A lot of it has to do with the model minority myth, a stereotype that appeared in the mid 1960s that has since been imposed on all Asian Americans, especially those of East Asian lineage. It was first coined by this racist white demographer named William Peterson, who posited that the economic success of second generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) and their “overcoming” hurdles of racism came from some inherent cultural “goodness.” The guy actually said all Asians were endowed with innate intelligence and diligence (i.e. bootstrap rhetoric) and were models for ‘non-achieving’ black and Chicanos. This stereotype, debunked by sociologists and the Asian American community, has nonetheless been imposed on all Asian Americans, conceived on the racist assumption that all Asians are a monolith.
What the model minority myth perpetuates is not the erasure of historical prejudice but the trivialization of it — and by that very act, the exoneration of white hegemony as uninfluential/unrelated to the oppression of minorities. Though the stereotype admits some history of de jure racism, it nonetheless subsumes the historical reality of unequal distribution of resources under an illusory system of meritocracy that clearly benefits the financially affluent. Worse, it touts the role of inherent values (or lack thereof) in cultural groups toward their success. While being encouraged to feel superior for an illusory “cultural advantage” we have not, Asian Americans are positioned in a racial hierarchy meant to perpetuate white privilege at the expense of both Asian and African Americans.
Thus, the model minority myth effectively sutures colorblindness into Asian American identity, that is, views our achievements as purely meritorious and individual instead of involved with the social contract we make — not just as the perpetual Other (as metonymic appendages to foreign countries in the Eastern hemisphere) but also as docile honorary ‘white’ people whose very existence assumes other people of color are lazy and stupid and that racism does not exist in U.S. society. So the thought that an ungrateful Asian American can side with other people of color, presumably against whites, often infuriates the latter to no end lol. The social contract a model minority makes, after all, is to not only be colorblind but also compliant, nice.
I’d also like to add that the so-called statistics invoked to support the model minority stereotype are misleading because:
1. While Asian Americans ostensibly boast the highest median income of any racial group, Asian American families generally include more workers per household than white families.
2. Asian Americans also tend to concentrate in dense metropolitan areas where the costs of living are well above the national average.
3. While certain Asian ethnic groups have completed more years of schooling than other races, Asian Americans as a whole earn less than whites of comparable educational levels.
4. The Achievement Paradox is real. Parents’ socioeconomic status, that is, your upbringing determines success more than anything. Sociological studies have shown that no matter what economic status, Asians largely perform at the same intellectual level as other students.
tl;dr - the model minority myth is a furtive af type of racism that frames black and Asian groups in opposition to one another so that it can deflect discussion from the core issue of white privilege and supremacy. Despite perceptions to the contrary, Asian Americans are not “practically white” nor are we outwhiting whites at all.
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