The Effect of the Model Minority Myth and Stereotyping

By Talia Perlstein ‘24

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes against marginalized groups have skyrocketed, with some of the most significant impacts left on the Asian-American and Black communities. 
With the increase of hate crimes comes an increase in collective societal knowledge of systemic racism. But one racist stereotype that continues to be prevalent in our society, and is slowly becoming a more prominent concern, is the model minority myth.

While seemingly positive, the model minority myth is a dangerous stereotype that generates more harm than good, injuring Asian-Americans and other marginalized groups. It creates a facade, in which society elevates Asian Americans over other minorities due to their supposed tremendous success in societal matters. However, creating this hierarchy, in which there is a seemingly more successful minority, makes other minorities appear less important, which is completely insensitive and further injures these already marginalized groups. 
For Asian-Americans, this myth is that they are polite, extremely successful, hardworking, good citizens and have inherited incredible talent in academics and music. While it seems that there is nothing wrong with labeling them as successful, the stereotype has formulated biased beliefs amongst people’s minds that can be highly harmful to Asian-Americans. 
The myth covers up any past racism against Asian-Americans because it seems that since they are prospering in society now, they must have been privileged and obtained higher status than other minorities in the past. Generally, when a group of people maintains a successful societal position, it is due to their past actions and achievements, which elevated them to their current prosperous point. One might believe that this successful group must not have faced any past difficulties because they wouldn’t be as successful as they are now if they had. However, for Asian Americans, this is untrue.
For example, the yellow peril stereotype was used in the 19th and early 20th centuries against Asian immigrant workers, deeming them a threat, unclean and too uncivilized to be American citizens. By covering this up, we completely ignore a large part of Asian-American history and invalidate any pain associated with this event by deeming it too unimportant to be remembered. We are essentially stating that since Asian-Americans are successful now, their past oppression must not have been severe, as they were still capable of reaching their current high status. 
The model minority myth has not only generated severe damage against Asian Americans but also against the Black community. Along with generating this fake facade that the Asian-American community does not face oppression, stereotyping also causes a deep-rooted divide between the Black and Asian-American communities.
Though these communities are both oppressed racial groups, there continues to be a divide between them. This is mainly due to the stereotypical belief that Asian-Americans are successful and prosperous while Black people are violent, untrustworthy, uneducated and poor. It produces the idea that since Asian-Americans have been able to work hard to become successful and assimilated, Black Americans should be able to do the same thing.
White supremacists utilize this application of the model minority myth to lower the significance of discrimination and inequality towards Black and other non-white communities. This generates great harm because it invalidates all the pain and suffering minorities, especially the Black community, have been forced to endure throughout history. 
This myth began to spread in 1965 when America implemented the National Immigration Act, which abolished the National Origins Quota created by the Immigration Act of 1924. This quota only granted visas to two percent of people of a nationality evaluated through the national census. When the US enacted the National Immigration Act, it removed the quota and allowed more Asians to enter the country. However, the US only allowed Asians deemed “skilled” to immigrate.
By bringing in successful Asians from other countries and providing them with a good life, the US was attempting to undermine the rising Black Power and Civil Rights movements. It created competition among minorities, in which the most successful one is the closest and most involved among whites. 
A parallel can be drawn between the model minority myth to Asian-Americans and the Black criminality myth to the Black Community. While society views Asian-Americans as prime citizens, the world labels Black people as violent criminals who can not be trusted. The media have recently perpetuated this idea in the recent rise of Asian-American hate crimes, where many attackers of the victims have been Black people. The media is preserving this largely kept belief, in which Black people are dangerous, and they are to blame for these crimes. 
White supremacists have at times utilized the model minority myth to undermine the Asian-American community and help serve their current intended purpose. For example, when it is universally decided that Asian-Americans are a threat to their country and the all-white immigration system, they are labeled unfit and unworthy of citizenship; yellow peril. Conversely, when it is convenient for Asian-Americans to be deemed successful in debunking racism against the Black community, prosperous Asians from other countries are welcomed into the US.
The hypocrisy is not only immensely unfair; it is dangerous and serves as a severe threat to the Asian-American community, as well as the Black community and other non-white minorities. 
To eliminate these underlying biases, we must educate ourselves on the past and identify how we may hold these biases within ourselves. Only then will we be able to eliminate these harmful stereotypes as a whole, and create a less prejudiced society.