By David Pasia
The “model minority” myth has had a long history since it was first conceived in 1966. The premise was mentioned by William Peterson in an article for the New York Times Magazine.
Peterson used it to describe Japanese Americans as “a minority that has risen above even prejudiced criticism”.
Since then, the term has evolved to encompass all Asian Americans, or, exponentially, all Asian ethnic minorities in the western world.
In the realm of British academia
The notion that Asians are afforded more privileges, occupy highly regarded professions and are law-abiding members of society is rife in the UK. In the realms of British academia, students with Asian heritage are exposed to a slew of stereotypes that derive from the model minority myth.
Asian students know all too well the experience of having their academic achievements minimised and attributed to their racial identity. In the same breath, the students who do not excel academically are shamed and ridiculed for not being able to live up to being a model minority.
“Teachers expected a certain level of performance”
Sachin Issuree, 22, is a Physics and Astronomy student at UCL with south Asian heritage. Issuree says he became aware of the model minority myth after taking his GCSEs.
“In my experience, teachers expected a certain level of performance,” Issuree recalls.
He goes on to say, “My sixth form was very diverse with mostly Asian and Black students so while my experience didn’t go beyond being expected to get good results with no trouble, I could see how the UK immigration policy is very selective when allowing migrants in from Asia and Africa.”
Issuree expects to encounter the model minority myth when job searching in the future.
“My achievements would be diminished”
Amanda Lok, 22, is taking a gap year from completing her Law degree at King’s College London. She mentions that she has only recently learned of the term ‘model minority’ but has always been aware of the concept being present in her life.
Throughout her time in academia, Lok has always felt the sense that her achievements were not celebrated due to preconceived expectations: “Ever since I started school, all of my achievements would be diminished due to the fact that I was Chinese,” she said.
“An example of this would be my classmates refusing to congratulate me when I was achieving the highest in school since it was expected of me.”
Lok recognises that the media is culpable of perpetuating the model minority myth. “Outside of academia, I think Asians are constantly being portrayed as submissive or geeky – particularly, in the media lens,” she said.
The model minority is a form of micro-aggression
Sammy Yau, 20, is in his final year of Economics at LSE and was not aware of the term model minority until recently. Yet, he states the premise behind the term is something he can spot in his past experiences.
The process of looking for internships was a very eye-opening experience for Yau: “There was a lot of support and events for minorities. However, many of these initiatives did not seem to be aimed at people of Chinese ethnic descent.”
The implication from this is that Chinese students do not require extra or additional support due to the perpetuation of the model minority myth.
Yau continues, “I do not think any good comes out of the premise of a model minority because it stems from racial stereotypes and is not representative of everyone belonging to that race. It can certainly fall into the category of micro-aggression.”
Finally, Yau concludes that more can be done to combat the stigma of the model minority myth.
He says, “It would be good to try and raise some awareness with a concentrated campaign including some testimonials from individuals who were severely affected by it in their upbringing or school life. It’s an issue that people are not so aware of at the moment.”
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