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Model Minority Myth
The term “Model Minority” was first coined by a sociologist named William Petersen in 1966, who wrote a NYT article about the “success” of Japanese Americans. Let me start by saying that there are many people in the Asian American community that buy into the Model Minority Myth and hold it proudly. I am not one of those people. Here’s why:
“Success” in the Model Minority Myth is still determined based on a Majority Culture (read: white supremacist) standard. It’s an aspect of the “white gaze” that is prevalent in American culture, but rarely talked about. People actually use the word “docile” as a desirable quality in Asian Americans—it’s really just a way for the majority culture to say “we want people trying to fit into OUR reality, not standing up for themselves and forcing us to change what we want to do.”
The Model Minority Myth serves mainly to turn Asian Americans into a blunt object that the majority culture uses to beat down other marginalized people. If there’s any discussion about inequality, people can point at Asian Americans and say, “They’re successful. Why can’t you just be more like them?!”
The reality is that like any community, there are the affluent and the poor. The majority culture has simply decided to stereotype Asian Americans as being more affluent than other marginalized groups. The result is that without the Model Minority Myth, people in the majority culture would actually be forced to deal with the reality that there are systemic inequalities in our society. And it’s just easier and more convenient for them to position one marginalized group as the “good ones.”
The Legacy of Vincent Chin
[Content Warning: Violence & Murder]
Yesterday I talked about the #ModelMinorityMyth & how it’s rooted in the idea that Asian Americans are seen as more “successful” than other marginalized communities. But that “success” is capped for Asian Americans. Our “success” as the #ModelMinority only works as long as we stay docile; as long as we don’t outshine our fellow Americans. For example: as the success of Japanese car companies grew in the 1970s & ‘80s, so did racial animosity toward Asian Americans.
While celebrating with his friends for his Bachelor Party in Detroit, MI in 1982, Vincent Chin was beaten to death by Ronald Ebens and his step-son, Michael Nitz. Ebens, a Chrysler Plant Supervisor, and Nitz, a laid-off autoworker, mistook the Chinese American Vincent Chin for Japanese. Reportedly, Ebens said, “It’s because of you m—f—ers that we’re out of work!” before beating Chin with a baseball bat while Nitz held him.
Ebens and Nitz were both charged with second degree murder, but plea bargained to a reduced charge of manslaughter. They were sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine. They never spent a day in jail. The presiding judge, Charles Kaufman said, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail.” Even the ACLU in Michigan reportedly did not see this as a Civil Rights case.
This awakened the sleeping giant of Asian American activism. Suddenly a large, diverse population that often segregated themselves based on country or culture of origin found itself unified under the umbrella term Asian American. Because Vincent Chin was Chinese American mistaken for a Japanese man, members of the community began to realize that, to the white majority in the US, we all look the same. And no matter what our culture of origin might be, violence and discrimination could be right around the corner.
The community rallied around #JusticeForVincentChin, and stood in solidarity with one another. Vincent Chin’s legacy is one of Asian American civil rights engagement and advocacy for hate crimes legislation. There are multiple documentaries and articles written about the impact the Vincent Chin case has had on the Asian American community. In spite of this, many people inside and outside of the Asian American community have never heard his name.
His last words were “It’s not fair.” Many Asian Americans assumed that they could just keep quiet, work hard, and the #AmericanDream would just manifest in their lives. Vincent Chin taught us to stand together, speak up, and make our presence known.