since higher education here provides access to well paying jobs in the medical field and beyond, as mentioned in McInnes’ article when he complains that “though they comprise less than 4.8% of the American population, they make up 8.3% of all doctors.”

Instead of understanding the cultural conditions that lead to economic and academic success for many Asian Americans, American society rewards Asian Americans with “good” stereotypes and expectations.

On a personal note, every math class I took in middle and high school was marred with the expectation that being good at math was an inherent skill. I actually struggled with this tremendously, and it’s a large factor in why I was never fond of mathematics.

When I did well, I wasn’t worthy of acknowledgement or reward because I was just displaying my “natural abilities as an Asian person.” When I performed poorly, I would get taunted twice as much as my white peers, because not only did I make a bad grade, I simultaneously was a disgrace to all other Asians for going against my own “nature.” What “good” is this stereotype that “Asians are smart and educated” when it never lets me win?

In fact, I still feel these pressures in a different way from my friends in college. I have friends who periodically invoke caricatures of Asian people to tease me about studying a social science instead of a hard science. “Dishonor upon your family,” they’ll exclaim when I bring up politics or talk about social issues, as if it makes me an inferior to care about something outside of math and science. In the eyes of many, it makes me a less authentic Asian person in some way, because they have a very stifling view — that is ultimately dehumanizing — of what it means to be Asian.

McInnes goes on to say that “when asking for a loan or writing a check, an Asian never has to be concerned with how he or she will be perceived. Asians can say swear words or wear secondhand clothes without anyone assuming it’s due to poverty or illiteracy.” This is completely untrue and is clearly written by someone obtuse in regard to racial experiences. When my mother goes to the bank and talks to the representative, do you think she isn’t worried about how her broken, accented English will come across to the banker? When my entire immigrant family of more than six people lived in one tiny house after they came to this country, do you think that they didn’t worry about the poverty they were living in? Do you think that my aunt and uncle didn’t feel self-conscious about wearing Goodwill clothing to school when they came to the U.S.?

And how is it that I don’t have to worry about how people perceive me when my entire life I’ve had to deal with bullying and various dehumanizing stereotypes about Asians? For example, my eyes have been the subject of both subtle and blatant ridicule for as long as I can remember. “Slanty eyes, chinky eyes, gook, flat features, snake-like eyes, open your eyes, Linda!” — the list of hurtful terms that I’ve accrued from others over my lifetime to describe my face is lengthy. These terms and phrases have been piling up from kindergarten to my freshman year of college. No matter how well-intentioned the speaker means them to be, they are nothing but dehumanizing. Coupled with the subversive functions of Western advertising, movies, television and the make-up industry that all constantly reinforce the worth of large dark eyes with long eyelashes and deep lids, how can I be anything but self-conscious of my “slants-for-eyes?”

This isn’t an attempt to garner the reader’s pity, but rather an example in showing just how inconsiderate and ignorant McInne’s article is. How can I read something as satire when it asserts that I don’t have to worry about other people’s perception of me, when so much of the pain I’ve had growing up has been because of how people perceive my Asian features and identity? And this is not even mentioning all of the racially targeted catcalling that I’ve experienced. The earliest occurred when I was 12 and walking home from the bus stop, and someone yelled from a car window, “sucky sucky five dolla.”

While Asian Americans are a privileged minority group on the spectrum in many ways, McInnes’ article deserves all of the fire that it receives for how shallow his interpretation of “Asian privilege” is. Any Asian person can tell you about all of the racial oppression they experience in this society. McInnes’ implication that Asians are as privileged as whites as a joke is very unfunny to anyone who actually is Asian and understands the nuances of the Asian American experience. You don’t get to silence an entire group of people and get away with it unscathed just because you’re writing “satire.” Writing satire about an entire race of people that disregards their actual input and opinion is at least a little bit reflective that you don’t value their worth, so what does that say about McInnes as a white male writer? How is he innocent of any racist criticisms waged against him?

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Not Your Fetish Artists: Emily C. Chang & Anida Yoeu Ali of I Was Born With Two Tongues Album: Broken Speak (2003) Lyrics: http://atomicshogun.org/writing_notyourfetish.htm Excerpts:

My lips, my teeth, the tip of the tongue are ready to speak, they’re ready to scream I am tired of this machine we call American history Our sweet land of liberty  has a stolen canvas that’s painted in white over black, brown, yellow, red Fashion trends and haute couture designed to appropriate my culture… What is it that makes me “in” this year? Appropriate! Appropriate! Take! Take Take!  Motherfuckers exploit my culture out of context with no content What is it that makes me “in” this year? So you tell me you have an Asian fetish?… Stop masturbating in your own glory. Stop masturbating in my culture. Read More

I Was Born With Two Tongues (1998-2003) was a Chicago-based Asian American spoken word collective, comprised of Anida Yoeu Ali, Marlon Unas Esguerra, Emily C. Chang, and Dennis “Denizen Kane” Kim.

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A few years ago, I had the opportunity to read The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. In her memoir, Chua describes her rigid parenting approaches and the importance of following the “Chinese way” of raising children. In the above blog post above, Cheryl Ting criticizes Chua for glorifying the model minority characterization and how it is something that all Asian children should strive for in life. One of the most important things to make note of this article is Ting’s claim that Asians are becoming the new “White” and how the blending of everyone’s perceptions of Asian Americans is creating an institutionalized sense of racism. It is also important to make note of the cycle that occurs when a child is raised the Tiger Mother way. In this blog post, Ting claims that by pushing children to achieve “model” status, we create divides between all cultural groups and put all races on a ladder of who’s the best one.

I feel like this post helps in our research because it shines a light on how the model minority term can be engraved right at the beginning of an Asian American’s childhood. It is no longer only about the color of your skin but also one’s upbringing. The values instilled by a Tiger Mother become a driving force behind why the model minority characterization exists and how it continues to play a role in our modern day society. It makes me wonder what a parent has to sacrifice to ensure that their children is successful but doesn’t have to follow what society deems appropriate.

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Micro-aggression: 'Everyday insults, indignities and demeaning messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned people who are unaware of the hidden messages being sent to them.'

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As an Asian American, I heard many people saying that I must be good at math and science and dream of becoming a doctor in the future. This is partially true but not absolutely. I noticed that I am not the only one hearing this all the time because this article also brings up the exact situation where Asian Americans are expected to be math and science geeks. Not knowing how to solve a math problem on the board is more surprising to the teacher and other students than knowing how to solve a ridiculously hard problem. This article points out the struggles that Asian Americans encounter from "positive attributes" of the model minority term. Of course there are many Asian Americans who excel in SATs and hold higher income than other minorities including the Blacks and the Latinos. Nevertheless, there are large number of Asian Americans who do not perform just as well in academics and also a handful of them live below the poverty line as the article reveals. Because of the assumption that Asian Americans do not need much financial aid and educational aid since they are already perfect in every single way, there are less help available to them. The article is helpful to our project aim because it demonstrates the turmoil of the model minority term. It does not promote the internal quality of the individual but allows judgments to be made based on the fact that Asian Americans are model minorities. The term no longer seems to hold positive attributes but instead overlooks the inherent contents of Asian Americans by tying them down to certain stereotypes.

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Wellesley Asian Alliance’s annual poster campaign is underway. Want to participate in the dialogue? Send us a message on tumblr or tweet with the hashtag #waaposter

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Liu recently talked about race and being typecasted with the luxury online retailer Net-a-porter.com:

“I wish people wouldn’t just see me as the Asian girl who beats everyone up, or the Asian girl with no emotion. People see Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock in a romantic comedy, but not me. You add race to it, and it became, ‘Well, she’s too Asian’, or, ‘She’s too American’. I kind of got pushed out of both categories. It’s a very strange place to be. You’re not Asian enough and then you’re not American enough, so it gets really frustrating.”

Liu’s wary of playing the racism card, but admits that she had to “push a lot just to get in the room”. “I can’t say that there is no racism - there’s definitely something there that’s not easy, which makes [an acting career] much more difficult.”

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People of Asian descent become the model minority when they are depicted to do better than other racial minority groups, whereas they become the yellow peril when they are described to outdo White Americans. On one hand, Asian Americans as the yellow peril embody ‘‘foreignness’’ and ‘‘masculinity’’ that threaten U.S identity as a White, Christian nation; on the other hand, Asian Americans who make efforts to succeed silently and diligently— without demanding or protesting anything —symbolize ‘‘the model minority’’ and ‘‘docility’’ or ‘‘femininity’’ and confirm colorblind ideology. Considering Lee (1999) and Okihiro’s (1994) arguments, it is possible to think that the construction of the model minority stereotype is tied to creating a less threatening face of the yellow peril.

Asian Americans are portrayed as either the model minority or the yellow peril. While the model minority term reflects the “positive” aspects of Asian Americans such as being successful and engaging in an upward mobility ladder, the yellow peril represents them as a threat to the U.S. Whether they are viewed as the model minority or the yellow peril depends on how they behave. Silence and docility are characteristics of a “good” model minority. This post provides an insight into how model minority was constructed back in the 1990s. The stereotypes that exemplified Asian Americans as silent and docile provided tools for soothing the yellow peril or the fear that they could overthrow the white identity in America. The term, model minority, was much needed as a defense mechanism for the U.S. to fight off the yellow peril. Ironically, it also promoted the yellow peril because “positive” stereotypes of Asian Americans as having high educational attainment gave them an opportunity to outsmart the Americans or the white nation. It is ideal for Asian Americans to associate themselves with the model minority term but having too much of the assets of the model minority can be problematic as well. The model minority itself can become the yellow peril. This restricts Asian Americans to a narrow range of characteristics. They have to show that they are climbing up the ladder to success but this must be done in a quiet manner. Nevertheless, numerous blogs and posts on Tumblr illustrate that these stereotypes cause confusion among Asian Americans in finding their true identities nowadays. This post helps us understand how the model minority was understood early in our history.