Asian Unemployment and the Model Minority Myth
Interesting piece today in the L.A. Times regarding the long duration of unemployment faced by Asian Americans during this economic downturn. As you know, white conservatives often use Asian Americans as an example of how “hard work and good cultural values” are all you need to make it in the U.S. They will argue, in keeping with this model minority myth, that blacks and Latinos need to follow the Asian example, rather than complain about racism and discrimination. In fact, they point to Asians as evidence of the virtual non-existence of racism in the modern era.
It’s always been a cynical and dishonest argument — and I address it directly and at length in my newest book, Colorblind — but as you can see from this article, it is especially dishonest in the current economic crisis. Asian Americans may have lower unemployment rates than members of other groups, but once unemployed they face an especially difficult uphill battle at finding new work. This is because, according to the article, such large numbers of Asian Americans in places like L.A. work for smaller employers — often family businesses — that are especially affected by the downturn. Then, when they try and find jobs elsewhere, rather than being valued for their “good values and work ethic,” they get passed over.
This is in keeping with national data by the way, which I cite in my book, which says the same thing about Asian unemployment durations across the country, so it is not just a Los Angeles thing.
thanks for putting this perspective up here.
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Another point to add, is the comparison is false. I think that most of the Blk pp here in America are Native. There is a larger portion of Asian that is not. There is something to be said for having a comfortable income, with it, you can afford a better life style… If I am able to send my kids and family to another country for school and a better life then my kids will have an advantage over other minorities in that country. My example is that I am from a Jamaican background, we are well off there and when we came here, we were able to do much more that the average black native. The flip side is I have been to Asia, me and an acquaintance and we witnessed that there are plenty of Asians there not doing so well, in fact he went to a small village where the education was so bad people did not consider the earth being round. If people are going to compare race for race which by itself I think is pretty stupid, at least make it fair and compare the most miss-fortunate with the other miss-fortunate.
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Another point… This is NOT targeted towards Asians or any other POC arriving here. It is targeting POC that arrive here ready to partake in racialized judgment of others… I would say, simply remember respect when you arrive here, even if you don’t like us, you are still in OUR home. Rather than help be a part of the solution, some arrogantly feel they have the right to mock peoples misfortune here! I don’t think POC would go to your house & disrespect your family (people) on their own soil. It bothers me when other POC are passing judgment on others here when in reality we should make natural allies. But instead some use race as a steeping stool by stepping on others to elevate themselves to gain recognition from whites. Remember if there is a consequence for whites in regard to their racism, that consequence will fall on you harder when you then realize you stand alone (evil/hatred begets hatred, it all comes back, the good this is so does love & acts of cooperation & solidarity). Just a side note for our POC that forget where they are, what they are & what they are fighting against. Not intended for the ones that know better & embrace unity & consciousness.
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[…] from whites in desiring career advancement and management positions. And as I was writing this, Tim Wise called attention to the fact that when Asian Americans lose their jobs, they have a harder time […]
Yeah, the whole premise of the model minority myth is that all racism is created equal. But it’s not. There are different levels on the racial caste system, and in general, Asians don’t occupy the same rung as African-Americans, Latina/os or Native Americans.
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I love how white liberals always try to diminish the success of Asian Americans. I’m guessing the reason for this is that any admission of Asian American success would devastate the argument that racism is what holds back blacks and Hispanics. This is why you have people pouring over the data, trying to find every possible area in which Asians fare worse than whites. What no one can deny though is that by many measures Asian Americans, and in particular those of East Asian or South Asian descent, are far ahead of white Americans, be it in terms of educational attainment, income, etc.
Frederic, you suggest that Asian Americans occupy a higher position relative to blacks and Hispanics in terms of status in the racial caste system. What your argument ignores is that initially Asian Americans faced the same kinds of discrimination that black and Hispanic Americans faced and were often stereotyped in the same fashion. For instance, in John Dower’s book War without Mercy, the author goes into detail about the kinds of discrimination that Asian Americans faced during World War 2 and in particular the racist stereotypes that were directed against the Japanese by Allied propagandists. What’s particularly striking is how much of the racist rhetoric directed against the Japanese was virtually indistinguishable from the kinds of things which had been said about African Americans, i.e. that the Japanese were intellectually inferior, etc. So Asian Americans certainly didn’t occupy a higher position in the racial caste system from the moment they set foot in this nation. What happened was that the extraordinary success of Asian Americans in spite of the vast amounts of racism that they encountered, helped to cultivate the model minority image. The purportedly higher position that Asian Americans occupy in the racial caste system was the result of Asian American success and not the cause of it.
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Chris Moss Reply:
September 17th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
You can’t compare discrimination against Asians to that of African Americans until you allow American to enslave Asians and then enforce Jim Crow Laws against them. I’m afraid that its not the same degree but discrimination against any group is wrong. Be sure your comparisons are based on the same degree of discrimination, no discrimination in America can compare to the way African Americans have been discriminated against.
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“I love how white liberals always try to diminish the success of Asian Americans. I’m guessing the reason for this is that any admission of Asian American success would devastate the argument that racism is what holds back blacks and Hispanics. This is why you have people pouring over the data, trying to find every possible area in which Asians fare worse than whites. What no one can deny though is that by many measures Asian Americans, and in particular those of East Asian or South Asian descent, are far ahead of white Americans, be it in terms of educational attainment, income, etc.”
Actually, no, almost no leftist would make that absurd linkage. The fact that you do seems a wonderful case of projection.
Fact is, even if one group succeeds, that does not logically or sociologically say another group will be able to. Maybe there’s only so many slots for non-whites to succeed, and Asians have for whatever reason taken them all. I don’t think this is true, mind you, but it’s not impossible. Nor does it say that either the “successful” group or the “unsuccessful” group SHOULD HAVE HAD to struggle, even if either or both could have succeeded. As always, you fundamentally miss all the essential points. Racism is wrong even if it fails, Yan.
Also: Saying that Asian-Americans have longer unemployment durations doesn’t diminish Asian-American success one iota, nor increase it. It is totally orthogonal to it. Nice shoehorning your pet issue into every issue here…
“Frederic, you suggest that Asian Americans occupy a higher position relative to blacks and Hispanics in terms of status in the racial caste system. What your argument ignores is that initially Asian Americans faced the same kinds of discrimination that black and Hispanic Americans faced and were often stereotyped in the same fashion”
Ditto Italian-Americans, Jews and Irish, and yet I dare you to make an argument that they face the same problems that African-Americans do.
“What’s particularly striking is how much of the racist rhetoric directed against the Japanese was virtually indistinguishable from the kinds of things which had been said about African Americans, i.e. that the Japanese were intellectually inferior, etc.”
That’s really superficial. The Europeans were also trying to force open doors with Japan and China in ways they didn’t care about with Europe. The Russians had realized the folly of dismissing the Japanese in racist ways. Yes, the Germans got suspicion and the Japanese got internment, but remember that all throughout World War II, blacks STILL were living under a permanent state of near-internment: Jim Crow. That ended for Japanese, but continued for decades for African-Americans. Of course, in other ways, Asians were UNIQUELY harmed: Immigration restrictions specifically targeting Asians, for example.
My point is that all of these groups are NOT the same. They did NOT face the same structural limits. Hell, just pointing at geography alone makes my point. For a variety of pretty obvious reasons, Asians settled in the West and New York primarily. Those are high income areas. Blacks, for another variety of pretty obvious reasons, are in low-income areas. Now, geography alone doesn’t explain the black-white wage gap, but it does close it, and when taking into account geography for Asian-Americans, their much-vaunted higher income actually almost disappears (and that’s before factoring in higher family size).
Sociologically, all these groups are DIFFERENT. You’d have to do the work to PROVE that group X faced enough of the same hurdles as group Y that their varying “success” afterwards could POSSIBLY matter. You’ve never even tried, no one does, they just rely on the weight of having said the argument knowing that no one will challenge the obviously flawed logic because of racism. And even if you tried, the only direction I can frankly see you going is racist, essentialist argumentation to demean people of color.
“What happened was that the extraordinary success of Asian Americans in spite of the vast amounts of racism that they encountered, helped to cultivate the model minority image. The purportedly higher position that Asian Americans occupy in the racial caste system was the result of Asian American success and not the cause of it.”
But even if that’s the case, to claim that their “success” was due exclusively to inborn cultural factors that African-Americans don’t have is racist, culturally essentialist, sociologically wrong (since the model minority is a MYTH, long debunked in sociology), and in any respect offensive to Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians, who are NOT getting by by any stretch of the imagination. Amazing that your argument is racist to Asian-Americans. Amazing, and disappointing, but unsurprising…
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