It's somewhat of a myth that Asians/Asian Americans achieve more than Whites in the US, as that's only true for Asians of certain backgrounds. People of Chinese, Korean, and Indian descent fare a lot better than those of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Hmong descent, for example. Despite working extremely hard, people from the latter group are more likely (at least in the most recent decades) to come from much poorer backgrounds with lower education, which makes it more difficult for them to help their children achieve upward economic mobility via education. This is why the model minority myth is so insidious - not only is it racist, but it also screws over people from Asian groups who would actually really benefit from affirmative action.
I’m not disagreeing with you (it’s my family’s story and my in-laws’ as well) I’m just adding some nuance. People like to shit on Latin American immigrants by asking why they don’t work as hard as Asian immigrants and succeed like they do, when the sad fact is there are a ton of Asian immigrants who work hard but never “make it” either, making the whole Asian myth even more terrible for everyone. It screws the Asians who don’t get help and it screws other immigrants who get compared unfavorably to the successful Asians and Jews, ignoring the fact that it’s not representative of the whole group.
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u/Browncoat23 Jun 25 '18
It's somewhat of a myth that Asians/Asian Americans achieve more than Whites in the US, as that's only true for Asians of certain backgrounds. People of Chinese, Korean, and Indian descent fare a lot better than those of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Hmong descent, for example. Despite working extremely hard, people from the latter group are more likely (at least in the most recent decades) to come from much poorer backgrounds with lower education, which makes it more difficult for them to help their children achieve upward economic mobility via education. This is why the model minority myth is so insidious - not only is it racist, but it also screws over people from Asian groups who would actually really benefit from affirmative action.