So, Asians Aren’t The New Jews?

Inside Higher Ed  reports today that the Pew Research Center has issued a report, The Rise of Asian Americans, that is “quite positive” about their status. “Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States,” it begins. “They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success.”

Some Asians groups, IHE reports, are not pleased.

But a joint statement from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund and the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education said that the data presented by Pew obscured continuing challenges facing recent Asian immigrants (as opposed to those here for several generations). The report “only reinforces the mischaracterizations of Asian American and Pacific Islander students that contribute to their exclusion from federally-supported policies, programs, and initiatives. Presenting such findings offer nothing in the way of positive changes for this historically underserved student population. This data only further burdens down Asian American students who have to fight against the ‘model minority myth,’ a misleadingly falsehood that deems them to be well-educated and financially successful.”

Wow, talk about not being able to lose for winning! A friend emailed the following response:

The pro-preference Asian groups always make it a point to say, “We hate being called a ‘model minority.’” They then go on to say, “We’re dysfunctional, too, just like blacks and Latinos.” Are they just saying this so they can get contracting preferences (which, unlike admission preferences, generally work in their favor)? Or are they just liberals who’ll say anything to support their stupid policies, even policies that discriminate against most of them?

Anyway, it’s just weird. You tell someone that he’s a good person, and he strenuously denies it, and insists that he’s no better than someone that he obviously IS better than. You can defend preferences for blacks and Latinos without denying that your group is more successful than blacks and Latinos: Jews do that all the time. Showing that Jews, not Asians, are closer to being the “model minority.”

One similarity of Jews to most (but not all!) Asian advocacy groups is that they both favor preferential treatment for others, putting themselves at a disadvantage.

 

 

Say What? (6)

  1. Ken June 22, 2012 at 10:41 am | | Reply

    But there are other side effects of the ‘model minority’ and people believing stereotypes. I have a friend in the Bay Area who’s from France; his son grew up here and is in high school. The school is vast majority asian (80%?), and so are the teachers, and the teachers routinely tell the boy that he’ll never do as well as the rest of the class, because he’s white.

  2. Perseus Wong June 22, 2012 at 11:04 am | | Reply

    ‘Asian Advocacy Groups’ are uniquely a product of America’s left-wing bourgeoisie which, in all my encounters, are comprised of second-generation, came-here-when-i-was-two Asians who have been ‘Westernized’ (that is, indoctrinated by left-wing intelligentsia) into a state of permanent victimhood and malcontent.

    These self-appointed advocates are an embarrassment and are an insult to the experience of Asian immigrants. I am a first generation, LEGAL immigrant Chinese who came here in my 20s. My parents and grand parents were part of a constant diaspora that destroyed lives and property. I have inherited from my parents and grandparents the universal vision that America has and always will be ‘Mei Kuo’ (the Beautiful Country) where your hardwork and success will be protected by the law; unlike the old country where your ethnicity and wealth singles you out for persecution.

    I, along with other Asian expatriates, have validated that vision; and have done so without the need for self-appointed ‘Advocacy Groups’ whose identity politics is just a variation of the patronizing, condescending attitudes towards the ‘inferior natives’ in colonial times.

    I am not a minority. I am American.

  3. cheapdaddy June 22, 2012 at 11:15 am | | Reply

    So Asians have learned the fine art of Kvetching.

  4. CaptDMO June 22, 2012 at 7:41 pm | | Reply

    Ok, apparently I’ve missed the regular double secret raciss memo.
    Would someone please give me the “code speak” Safe-For-Work words and images distinguishing:

    REAL”asian-americans” that “unexpectedly” prosper from busting their butt, and embarrassing “occupy” student-americans back into their parents basements.

    Victim “asian-americans” that seem to claim “exceptional-minority” double- hyphenation and seem to need “extra” social-justice.

    “Regular” hard workin’, tax payin’, Title zero,Americans?

  5. HearMe June 30, 2012 at 8:47 pm | | Reply

    How about East Asians pay their taxes. East Asians like any non-white group are parasites feeding off the success of white society. Tax evasion is a big problem amongst East Asians and is a major reason East Asians can go to college because their parents saved up all that money from not paying taxes to pay for college.

  6. John July 7, 2012 at 2:01 pm | | Reply

    Yeah, how dare those Asians point out that just like any other minority group in the United States they face difficulties and are stereotyped. We should put those colored Orientals in their place where they won’t complain.

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