The Asian American Experience
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Class Notes
I.
Who Killed Vincent Chin? Discussion
1. The autoworkers interviewed in the film defend Ron Ebens, saying that they
are not prejudiced against the Japanese or Chinese. They insist that the issue (the auto
“trade war” with Japan) was purely economic, not racial.
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Was the discussion ever exclusively economic? Think about politicians at the
time who claimed that “we [the U.S.] are being shot at by the Japanese,” Tip
O’Neill (then Speaker of the House) saying “I’ll fix the Japanese”, as well as
political cartoons showing a foreign car dropping a bomb on Detroit.
What was the media’s role in emphasizing the racial element?
Is it possible to disentangle racial and economic factors? Are racial and economic
hostilities ever conflated?
2. The Asian American community rallied to bring the Vincent Chin case to
federal court for civil rights violations. From information presented in the film,
do you think race was a critical factor in the beating?
3. From the attitudes expressed by the autoworkers, as well as in certain ads
and news reports from the time, how were issues of patriotism, xenophobia, and
economics articulated and expressed both in text and image?
4. Why do you think Eben and Nitz were acquitted in the final trial? Do you
think justice was served?
5. What lessons did Asian Americans learn from the Vincent Chin case? What
did America as a whole learn from the experience?
II. “Asian Americans as the Model Minority” Osajima
1. What does the term, “model minority” mean when applied to Asian Americans?
a. Model minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group
whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average. It
is most commonly used to label one ethnic minority higher achieving than another
ethnic minority. This success is typically measured in income, education, and
related factors such as low crime rate and high family stability. In the United
States, the term is associated with Asian Americans, primarily Chinese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, and Japanese Americans.
2. What are the origins of the model minority thesis?
a. Empirical evidence:
1) Statistics on the educational achievements of Japanese and
Chinese
2) Movement into high-status occupations, rising incomes, and
low rates of mental illness and crime
b. Theoretical evidence:
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1) Direct link between traditional Asian cultural values and
subsequent achievement in education and occupations
2) Petersen argued that Japanese Americans’ adherence to values
such as deep respect for parents and authority, a reverence for learning and a proclivity
for hard work created a psychological achievement orientation that drove Japanese to do
well in school.
3) Confucian values emphasize education and family, filial piety
3. Discuss the major critiques of the “model minority” stereotype. What are
the potential problems with this stereotype?
a. The model minority stereotype is considered detrimental to the Asian
Pacific American (APA) community, because it is used to justify the exclusion of needy
APA communities in the distribution of assistance programs, public and private, and
understate or slight the achievements of APA individuals.
b. The image is racially stereotypic, empirically inaccurate, and no longer
applicable to the changing Asian American population.
c. “Concentrated in California, Hawaii, and New York, Asian Americans
reside largely in states with higher incomes but also higher costs of living than the
national average: 59% of all Asian Americans lived in these there state in 1980,
compared to only 19% of the general population.” (Takaki, 475)
d. “The use of ‘family incomes’ by Reagan and others has been very
misleading, for Asian-American families have more persons working epr family than
white families. In 1980, white nuclear families in California had only 1.6 workers per
family, compared to 2.1 for Japanese, 2.0 for immigrant Chinese, 2.2 for immigrant
Filipino, and 1.8 for immigrant Korean. Thus the family incomes of Asian Americans
indicate the presence of more workers in each family, rather than high incomes.” (Takaki,
475)
e. In the 1980’s, there have been articles pointing to the “negative impact
that parental pressures have had on Asian American students.” (Osajima, 452)
f. Asians not entering arenas such as politics, business management, art,
fashion and music. (Osajima, 452)
g. Asian American communities have grown more diverse, and cannot be
classified as a whole, a “model minority.”
4. What ramifications does the “model minority” stereotype hold for other
minority groups in the US? How do these affect race relations between Asians and
other groups?
a. “The accomplishments of less than one million Asian Americans
emerged as a model for how all minority groups could “make it” in society…On the
political level, Asian Americans success constituted a direct critique of Blacks who
sought relief through federally supported social programs. Asian Americans, we were
told, were able to make it on their own. Welfare programs were unnecessary.” (Osajima,
450)
b. “The political implication for those who had yet to make it was that
their culture was not ‘good’ enough. This delineation of good and bad culture deflected
attention way from societal factors and placed the blame for racial inequality on
minorities.” (451)
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c. Consider, however, the circumstances by which Asian Americans
entered into the US. Often Asian immigrants came with education, family support,
financial resources. The history of African Americans is distinctly different and must be
taken into account.
d. “The discourse on Asian American success, particularly in higher
education, is linked to growing anti-Asian sentiments. “A Drive to Excel” mentions
growing number of Asian students in universities are resented by white students, who feel
threatened.” (Osajima, 454)
1) Students drop if there are “too many Oriental faces.”
2) New York Times magazine story describing Asian Americans as
“surging into the nation’s best colleges like a tidal wave.” (454)
5. How do you think Asian Americans react to the label of the model
minority?
a. Diverse reaction: pleased to be validated by the dominant society, yet
stereotyped. The expectations are considerable greater. Also, the reality did not always
match up to the ideal. Asian Americans felt trapped by the glass ceiling. Expected not to
complain.
6. Why would the dominant society want to promote the image fo the model
minority?
a. “Asian achievement confirmed that the US was indeed the land of
opportunity. It defined success in narrow, materialistic terms. The movement of Asians
into the mainstream of American life affirmed the ideal that America was an open
society, willing to accept and incorporate those minorities and immigrants who were
willing to assimilate. Perhaps most importantly, the thesis upheld a fundamental
meritocratic belief that America was a fair society. Asian Americans had made it
because America judged and rewarded people, not by the color of their skin, but on the
basis of their qualifications, skills, attitudes, and behaviors.” (451)
7. How has the model minority image evolved from the 1960’s to the 1980’s?
What has prompted these changes in the model minority thesis? Is it still utilized
with the same political agenda in mind? (New information and dissent in the 1980’s)
a. Recognition of the changing nature of the Asian American population.
(Influx of Southeast Asian immigrants changes the demographic)
b. Greater recognition of complexities and critiques: negative impact of
parental pressures on Asian American students.
c. The educational achievement of Asian Americans remained a critical
indicator of success. The Asian American family was mentioned as a key to education
success (anecdotes of refugee parents working 16 hrs. a day to pay for their children’s
education, Confucian ethics where education was sacred and scholarly achievement was a
way to express filial piety.” (452-53)
d. Overt racial comparisons between the success of Asians and the
failures of other minorities are tempered: “if an American child isn’t doing well in
school, his parents think the teacher or school has failed or the student just doesn’t have
it. The Asian parents’ view is that the student isn’t trying hard enough.” (453)
e. Discussion on Asian American achievement is shaped by conservative
educational reform proposals
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f. Discourse on Asian American success linked to growing anti-Asian
sentiment.
8. What factors does Osajima claim ‘tilt’ the scale in favor of applying the
model minority stereotype in the 1980’s?
a. “Texts contain key sentences that assign analytic priority o information
that supports the model minority thesis..”it is here (the family) that almost all the studies
converge.” (455)
b. Give interpretive framework for the reader. (family and selfsufficiency)
c. Minimizing passages, “By at least one indicator, it seems hard to
believe that Asian Americans suffer greatly from discrimination.” (455)
9. How does Todd Gitlin’s quote describing how hegemonic ideologies
operate (They stand still, in a sense by moving) relate to the plight of Asian
Americans?
a. Significant movement in the discourse in the 1980’s, new info,
acknowledging critiques and then minimizing them through discursive techniques.
III.
“The Model Minority Deconstructed” (Cheng and Yang)
1. Between 1970 and 1990, what two parallel migration streams from diverse
Asian countries converged in LA?
a. Highly educated Asian immigrants who joined the local professionalmanagerial class, usually on the lower rungs of the ladder, and slowly
worked their way up.
b. Semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in manufacturing and services.
2. According to Cheng and Yang, in what two ways are Asian immigrants
victims of racism?
a. Discrimination from non Asians
b. Asians discriminate among other racial groups, inter-Asian feuds
3. What general features distinguish the new wave of Asian immigration from
the old?
a. larger size
b. higher percentage of women
c. greater ethnic and socioeconomic diversity
d. more extensive and intensive global linkages
e. Korean and Indian populations beginning with small base, increased
dramatically
4. What is the image of the “Model Minority?” How does this image compare to
the reality according to Cheng and Yang?
a. “Statistics for Los Angeles confirm the pattern of high levels of
education and disproportionate representation in universities and
colleges but demonstrate significant variations across groups. (Look at
pp. 465-472)
5. What theories are used to explain the success of Asians in schools?
a. Confucian culture
b. Stable Asian American families
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c. But what about social environment in the receiving country.. “The
reception context in the US forces Asian immigrants and their US born
children to pursue higher levels of education as a means of upward
mobility.” (Combo of culture, family, selectivity of immigration, and
receiving context) (Cheng and Yang, 467)
6. Discuss the problem inherent in the blanket term, “Asian American.” How
do various Asian immigrant groups differ from one another, particularly
with regards to education and employment?
a. The blanket term doesn’t distinguish between different groups of
Asian Americans. For example, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian
refugees tend to work is LSO (low skilled occupation) largely because
they arrived in the US without physical capital (money brought to US)
and social capital (ethnic networks, occupational niches, ethnic
enclaves)
7. What are the positives of the model minority?
a. Helped turn around negative stereotype of Asian Americans and
enhanced positive image.
8. Discuss the phenomenon of the “glass ceiling” and how this relates to Asian
Americans.
a. Asian wage lag: Asians while often highly skilled, confront a structure
of rewards different from that of their white counterparts, lagging
behind comparable whites because employers treat the two groups
differently. (471)
b. “Asian immigrant men were not rewarded for education and
experience at the same rate as native whites.” (472)
c. “These immigrant professionals discover that Americ aseemed to want
them for their skills and work ethic as employees but not for their
assertiveness and ambition as bosses. The problem of the glass ceiling
is commonly perceived by Asian professionals. (475)
d. Two scenarios: immigrants begin in lower level slots and gradually
move up and back into the progerssion for which they trained or
temporary or permanent shift out of the profession because it is more
profitable or enjoyable, but also because they cannot find jobs in their
field or forced to do menial work.
9. Discuss the new influx of Asian immigrants who are described as
Entrepreneurs and Capitalists.
a. Self employed or entrepreneurs with sizable capital from Japan, S.
Korea, Taiwan, and HK in the past three decades as a result of rapid
economic growth. Immigration Act of 1990 authorized the granting of
permanent residency to foreign nationals who make a minimum of $1
million investment in a business employing at least ten workers in the
US. (477)
10. What does the term “pan-Asian ethnicity” suggest?
a. Indicates the new diversity of Asian Americans and the increased
global linkages
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