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Asian American Families – beyond the stereotype

Part 3

Mei-Ling L. Liu, ProfessorCalifornia Polytechnic State University,

San Luis Obispo2006-07 U. S. Fulbright Scholar in the Republic of Macedonia

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The Ramifications of

Stereotyping

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The Myth of Asian American Success and Its Educational Ramifications

Chun, Ki-Taek , 19801. Asian Americans, particularly the young people,

resent the success contention as a device of political exploitation;

2. A pattern of occupational segregation for Asian Americans limits occupational aspiration and choices of Asian American youth

3. Asian Americans experience a sense of lost identity and attribute this feeling to the pressures of assimilation and to their ancestors' concern for survival.

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Stereotypes of Asian American Students by Kim, Angela - Yeh, Christine J, ERIC Digest 2002

• The various stereotypes assigned to Asian American students cause them emotional distress and create conflicts with their peers

• Stereotyping limits students' opportunities and access to resources. (Studies) found higher levels of distress from peer discrimination (being threatened, called racially insulting names, and excluded from activities) in Chinese and Korean students than in African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. 

• High- and low-achieving Asian students experienced anxiety to uphold the expectations of the model minority stereotypes. The students who were unable to perform well academically felt depressed and were embarrassed to seek help.

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Stereotypes of Asian American Students

• The Educational Testing Service (1997) found that twelfth grade students from six major ethnic groups (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, South Asian, and Southeast Asian) had significant variations in their educational backgrounds and achievement.

• ETS also demonstrated that stereotyping has led to the neglect of the development of student services and support for the many Asian American students who are undereducated and have low socioeconomic status. 

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Target of Hate Crimes and Discrimination

http://www.asian-nation.org/

Research shows that Asian Americans are the fastest growing victims of hate crimes in the U.S.

1/18/07 New York Daily News: A police officer's son who beat up two Chinese-American men in a racist attack that outraged community leaders pleaded guilty to assault as a hate crime yesterday.

3/30/07 AsianWeek: “‘Johnny Whiteboy’ Charged with Hate Crimes, Murders,”     San Francisco — District Attorney Kamala Harris charged suspect Joseph James Melcher, 25, a white male, with hate crimes along with the murders of three Asian Americans.

3/18/07 New York Post: “Girl’s Bloody Beating,”  A Catholic-high-school student said she was brutally punched, kicked and teased for looking "Chinese" by a pack of kids as she rode a city bus home from school

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Target of Hate Crimes and Discrimination

http://www.asian-nation.org/

• Asian American students have reported experiencing racial and ethnic discrimination by their peers.

• Vietnamese, Hmong, and Korean elementary and secondary students reported that American students were "mean" to them. Being insulted or laughed at by classmates were cited as reasons for not liking school and lacking friends.

• Commonly mentioned concerns of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cambodian refugee school age children were physical altercations with peers in school and in social interactions. 

• “Go back to China"

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USA Today May 2006 LOS ANGELES — Seven deaths within one week in spasms of family violence have plunged this city's Koreatown into questioning its immigrant culture of stoically bearing the stresses of adjusting to American life.…In most Asian cultures, "people try to deal with problems ourselves or within the family." …Family violence has been a problem in Asian-American immigrant neighborhoods for years.…Korean-born fathers struggle silently to meet social expectations that "they'll work hard to get rich in business and their kids will succeed." If things don't fall into place in that magic formula, there's a lot of shame and guilt.…Role-reversal and loss of status for men are frequent as women quickly learn English and take over family finances. "It seems to be easier for females to adjust, to get jobs."

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Virginia Tech Shootings Aftermath

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The University of Maryland The university president issued the following statement: “We have all been horrified by the tragedy of the Virginia Tech shootings. Across our many differences we all are joined in our empathy for their community and in admiration for their courage. Unfortunately, some people around the nation have chosen to direct anger at innocent members of the Asian Pacific American community. There have even been reports of incidents on our campus…” -- nbc4.com - April 20, 2007

Students and staff expressed their concerns about retaliatory action against Koreans, Korean-Americans and those of other Asian backgrounds

-- University of Illinois - 4/18/07

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“In the end, this entire episode is an opportunity to remind Asian Americans and anyone else out there who are facing emotional issues or challenging situations that there are resources out there for them to access in order to more constructively deal with those pressures before they get out of hand. Suffering in silence doesn’t help anyone.”

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A Bright Note

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Asian-Women owned Businesses in the U.S.

source: http://www.awib.org/

• An estimated 358,503 firms were majority-owned, privately held by API (Asian and Pacific Island) women in the United States, accounting for $49.1 billion in sales, and employing more than 370,000 people.

• There was a 45% increase in the number of firms owned by API women between 1997 and 2002.

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The number of employees working for API women-owned firms in the U.S. increased by 18%, and sales rose by 29%.

Approximately one-third (30%) of all minority women-owned firms in the U.S. are owned by Asian or Pacific Islanders.

Asian and Pacific Islander women business owners account for 10% of the total employment of women-owned firms, and 9% of sales.

Over one-third (36%) of all firms owned by persons of Asian American descent are owned by women

The 10 states with the greatest number of API women-owned firms (based on the number of firms, employment and sales) are: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, Washington and Georgia. These states also account for over 75% of all the API women-owned firms in the U.S.

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Acknowledgement

• I thank the U. S. Embassy and the Fulbright program for the opportunity to visit the Republic of Macedonia.

• I thank the staff of American Corner for their help to make this talk possible.

• I thank all the kind people I have met since I arrived here.

• I thank you for your attention.

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Sources of Info• Statistic and Demographics, University of Texas,

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/refsites/statistics.html#us• Breaking Down the Homogenized View of Asian American Academic Success: The Effects of

Social Capital on the Educational Aspirations. Sara Atienza, International Comparative Education School of Education, Stanford University, August 2006

• On Asian-American Admissions. The Harvard Crimson, November 20, 2006  • Asian American Facts, The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) and

Attainment of Asian American High School Students• The Myth of Asian American Success and Its Educational Ramifications. Chun, Ki-Taek IRCD

Bulletin, v15 n1-2 Winter-Spring 1980 • Stereotypes of Asian American Students. ERIC Digest.  by Kim, Angela - Yeh, Christine J,

April 2004• Hate Crimes. http://www.asianam.org/hate.htm• Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Women-Owned Businesses in the United States, 2002: A

Fact Sheet. The Center for Women's Business Research's• Race and Poverty Rates in California: Census 2000 Profiles. Center for Comparative Studies

in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University, November 2002• Asian Nation. http://www.asian-nation.org/• Asian Week• USA Today• Wikipedia

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Thank you.