I thought my deteriorating mental health and overall feelings of unhappiness were normal and even expected, because as an Asian American person I wasn’t entitled to have problems. In high school I did the stereotypical “Asian” things I thought I was supposed to do–play violin in orchestra, take as many AP classes as possible even at the expense of my mental health, and replace friends with columns of A’s on my report card. The model minority myth invalidated my feelings of otherness. This term and its history must be publicized so that people can be educated that its purpose is to divide POC and pit us against each other when we should be banding together and uniting to fight our oppression. Now Asian Americans have to deal with this term unfairly and act a certain way (studious, quiet, smart, nerdy) or else they’re looked down upon.
My ancestors had to go through hell and then pretend it didn’t happen.
Japanese Americans were terrified that they would be put in concentration camps again and thus went through life as quietly as they could. I just learned recently that a white man created the term “model minority” to describe Japanese Americans as a way of pitting them against Black Americans. USC Asian Pacific American Student Assembly Student Narratives Below are individual stories, told anonymously, to help debunk, the model minority myth. In response, USC Pacific Asia Museum has partnered with the USC Asian Pacific American Student Assembly (APASA), to collect stories from Asian and Pacific American students that deal with this stereotype everyday. The model minority myth pits students of color against each other and ignores the reality of systemic racism that Asian Americans continue to encounter. Asian Americans are often stereotyped as studious, successful, smart - a model minority who excel in education and accomplish the “American Dream.” Despite its positive overtones this stereotype is damaging for Asian Americans and other students of color.
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