For decades, the model minority myth has kept Asian Americans out of important equity conversations and held individuals back in school, at work and in life.
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The model minority myth perpetuates real harm toward Asian professionals.
The “model minority” myth has spread the lie for decades that all Asians in the U.S. are successful. The myth “perpetuates Asian Americans as polite, law- and rule-abiding ethnic groups who naturally achieve success by being hard-working, intelligent, independent and economically gifted people,” said Nadia De Ala, founder of Real You Leadership, a group coaching program for women of color.
The myth was perpetuated
by sociologist William Petersen in 1966. He pitted Japanese Americans against Black Americans in an article in The New York Times, stereotyping Japanese Americans as successful, industrious and “exceptionally law-abiding,” while portraying Black Americans as part of a “problem minority” group, pathologically unable to overcome histories of discrimination.