Measuring the Model Minority and Myself

Welcome back! Last week was spring break, so I hope you enjoyed your week off from reading my posts! There's once again a change in my project. I will still do the literature review, but the survey is back on again! Woohoo! A quick recap of the survey:

I will be administering and analyzing the results of a survey distributed to Asian American high school students across Arizona. Because of the limited research in this field, the survey will address multiple independent variables, dependent variables, and mediators. An example of one relationship we hope to find is between internalized racism (IV), mental health (DV), and different types of racial socialization (M). Which types of racial socialization exacerbate or buffer the effects of internalized racism on mental health?

This week, I've been collecting measures for possible independent variables, dependent variables, and mediators. Here's a few:

Model Minority Myth Measure
Subtle and Blatant Racism Scale
Collective Self-Esteem Scale
Quality of Life Scale
Racism-Related Coping Scale

More to come on those as I read about them throughout this week and help decide which ones to use for our survey.

In my Asian American Psychology class this week, we talked about the Model Minority Myth (see last post for more details and memes). One of the reasons why not much research on the Model Minority Myth exists is because no one thought it was harmful. Why would a positive stereotype harm anyone's mental health? Ridiculous, right?

If you would like to read the 1987 article pictured above, click here.

The Model Minority Myth, as innocent and complimenting as it sounds. is actually detrimental to both Asian Americans and other people of color. Asian Americans are labeled "The Model Minority," which implies that other groups must look up to the role models, giving them a sense of inferiority. In the Asian American perspective, many students are pressured to do well in school—elementary, high school, even college—just because of their race. Beyond education, Asian Americans are expected by everyone around them to have economic and social success as well; many Asian Americans are pressured to the point of taking their own lives.

As an Asian American myself, I've experienced the effects of the Model Minority Myth. My parents expect me to get A's. When I say that I play the violin, people expect me to be the concertmaster of an orchestra. I'll admit that I've sometimes conformed to the stereotype. I've gotten A's before, but I've also gotten B's and C's. I've been the concertmaster of my school orchestra, but I've also sat in the last chair. Whether I do or do not fit the stereotype, however, does not make me more or less Asian. More or less of a person.

The more I engage myself in my project, the more I realize that I must not define myself through stereotypes. That's the main reason why I enjoy my SRP. I'm excited for all of the quantitative analyses of the data we'll collect during the project, but I'm even more thrilled by the idea that people might read my blog and learn how to define themselves beyond their physical features.

The (Stereo)Typical Asian American

Surprise! There has been yet another change in plans! Instead of administering a survey, as written in my original proposal, I will be focusing solely on a literature review of Asian American racial socialization. For the next couple weeks, I will continue to gather publications and will start going through them to find trends and create classifications for the different types of socialization used by Asian American families.

In order to distinguish whether the socialization involves more assimilation into "American" culture, we must first define what being "American" is. According to a study by Devos and Banaji (2005), most people, when asked to list "American" characteristics, talk about democracy, individuality, equality, capitalism, the American Dream, the 4th of July, the Superbowl, hot dogs, McDonald's, etc.

America in a picture.

Almost no one, however, brings up race as a factor of being "American." This is interesting because when asked to do the same for "Korean" or "British," one of the first answers to pop up is race. Koreans are a type of Asians; British are a type of Europeans. But, since America is a melting pot of different races, there is no clear definition of what it means to be "American."

On the other hand, most people claim to know what it means to be "Asian." What kind of racial stereotypes are Asian American families up against? These are the most common stereotypes of Asian people:

Perpetual Foreigner
Asians are seen to be exotic, and alien in their own land. This stereotype usually leads to questions like "Where are you really from?" (As if the word "really" would change the fact that my Asian American friend was born in Arizona.) In the media, most Asians play ninjas or kung fu masters, further supporting this stereotype, if they're not doctors or nerds like the next category.

A rare exception from the stereotype: Minho (Ki Hong Lee) from The Maze Runner

Model Minority Myth
Most people strongly believe that Asians are naturally smart and highly motivated. This meme says it all:

However, the Model Minority Myth was created during the Civil Rights Movement to justify the unfair treatment of African Americans. The argument was that if Asian Americans were so successful despite unequal circumstances, why couldn't African Americans do the same? Although this logic is completely flawed, people today still think Asians are smarter.

Hyper/hypo-sexualization 
Asian women are presumed to be more feminine, while Asian men are seen as less masculine. Even worse, many Asian men are thought to be gay. First of all, not all Asian men are less masculine than White men. Also, masculinity and sexual orientation are two completely different subjects that have no definite correlation.

Out-group Homogeneity
Are you guys sisters? No. Just because we're both Asian, doesn't mean we're related. This picture draws from the out-group homogeneity stereotype, as well as hyper/hypo-sexualization:

Communication Style
Because of the collectivist culture of many Asian countries, Asian people are often presumed to be too quiet, passive, or indirect. This stereotype originates from the language barrier that most Asian immigrants experience when they first move to America. If a White person, born and raised in America, visited China, he might not speak as much as he does in America because of the language barrier. Communication style depends much more on personality than race.

The culmination of all of these stereotypes (except satirized and applied to a White person) can be found in this video:

Fresh Off the Boat

I finally did it. I watched Fresh Off the Boat. All five excruciating episodes. For those of you that don't know, Fresh Off the Boat is a new ABC family show inspired by famous chef Eddie Huang's book Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir. The show is about an Asian American family that recently moved from Washington, D.C. to Orlando, Florida.

Here is a trailer for Fresh Off the Boat:

Fresh Off the Boat originally gained lots of attention because of the abundance of racial stereotypes, not to mention that Randall Park, who plays the father, also played Kim Jong Un in The Interview: a movie about two journalists trying to assassinate Kim Jong Un (which was extremely controversial). Although these stereotypes are generally intended to be harmless humor, many people don't realize that the show is reinforcing both positive and negative stereotypes about Asian Americans.

With a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, Fresh Off the Boat seems to be the next hilarious thing. But, I couldn't laugh at the show at all. The biggest problem for me was that I could relate to many scenes on the show. When I moved to the US at the age of six, I started attending a primarily White elementary school. Like Eddie, the main character, I remember asking my mom to buy Lunchables because that's what all the cool kids had. 1995 or 2005 or 2015, Asian American children are still stereotyped and viewed differently because of what they eat for lunch.

Not only are the Asian Americans stereotyped in Fresh Off the Boat, but the White moms are, too. Eddie's tiger mom, played by Constance Wu, is juxtaposed against the blonde hair, blue-eyed rollerblading moms that only giggle and gossip all day. And people find this funny? Making jokes about their own races?

However, there are some benefits that Fresh Off the Boat brings. I can finally turn on the TV and see people that look like me; this TV show may be one of the first steps towards a future where beauty and norms aren't always set by White standards. According to the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which measures unconscious associations of "good"/"bad" with Europeans American and African American, 80% of Whites and 40% of People of Color showed a preference for European American. When I took the test, I also showed a slight preference for European American. (You can take the 5 minute test by clicking here.)

Although I have an unconscious preference for European American, I try my best not to judge or act based on race when given enough time to think the situation through. This is where the parental racial socialization comes in. Depending on how the parents taught their children about race, the children may act or not act upon their automatic judgments. In a society focused on treating people equally, you can see why parental cultural socialization must be researched more.

As for updates on my project, I am still gathering publications for the literature review. It's taking longer than I thought, but I guess that's research. Thanks for being patient with my currently uneventful journey! (Please feel free to tell me about your results on the IAT or your thoughts on Fresh Off the Boat.)