Is "The Model Minority Myth"... a Myth?

How culture shapes society.

In a previous post, I tried to debunk the idea of systemic racism when it comes to sports and income disparities. The overall conclusion is that well designed meritocratic systems naturally produce race disparities in outcomes. But the root causes of those disparities have nothing to do with race or racism. The root causes are a complex and nuanced combination of:

1. Demographic factors like age, marital status, educational and career specialties

2. Geographic factors like where people are born and where they live/work

3. Culture

Brown Supremacy?

In this post I want to examine how culture plays a pivotal role in society and it’s various disparate outcome statistics. Given that it’s AAPI Heritage Month, I wanted to start with the term “model minority”. The “model minority” commonly refers to East, Southeast and South Asian communities in North America that are considered to be inherently intelligent, and hardworking compared to other minority groups.  The term was coined by sociologist William Petersen in a 1966 article in The New York Times Magazine titled "Success Story: Japanese American Style," in which he highlighted the high levels of education and income among Japanese Americans and suggested that they were a "model" for other minority groups to follow. It has since been expanded to describe the perceived success of Asian Americans/Canadians in achieving higher levels of education, income, and social mobility compared to other minority groups. Asians today are often stereotyped as doctors, lawyers, engineers or “crazy rich Asians”.

However, the model minority stereotype has also been criticized for overlooking the diversity of experiences within the Asian community, as well as the structural barriers and discrimination that many Asian Americans face. For example, Asian Americans have the widest economic disparity of any racial group in the US. When you break down each group, the gaps in income, educational achievement and access to health care start to become clearer.

This data and many like it is used to invent a new term called the “model minority myth”. This new term is used to claim that society groups all Asians under a single stereotype, and thus separates them from the rest of the population. Apparently this ignores the historical and ongoing struggles and the “systemic, and institutionalized discrimination and racism” that has impacted and continues to impact these communities.  The model minority myth is used to accuse society of completely ignoring centuries of systematic, institutional, and structural discrimination and racism, which many Asians continue to experience the impacts of to this day.

If you read my previous post and understood it’s underlying reasoning and conclusions your Spidey sense should be tingling in being skeptical of the same narrative of systemic racism applied to Asians. The reason for the disparities in outcomes even in various Asian ethnicities has very little to do with race and racism. Take the example of black Nigerian immigrants in North America. They are one of the most successful immigrant groups in the US. And it is Nigerian culture that plays a big role in their success.

So what are these cultural traits that many ethnicities have that make them so successful while other ethnicities struggle. Let’s start with the basics. There’s a simple and highly effective secret formula for avoiding poverty that no one tells you about:

1. Finish high school.

2. Get a full-time job once you finish school (even if it’s minimum wage).

3. Get married before you have children, then stay married.

This has come to be known as “the success sequence.” Ninety-seven percent of people who follow these steps do not live in poverty. In contrast, seventy-six percent of those who do not adhere to any of these steps are poor. In my culture, to say that these 3 steps are the absolute BARE MINIMUM required to keep your reputation would be a giant understatement. In many ethnic cultures (like Indians, Nigerians and Chinese) you are expected…nay demanded that you achieve well beyond these 3 criteria. You are expected to get straight As, become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or accountant and become a spouse and parent usually all by the time your 30 regardless of gender. Success in music and sports are also required albeit not as forcefully as education and marriage. After that, getting more degrees, patents, publications, certifications, promotions and other career accolades are also encouraged and celebrated. You also need happy, thriving family pictures that can be forwarded around the globe.

Shown below are two graphs. The first is the percentage of adults age 25 and older with a bachelor’s or higher degree, by selected Asian subgroups in 2016. You can see subgroups with lower educational attainment also have lower incomes in the earlier graph. And the 2nd graph is the breakdown of divorce rates by various Asian ethnicities in the US. You’ll notice some Asian ethnicities like Cambodians and Laotians have both low educational attainment in the first graph and higher divorce rates in the 2nd graph. It should come as no surprise then that they also have significantly lower incomes as shown in the income disparity charts.

So it would seem that a culture that demands high educational attainment and stable families translates into better socioeconomic outcomes for that given ethnicity. If you look at certain white ethnicities in Western nations (like American Rednecks or British Cockneys) you’ll find white cultures that don’t prioritize education and families also have similar poor wealth and health outcomes. To make the case for culture even stronger look at the educational and marriage/divorce rate of Nigerian Americans compared to the overall US average.

Nigerian-Americans are more likely to have jobs than the average American, and much more likely to have college degrees. They are also much closer to the US average on marriage/divorce. Compare that to the overall black average for out of wedlock birth rates at a whopping 70% in the graph below. (Aside: What the heck happened in the 1960s that skyrocketed the out of wedlock births for everyone but especially black people?!!?)

So it would seem that there is some truth to the Asian “model minority" concept but it is a bit of a fallacy. Using such a large and diverse group of Asians is too much a generalization. It focuses too much on the minority and not enough on the model. There are multiple cultures across race and ethnic lines that exemplify the model of stable families and high educational/career expectations. This cultural model leads to better outcomes and it is this model we should be emphasizing in society as a whole.

However, there are downsides to such a demanding social environment. There are specific people who would do significantly better in terms of objective achievement, life fulfillment and societal benefit in pursuits that would fall outside the norms of such a culture. I’m thinking of comedians like Russel Peters, Hasan Minhaj and Dave Chapelle. Just imagine if we had pushed the 17 year old Christopher Wallace towards a career in engineering or medicine instead of rap music. While he may have done well in those fields I think that society would have missed out on something really special.

The high achieving model can also lead to a culture of “Keeping up with the Joneses” where you are constantly being compared or comparing yourself to others when it comes to material possessions, lifestyle and status. It often implies a sense of competition and envy among individuals or families, as you try to match or surpass the perceived level of wealth, success, or status of your peers. This can lead to a cycle of spending, consumption, over-work and burnout as you try to keep up appearances, even if it means sacrificing your own financial security or mental health.

Finally, there’s the unfortunate and painful social stigma cast upon someone in my culture who does not achieve excellence in all areas of life. I personally have failed in certain aspects of keeping a stable family and compromised my mental health as a result. It can be hard to cheer on such a demanding culture when a friend, family member or yourself fails to live up to its standards. But such cultures lead to higher probabilities of individual success and produce good looking statistics in group outcomes.

So there’s inherent tradeoffs in which behaviors, norms and values are revered vs. which ones are stigmatized. Cultures that push stable families and high educational/career achievement have better outcomes. If you want to improve group disparities and unlock the full potential of a society, impacting such cultural change in under-achieving subgroups is a good place to start. But there will be a minority of people in those groups who will feel at the very least jaded or maybe even stigmatized and excluded.

“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” — Thomas Sowell