The term “model minority” is the cultural expectation placed on Asian Americans as a group that each individual will be smart, wealthy, hardworking, submissive, uncomplaining, and just living the “American dream”.
The term was first established in the 1960’s, as a way to describe the Asian American community. Many believes that this term was used to prevent the Asian Americans from being in the Civil Rights Movement, and to remain “peaceful” if they wanted to keep the model minority title. It was also used to show the African American community that success was possible if they can cooperate peacefully like the Asians. Even though Asian American leaders like Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs worked side by side with the Africans American leaders during the Civil Rights Movement, and many Asian Americans supported the goals and efforts of the African Americans, all of these are not well known, because of the limited media coverage of these efforts. And by using the Asian American community as the …show more content…
Many Americans who view the Asian Americans as the model minority also believe that the other non-Asian minority groups are struggling due to their own shortcomings. This belief creates many tensions between the Asian American community and the other racial groups. Non-Asian minority groups has difficulties identifying with the Asian American community as a minority. As a result, Asian Americans might be more likely to become the targets of discrimination, racial harassment, stereotyping and hate crime than other ethnic groups. In addition, non-Asian minority groups tend to underperform their actual abilities due to the false assumptions and low expectations given by the