If you're Asian in America, you probably grew up with the idea that
I had to be successful in a particular way.
That we would have access to money for like extracurricular activities or prep classes.
We were supposed to be more well off and wealthier.
Women in particular, that we're easily dominated.
Really good at math and science.
You don't cause trouble.
But we're also seen as individuals that are not allowed to have mental health or career challenges
or even setbacks.
Many of these ideas are because of the model minority myth, a set of assumptions about
Asian-American achievement and behavior that have held Asian-Americans back from equal opportunity in
academia, the work force and necessary government welfare.
So how does the perception of overachievement leave Asian-Americans out of important equity
conversations and suppress their potential growth?
Here's how the model minority myth is suppressing Asian-Americans from reaching their full potential.
For many years, anti-Asian biases and discrimination have largely gone unacknowledged
until now, as the nation takes a closer look at the origins of discrimination in a climate of racial
reckonings and increased violence.
In recent years, Asian representation among college students and in executive leadership has come under
scrutiny.
In corporate America, Asian-Americans are the most likely to be hired into white collar jobs, but least
likely promoted in the management.
According to studies, nearly 60 percent of Asian-Americans go to college after school.
They make up 13 percent of working professionals, but just six percent of executive leadership,
Generally Asian-Americans are perceived as smart, hardworking, easy to manage employees.
Problem with that model is that we're also seen as good workers, but not great leaders.
Experts say the inability to rise through the ranks isn't due to a lack of ambition or work ethic, but
rather a combination of cultural and societal stigma.
In America, what we look for is bulls and risk taking leaders, and those are culturally
incompatible with what you see in China and Japan.
And so those people brought up with those beliefs are perceived as non-leadership material here in the
United States.
So is the career suppression of Asian-Americans a hidden form of racism?
If not, why exactly have Asian-Americans been underrepresented in management roles?
And what can we do about it?
We can't be lost in the fact that Asian-Americans also need a lot of help the D&I movement within
companies is happening.
But also I think it is no longer about just celebration of cultural holidays and things like
that, it's really about what are we going to do to address the inequities and promotions, for instance,
and in the rise to executive leadership,
The model minority myth was first coined in the 1960s in reference to Asian-Americans being seen as
a superior immigrant group in America.
A construct to say, "We are model minority because we are obedient, we are submissive, we are
successful in assimilating into American culture, and therefore we are the model."
These assumptions have proliferated, becoming common stereotypes in the media and at the highest echelons
of society.
It essentially embraces the struggles and hardships and discrimination and racism that we persistently
face in the Asian-American experience.
In one highly publicized case, Harvard admissions officers had used recurring characterizations for
Asian-American applicants such as quiet, shy, science, math-oriented and hard workers.
Harvard responded, stating race is one of many factors considered when reviewing applications, and
ultimately it was ruled that their admissions process met constitutional requirements.
I remember being happy about being described as a white-washed.
I wasn't very likely engaged and motivated by school, like by a lot of my classes, especially in
early high school and middle school.
I was embarrassed as a kid to be Asian and I was embarrassed of my monolith, my nose, the food I ate.
My math teacher, she was handing out one of the quizzes that we took the week prior and I ended up
getting a C- on it
It places this invisible gap of who we can be and how we can act.
I almost flunked out and they didn't have an answer for that.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Isn't it in your genes to be good at math?" And I was just
completely shocked. I didn't know what to say
Because they're like, well, why wouldn't you just want to achieve?
In addition to how racial stereotyping can be damaging, grouping any ethnic minority based on
their assumed achievements and character traits inherently compares one group negatively to another
It was really a concept created to be a wedge during the civil rights movement between different minority
races.
A way to discredit the claims of African-Americans who were seeking.
Racial and economic justice and demanding massive structural overhauls in American society
After World War Two, Asian-Americans felt the need to become model citizens to convince mainly white
people that they belonged in the U.S..
Asian immigrants and their children were thought to be dangerous, threatening to American society.
Asians worked very hard to convince other Americans that they were worthy of belonging here in the
United States; they were worthy of having a future and they deserve the same kinds of life chances and
opportunities as White people.
Essentially, as Asian American college enrollment and workforce presence has expanded.
It's also been assumed that they hold the most wealth among minority groups, but experts say this
assumption has played a critical role in neglecting Asian subgroups that earn some of the lowest
household incomes in America.
And the lowest rung on the poverty ladder happens to be Asian.
And that is a fact that is widely ignored.
For instance, the Hmong, Bhutanese, Burmese and Nepali populations have consistently had poverty
rates higher than the U.S.
average, with median household incomes reported below forty thousand dollars.
We didn't all grow up with a silver spoon.
Some of us grew up in the trailer houses with no hot water, just like my story.
And we grew up around gang violence, just like my story.
By grouping all the Asian-Americans together and assuming that all of them will do well just because
you've measured them as a group, you end up ignoring the people who might not fit into that.
I think, which have led to policymakers sometimes just completely overlooking Asian-Americans.
Experts say Asian-Americans also face a double glass ceiling in the corporate sector with a barrier to
entry and challenges advancing into leadership roles.
There was this feeling of a lot of judgment from the executives, my peers, and feeling that I had
to fit the mold that they wanted instead of focusing in on the qualities of the production that
I was making.
What they're telling us is "you're one of us, but you're not."
I remember there was a client call, and as soon as they saw me on the call, I could tell that their
demeanor changed somehow.
I think that they were expecting someone who might have been White.
I don't know the reason why, but I was put off the project and my White manager ended up taking over
that project.
You feel like when you're in these rooms that these tables that you have to present a certain way.
And I definitely feel that.
There's a gender gap and a race gap.
If you are an Asian woman, that not only do you suffer from the gender gap, but you are also
heavily penalized for being Asian.
And so in our research, both Asian woman and Black woman are at the very bottom of the executive parody
index.
This gap in representation is especially acute at the highest levels of corporate leadership.
Asian-Americans make up an even smaller share of executives at Fortune 100 companies.
Just 2.8 percent are East Asian and four point one percent are South Asian.
And among these 100 companies, only four CEOs are Asian-American, all of whom are men.
I would constantly get overlooked for a promotion, a title change or even a standard yearly raise.
And I would put in the work like no matter how many hours, how many milestones I hit, it didn't matter.
Experts point to several factors that contribute to lack of advancement, the first being that
traditional business leaders aren't thought to be Asian.
They're White, they're male, they're tall.
Right? And they don't conform to what we see in the typical Asian-American leader.
Traditional Asian culture often clashes with the idea of advocating for yourself in the workplace,
something rarely taught by immigrant parents and elders who prioritized assimilating to American
culture.
It was about working hard.
It was about, you know, speaking really good English so we could assimilate and to understand the
culture. But they ceased to become good advisors right beyond getting good grades in school and
getting into a good school, getting into a good company,
Our parents had to do what they had to do, like they had no other option.
And this mentality that they really instilled in us was will outwork you.
We're going to put in the work.
Don't underestimate us.
And that's what my mom did and that's what I did.
The culture behavior is to be tapped on the shoulder for advancement rather than to aspire to ask for it,
because that because asking for it is being presumptuous and not humble.
So if you don't ask for, you don't get it.
And that's part of our problem.
Under this frame of model minority, we feel like, well, I need to get someone else to give me
permission to do that, or I need to prove to them that I've already done it in order to get that
chance.
I didn't have network connections, and when I went through that path to get to CEO, there was a lot
of self doubt. Because of how I was raised and what I saw, what I didn't see-- having people that looked
like me in the senior roles, I would mentor me and guide me.
No one did that for me.
Prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement, many corporations are now investing a lot of money in
diversity and inclusion initiatives.
But these initiatives may not be enough to fix career advancement inequities for Asian-Americans.
The problem with diversity programs, in particular for Asian-Americans, is that by and large they're
focused on celebratory events like Lunar New Year or Asian Heritage Month, and they don't really look
at the diversity question.
Experts say companies need to be more intentional and proactive in who they hire to lead while
creating a culture that sees value in all types of people.
But the first thing that corporate America needs to do,
They need to recognize a problem and recognize are things they can do about it and then make those I'll
call a training opportune development opportunities available to Asian-Americans.
It's our responsibility then to take that opening and to learn new skills.
Companies can have a role in helping society unlearn harmful narratives that have been perpetuated for
decades by providing mentorship opportunities and encouraging the understanding that leaders and
managers don't all have to look and sound the same.
They are different leadership styles.
And I think being gentle in interpersonal relationships, it is an example of leadership.
I think being loud or advocating for yourself is not easy for everyone and doesn't mean that they're
not good at their job.
Prioritizing diversity in media can also help minorities see themselves in roles they never
considered.
I think it's extremely important for people growing up to see themselves represented in executive higher
level positions.
And especially tells young Asian kids that we can live outside of these lines that we're set up for
you. From a media perspective, tell stories that are pushing policy and legislation forward, helping
groups that maybe haven't don't have the spotlight on that.
Lastly, many members of the Asian-American community say there's nothing more important than speaking up
and sharing your story authentically.
We are fighting so hard to have a seat at the table and we just want to be heard.
We want our voices to be heard.
Connect with other people, share these kind of experiences, or we may feel like we're alienated
sometimes, but really we're all together in the same feeling.