Over ExpectAsian

"Model Minority"Asian Americans are the “model minority” of the United States, seen as the single minority that has overcome discrimination and achieved economic success through hard work and education. Unfortunately, although there have been many cases of Asian Americans moving up the socioeconomic ladder, not all Asian Americans are well-off. Indeed, the “model minority myth” stereotypes all Asian Americans as being well-educated, fully assimilated, and therefore, no longer facing any obstacles. In reality, Asian Americans’ position as the model minority prevents their chance at the American Dream. Firstly, America generally does not notice Asian Americans’ tremendous lack of access to healthcare and significant amounts of poverty. Furthermore, Asian Americans as a whole are discriminated against during the college admission process, forestalling their chance at opportunity through education. If the American Dream comes from opportunity, and opportunity comes from equal treatment of ethnic groups, then the unequal treatment that Asian Americans receive staves off their access to the American Dream.

Lack of Health InsuranceDue to cultural and language barriers, not every Asian American has achieved a high socioeconomic status. In fact, these barriers result in many Asian Americans having low socioeconomic status, preventing them from receiving necessities like health insurance. For example, Asian Americans with limited English and job skills necessary in the American economy struggle to find jobs that offer health insurance with the ease assimilated Americans might. This results in many Asian Americans living in subpar conditions, having insufficient health insurance, or being uninsured at some point. In fact, in 2005, one in five Asian Americans between the ages of 18-64 reported having no health insurance or being uninsured. Out of all the Asian American ethnic groups, 55% of Korean Americans were the most likely to be uninsured, followed by 37% of Vietnamese, 18% of Asian Indians, 16% of Chinese, 15% of Filipinos, and 4% of Japanese. This somewhat correlates with when each ethnic group started to immigrate to America and how much they’ve assimilated since then. Furthermore, Asian Americans who struggle with English do not understand the U.S. healthcare system as well as do not feel their doctors “understand their culture and values.” This leads them to generally not seek American medical help, ignore illnesses, and increase susceptibility to diseases, all because of cultural barriers.

Save the MoneyOnce again, based on the extreme and few cases, humans have stereotyped a group. This time persists the stereotype that all Asians are socioeconomically stable and have eluded the depths of poverty. Reality begs to differ. According to the 2011 census, almost 2 million of the 16 million Asian Americans live in poverty. Unfortunately, as the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population continues to grow with new waves of immigration every year, their percentage of those in poverty grows, too. As of August 2014, “the numbers of AAPIs in poverty have grown by 37 percent, while Pacific Islanders in poverty [alone] have increased by 60 percent.” This may be due to factors such as Asian refugees receiving limited education, opportunities, and room for advancement as well as tending to have larger family sizes, thus having to distribute income thinner. With the national average American household having 2.58 persons, Asian American households have an average of 3.02 while Pacific Islanders have 3.63. Asian American and Pacific Islander immigrants also tend to move to cities, such as Los Angeles, which have more job opportunities and potential for familiar ethnic communities, resulting in higher costs of living. Furthermore, the Asian American unemployment rate has risen in the past few years, contributing to the rising levels of poverty. Although virtually matched in degree and caliber, Asian American college graduates are more likely than White college graduates--or even White college students--to be unemployed or paid less. Although hapless and injust, Asian Americans’ unfortunate circumstances lead to rising amounts of poverty; worse still, little public assistance is offered because Asian Americans as a whole are seen as self-sufficient as the model minority.

UC Lots of Asians StruggleIt’s a pitiful truth that Asians have to contemplate whether or not to mark the Asian-American box on their college applications. They know it is a trend that elite colleges will often put a quota on how many Asian-Americans they will admit and thus do not want be given the unequal chance of admission. Because of this trend, Asian Americans often have to earn better grades, score higher test scores, and have more extracurricular activities than Blacks, Latinos, and Whites to compete for college admission. In fact, since they are given the chance, it is not uncommon that mixed Asians will mark the non-Asian box, even if it’s white, essentially stating that any non-Asian race is held to a more reasonable standard. Asian-Americans fear that they are receiving the “Jewish Treatment”: the racist and unfair quotas in the beginning of the 20th century that denied many ideal, Ivy-League-ready Jewish students acceptance. They aren’t delusional though; the unspoken Asian quotas elite colleges are implementing are practically parallel to the Jewish quotas. These injust quotas are so discriminating that on November 17, 2014, an Asian-American student and the Students for Fair Admissions filed a lawsuit against Harvard and the University of North Carolina for denying the student “the opportunity to compete for admission to Harvard on equal footing with other applicants” due to his race. Although each college denied such discrimination, strong statistical evidence says otherwise. Even though the amount of highly qualified Asian Americans has been increasing, the amount of Asian Americans admitted stays about the same, implying an upper limit. Furthermore, if the highly qualified Asian Americans can hardly make it into college, what chance does the average Asian American have? Because of their wrongly attributed position as the “model minority,” newly immigrated ethnic groups within the “Asian American” category are still expected to reach the same caliber as ethnic groups that have had better circumstances. For example, Southeast Asian ethnic groups such as Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong are relatively new immigrants and therefore, do not speak fluent English and have not yet assimilated into Western Culture. However, because of other Asian ethnic groups’ success and the human tendency to group similar-looking groups together, these new immigrants are set to high standards that they cannot and should not be expected to achieve. They are therefore almost immediately denied opportunities because they are seen as insufficient or do not reach for opportunities altogether. In fact, most Southeast Asian Americans never finish high school at rates similar if not worse than other minorities. If colleges want to include minorities, there are other race-neutral techniques to encouraging diversity such as accepting the top 10% of students in each high school, offering financial aid to minorities, limiting legacy preferences, and evaluating applicants based on their socioeconomic standing in relativity to their geographic location. These solutions have actually proven to increase the number of African-American and Hispanic students while still staying race-blind. These unbiased solutions are viable and would benefit both parties: increasing diversity and cross-culturalizing in colleges as well as provide equal opportunity for exemplar students.

We're Not All The SameIf the American Dream pledges to provide every American with equal opportunity to education and economic success, the Asian Americans are being cheated. To correct this issue, America must realize that not every Asian American is the same and they should not be treated as such. Asian Americans should no longer be held to the “Model Minority” standard and should just each be evaluated as what they truly are: individuals.