"Casualties" of the Model
Minority Myth: The Role of
Racial Ideology in Asian
American Female Suicidality
Eliza Noh, Ph.D.
California State University, Fullerton
Connecticut General Assembly
Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission
April 12, 2013
Suicide Rates, 1981-2010
• From 1981-2010, API females had the highest rates of suicide across race
from ages 5-9 and 70+ and the second highest rates from 20-69.
• From 2000-10, API males had the second highest rates of suicide from ages
65-69 and 80+.
• From 2000-10, API suicides increased with age: peaks in 85+ age group at
9.83 (females) and 26.78 (males), with smaller peaks in 20s age group at 3.96
(females) and 10.99 (males).
• From 2000-10, the mean suicide rate for API women ages 20-24 was 3.73
and 3.93 for white women, but API women had a higher median average
(3.88) compared to white females (3.81) due to differential fluctuation: 1.855.2 (3.35 spread) for API women and 3.28-4.96 (1.68 spread) for white
women (CDC, 2012).
• Asian American adolescent girls (G5-12) have the highest rate of depression
across race and gender (Schoen et al., 1997).
Suicide as Leading Cause of
Death, 2000-10
• Suicide was the 8th leading cause of death among Asian Americans overall
(compared to 10th among whites).
• Suicide was the second leading cause of death among Asian American
women, ages 15-24, and among Asian American men, ages 15-34.
• Among the 5-9 yrs. age group for all races and genders, suicide was the
highest ranking cause of death for API females: 12th vs. 14th (Black males)
vs. 15th (white males) vs. 17th (NA males).
• Suicide was a higher ranking cause of death for API females of all ages
compared to white females: 12th vs. 17th.
• Suicide was one of the top 20 leading causes of death over a longer lifespan
for API females compared to other females: 5-84 yrs. vs. 10-74 yrs. (white)
vs. 10-64 yrs. (NA) vs. 10-64 yrs. (Black) (CDC, 2012).
Proportion of Deaths, 2000-10
• Suicide accounted for a higher proportion of deaths among Asian
Americans (1.8%) than among whites (1.4%).
• Suicide accounted for a higher proportion of deaths for API women
compared to white women: 1.2% vs. 0.6%.
• Suicide accounted for the highest proportion of deaths for API women
25-34 yrs. compared to other women: 13.8% vs. 9.7% (white) vs. 7.8%
(NA).
• Suicide accounted for the highest proportion of deaths for API women
65-84 yrs. compared to other women: 65-74 yrs. 0.5% vs. 0.3% (white)
(not a leading cause for NA); 75-84 yrs. 0.3% (not a leading cause for
other women).
• Suicide accounted for a higher proportion of deaths for API men
compared to white men: 2.5% vs. 2.3% (CDC, 2012).
Years of Potential Life Lost, 19992010
• API women had the highest percentage of
years of potential life lost under age 85
due to suicide (2.8%), compared to white
women (2.6%), NA women (2.5%) and
Black women (0.6%).
Methods of Suicide, 2000-10
•
API leading method was suffocation. White female leading method was poisoning.
White male leading method was firearm.
•
API female top methods were suffocation (48.2%), poisoning (21%), and firearm
(10.4%).
•
API male top methods were suffocation (44%), firearm (29.4%), and poisoning (9.4%).
•
White female top methods were poisoning (40.3%), firearm (33.7%), and suffocation
(17.1%).
•
White male top methods were firearm (59.6%), suffocation (20.8%), and poisoning
(12.9%).
•
Of the top 3 methods, API females seemed to prefer less violent methods (10.4%
firearm) while white males preferred firearms (59.6%) (CDC, 2012).
My Study
• Interviewed 43 Asian American women in four
major geographical areas of the US where Asian
Americans are concentrated—San Francisco/Bay
Area, Houston, New York, and LA/OC.
• Objective: To examine how race and gender
influence suicidality among Asian American
women.
• Thesis: Race and gender, specifically racism
and sexism, operate as key social processes that
influence Asian American women’s suicidality.
Study Findings
• Most of the women that I interviewed explicitly cited pressures
associated with the model minority myth as being influential in
their suicidality.
• The model minority stereotype is dangerous for Asian American
mental health in at least three ways:
• First, the pressure of living up to the image can lead to depression
and suicide.
• Second, the model minority stereotype makes Asian Americans
vulnerable to everyday racism and sexism, negatively impacting
mental health—e.g., “racial bullying.”
• Third, the image of model success can mean Asian Americans
become overlooked in the distribution of needed resources.
What does the model minority
myth argue?
• Asian Americans do well educationally and
economically and have few mental health
problems and low crime rates.
• Asian Americans are faring well due to
Confucian values of hard work, respect for
authority, family cohesion, sacrifice, and
emphasis on scholarship.
• Asian Americans have succeeded purely by
merit, without public or social assistance.
What is the origin of the model
minority myth?
• Coined by sociologist William Petersen in "Success Story: Japanese
American Style" published in the New York Times Magazine in
January 1966.
• Petersen concluded that Japanese family values and strong work
ethic enabled Japanese Americans to overcome prejudice and avoid
becoming a "problem minority.“
• A second article similarly describing Chinese Americans appeared
in U.S. News and World Report on December 26, 1966.
• During the 1980’s, news media applied the term to describe high
academic achievement among other Asian Americans, including
Southeast Asians.
Time Magazine Cover,
Aug. 31, 1987
What is the ideological role of the
myth?
• The model minority thesis was deployed as an
argument against social reform and to discredit
the civil rights movement.
• “Divide-and-conquer” tool: to sow dissension
among ethnic groups in US.
• Social backlash: Asians and Asian Americans
were resented for their educational and
economic successes.
What does the myth hide?
• Ethnic differences
• Generational and migration differences
• Role of 1965 Immigration Act
• Role of model minority “halo effect”
• Role of self-selection
• Role of self-investment
• Burden of education
• Hidden racial quotas
• Glass ceiling
The Model Minority Myth and the
“Tiger Mother” Controversy
• Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother; “Why
Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Wall Street Journal, Jan.
8, 2011.
• Conflation of social ideology and culture
• Problem of Orientalism and stereotyping: “…I know
some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born
in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or
otherwise. I'm also using the term ‘Western parents’
loosely. Western parents come in all varieties.”
Model Minority Pressures
“I attempted suicide when I was a senior in high school.
I knew I was applying to college and other stuff, but still
at this time finances were really tough. I engaged in a
lot of extracurricular activities when I was in high
school; plus I played in a basketball club team, so we
were constantly traveling all over the place…. In terms
of the suicide attempt, there was an incredible amount of
pressure on my mom in order to be like this figure of
having to support so many things…. So there was
always this constantly in my head, ‘Lydia, like do you
really need this? If you didn’t do it, we’d have so much
more money.’ It just seemed, like systematically it
seemed very logical and practical that if I wasn’t there, our
family would be able to sustain ourself.” — “Lydia”
(adult teens, Korean American)
The Model Minority Myth and
“Insidious Trauma”
• The model minority myth supports the stereotype of
Asian Americans as being successful but passive social
outcasts (“nerds”), rendering them vulnerable to social
backlash and everyday racism and sexism.
• Root (1992) demonstrates that the destructive effects of
racism, as well as heterosexism and classism, can be
experienced by women as a form of “insidious trauma”
that builds over time.
• Racial bullying as “institutionalized violence” (E.g.,
Danny Chen and Harry Lew hazing-suicide cases)
• Suicide as a result of racist bullying is a form of
“insidious violence.”
Asian Americans and Bullying
• Asian American students experience cyber-bullying once
or twice a month at higher rates (62%), compared to
Whites (18.1%) and African Americans (19.1%).
• Asian American students experience the most bullying
in the classroom (54%) and on school grounds (40.8%),
compared to Whites (31.3%, 20.3%), African Americans
(38.4%, 26.9%), and Latinos (34.3%, 29.7%).
• White students are more likely to be bullied in school
hallways or stairwells (50.5%), cafeterias (7.4%), and
school buses (8%), compared to other groups (US DOE,
2011).
The “Insidious Violence” of
Suicidality
“And events leading up to…is mostly alcohol and pills or
smoking pot or using different kinds of drugs just to end
any kind of pain, and the reason why is … growing up
there, there was a Ku Klux Klan, there’s a high rate of
racism, so every day I would get it. And from since
childhood, when I first started to go to school I would get
it, but especially in high school was hard….when I would
walk home from school every day these guys would try
and run me over and throw bottles at my head. So for me
what led up to everything is that I just wanted to be white.
I did not want to be Asian, I did not want to stand out, and
I did not want to have to deal with all the racism
anymore.” — “Marsha” (30-something, Chinese-Japanese
American)
“The Healthy Model Minority”
“[My therapist] saw my distrust of people
as pathological….I think a lot of how they
saw pathology in me had to do with the
whole model minority syndrome. The fact
that I veered from what they felt was a
norm, I think, really made it easy for them
to see pathology in me. I think certainly
the psychiatrist I was with was more than
willing to see pathology. He gave me all
the drugs for manic depressive illness.” —
“P.W.” (50-something, Chinese American)
Conclusion
• The Asian American model minority image is a social
stereotype and a myth.
• The model minority myth negatively impacts Asian
American mental health by creating unrealistic pressures
to achieve, rendering Asian Americans vulnerable to
everyday racism and sexism, and supporting the belief
that Asian Americans do not need help.
• As a social construction, the model minority myth can
be changed.
Prevention & Intervention
Strategies
• Non-judgmental dialogues about suicide
• Free or affordable mental health care
• Culturally and linguistically competent
services
• Alternatives to Western models of healing
and conventional therapies
• Suicide research focusing on Asian
Americans
• Critique of model minority ideology
References
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
(2012). Injury Prevention & Control: Data & Statistics (WISQARSTM) Fatal Injury Data, Fatal Injury
Reports. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal_injury_reports.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
(2012). Injury Prevention & Control: Data & Statistics (WISQARSTM) Fatal Injury Data, Leading Causes
of Death. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leading_causes_death.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
(2012). Injury Prevention & Control: Data & Statistics (WISQARSTM) Fatal Injury Data, Years of
Potential Life Lost (YPLL). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/years_potential.html
Root, M. P. P. (1992). The impact of trauma on personality: The second reconstruction. In L. S.
Brown & M. Ballou (Eds.), Personality and psychopathology: Feminist reappraisals (pp. 229-265).
New York: Guildford Press.
Schoen, C., Davis, K., Scott Collins, K. et al. (1997). The commonwealth fund survey of the health of
adolescent girls. Retrieved April 25, 2004, from
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/women/adoleshl.asp
US Department of Education. (2011). Student Reports of Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: Results From
the 2009 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. National Center for
Education Statistics, 2011-336.