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Asian American Model Minority

1566 Words7 Pages

Asian Americans have been socially constructed as the nation’s model minority. While undergoing racism and economic hardship during their transition into the United States, Asian Americans overcame adversity and achieved success in education and the work force. After World War II, the notion of Asian Americans as a model minority whom promoted the American values of Democracy began to arise. The United States decided to focus on their achievement because of their “cultural background” rather than their social activism against racist laws. Asian Americans were not always viewed as a “model minority” in the U.S. In 1882, the government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act limiting Chinese immigrants from entering America. This act was later repealed …show more content…

The title of the Time Magazine article is “How to Tell Your Friends From The Japs”. The purpose of this article was to racialize the Japanese as our enemy and distinguish them from the Chinese American allies. At first glance, the article’s title boldly uses the derogatory term “Japs” to describe the Japanese. Meanwhile referring to the Chinese as “your Friends”. Four photos of younger and older generation Chinese and Japanese men are presented around bullet points with defining characteristics. There is a clear line drawn between these two groups. Although they may appear similar, there is a major distinction. The use of language and traits emphasize the Chinese as the superior minority who is trustworthy and representative of American values. In assigning facial expressions, the Japanese were thought to be “positive, dogmatic, arrogant”. On the other hand, the Chinese facial expressions were “more placed, kindly, open”. These differences show the racialization against the Japanese during World War …show more content…

By raising the status of this social class, the government can compare and contrast other minority groups and their achievements. Now, structural racism in America was being pushed off as an invalid reason limiting the success of minority groups. The media turned the argument around by instead blaming the failures of these groups on the individuals. Asian Americans were viewed as the model minority because their success while also combatting the societal issues present in America. Minority groups could not receive the justice and equality necessary for achievement in America’s society without also facing the restraints placed on them by the media and structural

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African Americans on the battle front are put into segregated divisions, whereas Native Americans dealt with compliment racism or unintentional racism. Chinese Americans were concerned with being accused of being Japanese, while the Japanese Americans tried to prove they were American too. Throughout his book, Takaki demonstrates the varying levels of racism experienced, and how hard work and perseverance helped these groups prove themselves to some degree. Takaki claims, all of these minorities groups, gained some form of freedom and equality either through the military or through job opportunities and improvements.

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The model minority hypothesis is where Asians were supposed to be economic and academically successful, respectful to authority, high moral values, adhere to strict gender roles, enjoyed strong and stable nuclear families and other Asian triats they are deemed to possess. The model minority term began after the confession program where Chinese immigrants can confess their illegal document status to become status, but must turn in any other Chinese who is using undocumented paperwork. Model minority was used frequently as young white kids become rebellious This notion of a model minority according to historian Helen Wu is that there were “two dominant American values during the cold war”. These values were the valorization of nuclear families

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492 Words | 2 Pages

Overt hatred for which the Japanese Americans have prepared themselves for never materializes. This imagined hatred shows the rarity of open hatred compared to subtle acts of prejudice. In fact, by imagining that all of white America will hate them, these Japanese Americans are accepting overt racism prejudice without it ever occurring. The wrong belief that

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758 Words | 4 Pages

Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese Americans faced racism and were suspected of treason. The entire community avoided them in spite of their homeland’s actions and developed a general distrust towards anyone of Japanese descent. Anti-Japanese sentiment was on the rise. For instance, hateful messages against them, such as “No Japs Wanted,” were often scrawled on property owned by Japanese Americans (Doc. 4). This conveyed the prejudice this minority group faced and how they were blamed for an attack that wasn’t their fault.

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he past 40 years have witnessed an increase of Asian athletes in American sports. In addition to their low population, earlier Asians lived in an era when racial discrimination and oppression impeded their access into sports (Zhao & Park, 2013). Asians had been discriminated against since the arrival of Chinese immigrants as cheap labor for the railroad and mining industries during the mid-1800s. This discrimination became more obvious during World War II when thousands of mostly Japanese Americans were forced out of their properties, separated from family and friends, and placed in internment camps. There they were subject to horrific living conditions, extreme deprivation and brutality.

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Part III, The War in Japanese Eyes, allows the reader to receive a Japanese perspective and also grasp how devastating the results of war were. Chapter 8, “The Pure Self,” Dower explains the Japanese traditions and culture, along with the humiliation and discrimination the Japanese received. The Japanese believed their culture was unique, and spent this period of time during the war focusing on themselves and their race. Whereas yellow was the color of illness and treason and the Japanese were usually referred to as yellow, the color white symbolized purity which stood for the American race. On the contrary, the Americans were also known as demonic.

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568 Words | 3 Pages

The Americans were not able to distinguish between the Japs and the Chinese, so they relied on the Life Magazine. The magazine addressed the concerns with the comparison of the facial features, ironically, the face of one man can’t represent the entire race. The comparison of the facial features also reveals the racist stereotypes. The magazine described the Chinese people as having “longer, narrower face”, “more frequent epicanthic fold” and “higher bridge” (How to Tell Japs 81). On the other hand, it claimed that Japanese people have a “broader, shorter face”, “less frequent epicanthic fold” and “flatter nose” (How to Tell Japs 81).

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Chapter six examines the anti-Chinese sentiment with the emerging class antagonism and turmoil between white capitalists and workers. The unwelcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants brought along their own social organizations such as the huiguan, fongs, and tongs. These types of social organizations secured areas of employment and housing for Chinese immigrants in California. This social structure that was unknown to Anglos led them to also categorize Chinese on the same level as Indians by depicting them as lustful heathens whom were out to taint innocent white women. These images were also perpetuated onto Chinese women, thus, also sexualizing them as all prostitutes.

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Subsections (3) and (4) focus on discrimination really show how the Japanese were targeted because of their race. Not only did the government control where the Japanese were going to reside, but also the discrimination that they had to

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821 Words | 4 Pages

Thesis: The Chinese Exclusion Act. A document that was first signed in 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur. This was and still is important because it was the first law that restricted immigration into the United States. This document was signed because Congress was concerned about keeping white “racial purity,” even though the Chinese population consisted of only 0.002 (two thousandths) percent of the whole population.

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1045 Words | 5 Pages

America’s racist ideals were seeded way before the bombing of pearl harbor. Acts like the Naturalization Act of 1870, Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Immigration Act of 1924 grew racism towards Asians. (Notes). This would lead to the sentiment that Japanese people did not belong in America. In document 9, this is supported with the statement “The Chinese and Japanese are not bona fide citizens.”

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1627 Words | 7 Pages

In the United States, using the term “model minority” to describe Asian Americans does not negate the fact that they are still a minority who deal with the same hardships and discrimination as other minorities. Issues such as these are undeniably in the school systems that are inhabited by large numbers of these students with Asian backgrounds. They are exemplified by the bipolar historical treatment of Asian Americans, the numbers that matter in education today, and in the problems created and overcome by the people that face them. Sifting through the dark and difficult history leads to the light on the other side of a tunnel where there can be found methods and solutions to create success for the Asian American people. The first thing to

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1523 Words | 7 Pages

Thesis statement: Though many speculate that the act of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) while not doing so on Europe (Germany and Italy) was racially motivated, racism played little to no role in these bombings. The United States of America and her allies were willing to end World War II at any cost, had the atomic bombs been available they would have been deployed in Europe. In the 1940’s there is no doubt that the United States of America was engulfed by mass anti-Japanese hysteria which inevitably bled over into America’s foreign policy. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human.

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the

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847 Words | 4 Pages

The historical lineage between the African and Asian diasporas present a reciprocal relationship of influence and experience. Throughout the passage of time, these bodies of people have been both opposing forces and allies; in response to the racial tensions surrounding their respective groups, in their corresponding environments. Interactions between Africans and Asians created a dynamic that whites often felt threatened by but also used to wield power and institute dissension among the groups. By utilizing facets of colorblindness, multiculturalism, primordialism, polyculturalism, and Afro-orientalism, racial formation will examined as it exists within the Afro-Asian dynamic. American meritocracy presents a front that states that individuals may succeed and attain power on a basis of exclusively ability and talent, regardless of other factors such as race and

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