{"id":45702,"date":"2012-03-15T12:05:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T17:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=45702"},"modified":"2017-09-17T13:57:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T18:57:15","slug":"distracted-by-linsanity-hidden-racism-and-the-model-minority-stereotype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/03\/15\/distracted-by-linsanity-hidden-racism-and-the-model-minority-stereotype\/","title":{"rendered":"Distracted by \u201cLinsanity:\u201d Hidden Racism and the Model Minority Stereotype"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many people look at Asian-Americans’ relatively high incomes, compared to other racial\/ethnic groups, and assume this minority group has achieved the American Dream.\u00a0 In fact, Census data reveal Asians have higher average incomes and are less likely to live in poverty than whites (DeNavas, Proctor, & Smith, 2011).\u00a0 Numbers like this lead many to conclude Asians are free from discrimination and are a \u201cmodel minority\u201d for others to emulate.<\/p>\n

However, these numbers regarding Asian-American economic success are misleading.\u00a0 For example, after controlling for factors such as education, number of workers in a household, and regional costs of living,, Asian-Americans’ economic advantages disappear\u00a0(Kim & Mar, 2007).\u00a0 Like other racial minorities, because of racial discrimination Asians must work harder to get the same economic returns as whites.<\/p>\n

But the model minority stereotype is so distracting that many completely overlook overtly racist statements about Asians.\u00a0 A Saturday Night Live<\/em> clip<\/a> about the \u201cLinsanity\u201d surrounding NBA player Jeremy Lin illustrates how the racial discourse is regulated quite differently for Asian Americans in comparison to African Americans, drawing on several actual incidents and comments that appeared in coverage of Lin. In this clip, the sportscasters celebrate a headline describing Jeremy Lin as \u201cAmasian,\u201d laugh at signs depicting him inside a fortune cookie, and make statements such as he\u2019s \u201csweet not sour\u201d and \u201cturned Kobe [Bryant] into Kobe beef.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They also talk about \u201cloving [Lin] long time,\u201d \u201cwax on, wax off Mr. Miyagi,\u201d and \u201cdomo arigato, Mr. Lin-boto\u201d as they bow while grinning widely, bang gongs, and mimic martial arts moves.\u00a0 The double standard is revealed as the sportscasters criticize and then fire their peer for saying similar things about Black basketball players, including\u00a0 \u201cKobe ordered fried chicken,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAmar’e Stoudemire was dancing like Maury Povich just told him he\u2019s not the father,\u201d and \u201cmy homey Carmelo [Anthony] rolls in late\u201d.<\/p>\n

In fact, Chou and Feagin argue the \u201cmodel minority\u201d stereotype makes Asians more vulnerable to racism than other racial groups because over-exaggerated notions of success lead many to dismiss prejudice against this group as innocent or harmless.\u00a0 They write, \u201cThis distinctive, supposedly positive stereotyping distracts people from seeing the discrimination Asian Americans face every day\u201d (Chou & Feagin, 2008, p. 30). The SNL clip drives home the way this played out with the Jeremy Lin case.<\/p>\n

Relevant Reading:<\/p>\n

Chou, R. S., & Feagin, J. R. (2008). The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism.<\/em> Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.<\/p>\n

DeNavas, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2011). Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010.<\/em> U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p>\n

Kim, M., & Mar, D. (2007). The Economic Status of Asian Americans. In M. Kim (Ed.), Race and Economic Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century<\/em> (pp. 148-279). New York, SC: Routledge.<\/p>\n

Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology.<\/em> Sage.<\/p>\n

—————<\/p>\n

Jason Eastman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Coastal Carolina University<\/a> who researches how culture and identity influence social inequalities.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people look at Asian-Americans’ relatively high incomes, compared to other racial\/ethnic groups, and assume this minority group has achieved the American Dream.\u00a0 In fact, Census data reveal Asians have higher average incomes and are less likely to live in poverty than whites (DeNavas, Proctor, & Smith, 2011).\u00a0 Numbers like this lead many to conclude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1851,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[283,285,1759,1760],"class_list":["post-45702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45702"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71481,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702\/revisions\/71481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}