Asian excellence is not a myth

A dissection of the "model minority myth"

The “model minority myth” (MMM) is trotted out as a trump card to shut down every discussion about the root causes of the academic achievement gap and other racially disparate outcomes. But it’s a profoundly racist concept meant to silence Asians by calling them pawns of white supremacy if they dare to challenge the narrative that structural racism is an insurmountable barrier to better life outcomes.

What is the MMM? It was defined by social justice researcher OiYan Poon as the strategic presentation of Asians as “a model of self-sufficient minority success” and the use of this stereotype of success “to blame another minority group for its struggles.” Perhaps it’s a myth that Asians are “naturally” better at math, but is it a myth that societal obstacles can be overcome with hard work and grit?

William Petersen is credited with originating the term in his NYT article “Success Story, Japanese Style.” The article, originally published in 1966, shows the chicken and egg problem of the MMM. What came first? Asians triumphing over the racism they faced to make good lives for themselves in the United States? Or “white supremacy” promoting Asian success as a cudgel against other races? But without the former, the latter would be impossible — how can you promote success that doesn’t exist?

Which part is the myth? Surely, no one is suggesting that the measures on which Asian outcomes beat out those of all other groups, including whites, have been falsified. Then, the “myth” part must be the underlying reasons for Asian success — any attempt to discover these reasons is cast as “stereotype.” According to the MMM, Asians are only successful in the United States because their success is useful to white supremacy. Asians are only allowed to be, only painted as success stories so they can be upheld as a shining example for underperforming racial groups: “See? They did it despite all the racism so you can too!” The “myth” part is the belief that people can succeed despite systemic racism.

The MMM does not give Asians any credit, does not attribute to Asians any agency, does not allow that life choices and working consistently day after day towards a goal might have anything to do with success. No, instead it credits everything Asians have accomplished in this country to white supremacists giving Asians a special, favored position in order to use them as a wedge in race discussions. That is a racist insult. That Asians have enjoyed enormous success in this country despite racism is not a myth, it’s a well-established fact.

Proponents of the MMM concept like to call Asians racist for “buying into the MMM.” They argue Asians who “buy in” think of themselves as racially superior, when they’re just pawns. Or worse, that Asians are deliberately cozying up to white supremacy. But consider the alternative: maybe Asians have motivations other than pleasing the white master. Isn’t it possible that the many rich cultures clumped together in the “Asian” amalgamation, including cultures which have predated the United States by millennia, might have developed their own modus operandi outside the American black/white race conflict? Maybe more Asians opted for self-efficacy and chose the best path available to them: education and optimizing results given the circumstances they were born into. Is it fair to overlook every sacrifice, every good life choice, every minute of hard work that an individual put into their own success and instead attribute that success to white supremacy?

What is really being rejected by those who promote the MMM concept is the belief that one can achieve better outcomes via personal choice and effort alone — in spite of structural racism.

Common complaints

“Lumping everyone together under the label ‘Asian’ obscures the struggles of some subgroups”

Discussion of population outcomes is just that: an aggregate measure. Pointing out special cases does not negate the overall point. Beyond that, there’s no reason to aggregate under “Asian” — we can run the same analysis on the subgroups who are outperforming to find out how they succeeded in spite of racism.

“It ignores that Asians continue to face systemic racism”

The belief that systemic racism can be overcome through personal choices and effort does not negate that Asians continue to be the victims of systemic racism. In fact, those who push the MMM concept are the ones who support systemic racism against Asians (e.g., by enacting racial balancing to pare down the number of Asians at selective schools).

“Asians are ignored in race discourse because of the MMM”

Asians are ignored in race discourse because the statistics tell a story that negates the axiom upheld by social justice researchers: that systemic racism is responsible for poorer average outcomes for some racial groups. Asians are a counterexample, since these same researchers must admit that while Asians do face systemic racism, many of their outcomes are, on average, better than that of whites. Therefore, it’s actually those who call self-efficacy a myth that ignore Asians.

What we can learn

When you see someone succeeding where you’re failing, what’s your response? An effective adult response is to learn — to find what others are doing right and attempt to replicate their success. A less productive route is to complain that those who achieve owe their success to unfair favoritism from white supremacy.

The attribution of Asian success to white supremacy falls apart on scrutiny. If the goal is white supremacy, why would the shadowy cabal pulling all the levers show Asians so much unearned favoritism that their average results are the same or better than that of whites? This is the case for many metrics, including SAT, ACT, MCAT, GRE, LSAT scores, education levels, household income, incarceration rates, and even infant mortality. Haven’t the big brains behind “white supremacy” gone a little too far in their supposed Asian favoritism? They’ve gone so far that we can now use the exact same framework (disparate outcomes) used to claim that this country is systemically racist against black people to make the case that it’s now systemically racist against whites as well! In that case, shouldn’t we call it “Asian supremacy”?

The next time you hear someone try to dismiss concrete examples of Asian excellence as the model minority myth, tell them the MMM is a racist concept invented to allow underperforming groups to continue blaming their failures on society, rather than take any initiative to improve their own lives. In the end, it hurts everyone: Asians by discounting what they have achieved despite racism, and other groups, by instilling a sense of learned helplessness and depriving them of agency. “Buying in” to the so called model minority myth is nothing more than having a growth mindset: believing that we are not on a fixed trajectory set by society and racism, but that we each have control over our life outcomes via our own choices.