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Re: Asian Americans Under the Model Minority Gaze (Score: 1)
by Mesosolly040 on Saturday, June 28 @ 15:08:42 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | You are very right in saying that past racism has played a big role in the fact that non-Asian minorities cannot complete high school or seem to find a job. I also agree when you say that if you have desire and dedication, no amount of racism can hold you back. I can definitely attest to that motto. However, the fact remains that non-Asian minorities who have "been here from the beginning," have had to endure HUNDREDS of years of oppression in a land they're supposed to call home. That oppression left them without resources for advancement and achievement and it has only been in the last century that groups such as Blacks and Native Americans have been given opportunities to get those resources so they may advance. However, a fact that I find no one ever seems to point out, is that just because the resources are in your face, does not mean that you will know exactly what to do with them.
As a native Jamaican, I must admit that sometimes my family and I have sat around and discussed why it is that blacks in America cannot be on as fast a track as groups such as Asian-Americans when it comes to achievement even though the opportunities for advancement are out there. But I believe that when you are given the image of the perpetual under-achiever and the bain of society, no matter how many opportunities are out there, if you have not been taught what to do with it and how to navigate it, which is what years of slavery and oppression have accomplished, the opportunities might as well not be there. So that is why there are still some people out there with the "the man is holding me down" attitude."They simply dont know any better.
This is not to say that that is a good attitude, but that is all they know. And all I know is that, even though the advancement of blacks is happening at a slow and steady space rather than the rocket-to-the-moon pace of Asian-Americans, the progress is still occurring. And don't worry, there will be a time when that attitude wont be heard as much, even though that'll be a hundred years from now, in my opinion. Im still happy it will happen.
To go back to the model minority myth, even I used to say "why would anyone consider being a model of achievement a bad thing?" But this article has helped me realize that it is just being used to justify the oppression that the ruling class has doled out to those below them. I've never heard anyone mention this but this has come to be my humble opinion: fir the most part, it the most educated from Asia that migrate to the United States. That is why they have managed to achieve so much in this country. Im sure there are Asians back home that are as average or as dumb as anyone in the U.S. but it seems to me as if they dont just pick up and leave their country and come here. That is why the myth that ALL those of Asian and Indian descent are smart continues to persists because generally the brain drain in their home countries have lured them here. Thus they are already educated, and, duh, so will their kids.
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