The Model Minority Myth is More Harmful Than We Think

by Ryana Sarcar

I’ve lost track of the number of times students and teachers have asked me things like “Don’t you want to be a doctor?” or “you’re smart, right?” without ever having spoken to me before. For most Asians, this experience is fairly commonplace. We are all familiar with stereotypes about Asian American students: math whiz, musical prodigy, tiger parents, will do anything to get into an Ivy League School. In adulthood, these translate to successful, high-earning, law-abiding, nuclear families. There is a name for this set of stereotypes: the model minority myth.

A lot of people question why Asian Americans take offense at these “positive” assumptions. Here’s why: not all Asian Americans fit them. When people feel like they don’t truly belong to their race because they aren’t meeting highly unrealistic expectations, self-image and mental health will deteriorate. In fact, Asian American college students have a higher likelihood of seriously attempting suicide than those of any other race. And for students who do meet these expectations? Their dedication and hard work are often disregarded with comments like “Well, of course he did, he’s Asian”.

Furthermore, the model minority myth primarily exists to reinforce systemic racism in the US. To understand why, we have to first understand that “Asian American” was an identity created by White people, lumping immigrants from over 100 different ethnicities into one. Perpetuating the narrative that Asian Americans earn well, assimilate well, and generally succeed in achieving the “American Dream”, are meant to keep us from noticing troubling patterns. According to the Pew Research Center, “Asians overall rank as the highest earning racial and ethnic group in the US.” However, while the median household income for Indian Americans is $100,000, it is $55,000 for Cambodians and $36,000 for Burmese Americans. Similarly, while 7.5% of Filipino Americans live below the poverty line, for Bhutanese Americans the rate is 1 in 3 people. Most Americans are unaware that 1 in 7 Asian immigrants in the US is undocumented. Because of the false narrative surrounding Asian American success, they are hardly ever included in conversations about immigration justice. All Asian experiences are not the same. Pretending that they are prevents the reality from changing.

Another way in which the model minority myth supports systemic racism is by invalidating the struggles faced by Black Americans in the US. The apparent success of Asian Americans is often used to suggest that if one group of people of color can overcome racism in the US, perhaps Black people aren’t “working hard enough”. This dangerous misconception paints the unjust treatment of Black people in this country as a problem with their race rather than as a White issue.

Dismantling this dangerous myth starts in classrooms. Research shows that Asian students are less likely to be offered extra help in classes because of subconscious assumptions that they are “smart” enough to understand the content. Students and teachers alike should be educated on the effects of microaggressions. Everyone needs to understand the damage caused to all people of color by the model minority myth, and Asian students need to see themselves represented in the curriculum as real people with personalities and flaws and emotions, not just as two-dimensional side characters that blend neatly into the background.