Tag: Japanese American

Asian American Pacific Islander

The Allure of Assimilation

I know ethnic nationalists. We all do. Some of them are unassuming in the sense of being modest even as they assuming in the sense of dividing the world and its inhabitants. For them, geography and borders are demarcated by ancestry and bloodlines. By their definition of belonging, only natives qualify as kith and kin. As a Chinese American, I feel vulnerable right now because of the anger toward China. If I insist, as I do, that I am an American, I doubt I am convincing.

May 5, 2020

African-American

Asian Americans are Not the “Model Minority”

Asian Americans are wrongly assumed to be doing well, uniformly and virtually without exception. The stereotype, dubbed “the model minority myth,” has been debunked again and again, but it persists in ideological claims that Asian Americans demonstrate racial discrimination has been eliminated and hard work is all it takes to do well.

April 27, 2020