I take public transportation to and from school every day. As I walk to the bus stop, I hear kids in the school bus call me “chink” and many other things that are negative about Asians. When this happens I feel a sense of non-belonging. [1]

There were always those kids that called you names or tried to put you into that (pause) if you’re not white you’re not American. [2]

AAPI students are the targets of both overt and subtle forms of racism. These experiences with racism—from the overt acts of anti-AAPI violence to more subtle instances of exclusion—are often informed by stereotypes. Numerous studies highlight the fact that AAPI students are stereotyped by their non-AAPI peers and by school staff. Many stereotypes of AAPI students exist: the smart and hard-working Asian, the lazy and incapable Pacific Islander, the illiterate refugee draining the community’s resources, the gangster, the quiet and mysterious Other, and so forth. In this section, particular attention will be paid to the negative impact on AAPI students of two of the most pervasive and persistent stereotypes of AAPIs, namely, the model minority stereotype and the perpetual foreigner stereotype.

Perhaps the oldest stereotype of AAPIs in the continental United States, particularly of Asian Americans, is that they are perpetual foreigners who are unable and unwilling to assimilate. While European immigrants are accepted as “real” Americans soon after their arrival in the United States, third, fourth, and even fifth generation AAPIs are often still perceived to be foreign. As sociologist Mia Tuan writes, “Asian ethnics are assumed to be foreign unless proven otherwise.” [3]  Viewed as permanent outsiders in the United States, AAPIs are forever associated with their country of origin, and their patriotism and loyalty to the United States are always in question. One indication that AAPIs continue to be viewed as foreigners (i.e., not Americans) is that attitudes towards them are highly influenced by international relations between the United States and Asian countries.

When non-AAPIs tell AAPIs to “go back to where you came from,” they are drawing on the notion that AAPIs are perpetual foreigners. While all AAPIs are subject to the stereotype, Asian immigrants are particularly vulnerable to these nativist attacks. One example of the anti-Asian harassment that occurs in schools involves Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, New York. At Lafayette High School, Asian immigrant students were the victims of peer harassment because of their race and national origins. The harassment included students throwing food, cans, and metal locks at Asian American students while shouting ethnic slurs. [4]

In the post-9/11 political climate, Muslim students and those assumed to be Muslim have experienced particularly difficult times. According to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), New York City’s South Asian and Muslim youth have faced high levels of violence and discrimination since 9/11. Equally disturbing is the fact that school staff have not properly handled these incidents.

In her study on Sikh youth in the Midwestern United States, educational researcher Rita Verma discovered that Sikh students were regularly harassed by their white classmates who accused them of being terrorists. [5] The experiences of these students suggest that it is not just what you are, but what people think you are that shapes experiences. South Asian American youth are viewed as perpetual foreigners who are always suspect.

In addition to being victimized by overt acts of hostility and racism, AAPI students also suffer from internalized racism. The may learn to hate that which makes them different. Some AAPI youth, like the one quoted below, grow up to wish they were not AAPI:

When you’re growing up as an Asian, you get called names and it makes you feel like you’re not wanted. “Can I get some fried rice?” That’s all I used to hear, and still do. Iwalk down the street and people I don’t even know make fun of me. They call me Chink and Ching Chong. I hate those words so much. It makes me feel so low. When I was younger, all the other kids who weren’t Asian seemed to be having a good time and I wondered why I couldn’t. I concluded that it was because I was Asian. I thought if I were Black or white people would like me more and I wouldn’t get teased, so I used to wish I were Black or white. [6]

Other AAPI youth have been found to go to great lengths to emulate white standards of beauty. AAPI girls, for example, may wear blue or green contact lens and dye their hair in order to look less AAPI. [7]

Not insignificantly, AAPI youth who internalize dominant ideas about race are more likely to have negative relationships with their parents and with other AAPI youth. For example, research suggests that the foreigner stereotype negatively affects relationship among AAPI youth. In efforts to distance themselves from the stigma of foreignness, some U.S.-born AAPIs may reject their non-U.S.-born peers. American born AAPI youth have been found to mock the way their non-U.S.-born peers talk and dress. [8]

Even those stereotypes that appear to be positive, like the model minority stereotype, can be harmful to AAPI students. Like the perpetual foreigner stereotype, the model minority stereotype may feed anti-Asian sentiment. Some research suggests that educators may use the “success” of AAPI students against other groups of color. In one ethnographic study on Asian American students, a guidance counselor was quoted as saying, “Asians like U of P [University of Pennsylvania], M.I.T., Princeton. They tend to go to good schools… I wish Blacks would take advantage of things instead of sticking to sports and entertainment.” [9] Comparisons like this serve to fuel competition and animosity between AAPIs and other racial groups.

The model minority stereotype can also damage AAPI students’ self-image. As one AAPI high school student said about the model minority stereotype:

They [whites] will have stereotypes, like we’re smart… They are so wrong, not everyone is smart. They expect you to be this and that and when you’re not… (shook her head) And sometimes you tend to be what they expect you to be and you just lose your identity… just lose being yourself. Become part of what… what someone else want[s] you to be. And it’s really awkward, too! When you get bad grades, people look at you really strangely because you are sort of distorting the way they see an Asian. It makes you feel really awkward if you don’t fit the stereotype. [10]

Stereotyped as both perpetual foreigners and model minorities, AAPI students are all too often the targets of anti-AAPI sentiment in our schools. Educators may inadvertently be contributing to anti-AAPI attitudes by stereotyping AAPI youth as model minorities. Much work remains to improve the racial climate in schools. Schools need to provide opportunities for all students to discuss issues of race and inequality. Furthermore, educators and policy makers need to examine the way school policies may be contributing to animosity towards AAPIs.

Notes

[1] D. Wei, Paper presented at the NEA-APAICS National Summit on Asian and Pacific Islander Issues in Education (Washington, DC, 2005), 2.

[2] A.L. Goodwin, “Growing Up Asian in America: A Search for Self.” In C. Park, A.L. Goodwin, and S. Lee, eds. Asian American Identities, Families, and Schooling (Greenwich, CT: Information Age, 2003), 13.

[3] M. Tuan, Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites?: The Asian Ethnic Experience Today (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), 137

[4] Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (Available online at http://www.aaldef.org/education.html).

[5] R. Verma, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004).

[6] Wei, supra note 1.

[7] S. Lee and S. Vaught, “‘You Can Never be Too Rich or Too Thin’: Popular and Consumer Culture and the Americanization of Asian American Girls and Young Women,” Journal of Negro Education 72(4) (2003): 457-466.

[8] S. Lee, Up Against Whiteness: Race, School and Immigrant Youth (New York: Teachers College Press, 2005).

[9] S. Lee, Unraveling the “Model Minority” Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996).

[10] Id.