Model Minority - United States - Model Minority Stereotype

Model Minority Stereotype

There has been a significant change in the perceptions of Asian Americans. In as little as 100 years of American history, stereotypes of East Asian Americans have changed to portraying a hard working and educated minority.

Asian Americans are spoken of as a 'model minority' group, often compared in a racially divisive way, as the minority group that is able to be successful, while other minority groups are relatively not. The term Asian Americans (as a model minority) is used primarily to describe the largest groups of Asian Americans in the U.S. (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Korean Americans).

An example of the Model Minority stereotype are phenomena, such as the high rates of educational attainment and economic success in the Indian American community. Pointing to generalized data, another argument for the Model Minority stereotype is generalized data such as from the U.S. Census Bureau, where the median household income of Asian Americans is $68,780, higher than the total population's $50,221.

However, there are extreme ranges of income by ethnic group, with some Asian American ethnic groups at the poorest levels of income in the US. For example, Vietnamese Americans (regionally categorized as South East Asian) have same levels of income as Korean Americans (regionally categorized as East Asian). The problems with the Model Minority model are often due to regional generalizations of the vast numbers of ethnic groups, which each have vastly different histories and immigration patterns, which in turn impact the experience and ability of various ethnic groups to succeed in the US.

The Model Minority model also points to the percentage of Asian Americans at elite universities (elite university being roughly defined as a school in the Top 40 according to U.S. News & World Report.) Model Minority proponents claim that while Asian Americans are only 5% of the U.S. population, they are over represented at all these schools.

Asian American students are concentrated in a very small percentage of institutions, in only 8 states (and half concentrated in California, New York and Texas). Moreover, more Asian American students attend two-year community colleges (363,798 in 2000) than four-year public universities (354,564 in 2000) and this trend (of attending community college) is accelerating. Logically, West coast academic institutions are amongst those that have the highest concentrations of Asian Americans.

The low numbers for Southeast Asians can be a bit misleading, as a large percent comes from adult immigrants who came to the United States without any college education due to war. For ages 25 to 34, 45% of Vietnamese-Americans have a bachelors degree or higher compared to 39% of Non-Hispanic Whites.

Due to the impacts of the Model Minority stereotyope, unlike other minority serving institutions, Asian American Pacific Islander serving institutions (AAPISI) did not receive federal recognition until 2007, with the passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which federally recognized the existence of AAPISIs, making them eligible for federal funding and designation as minority serving institutions.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2003 report Crime in the United States, Asian Americans have the lowest total arrest rates despite a younger average age, and high family stability.