Cream of the Crop
As many students are aware, there has been a gradual increase in awareness of racial and gender issues fraught within our society today. During the last weeks of March and continuing into the month of April, social media has brought to light the injustices inflicted upon particular races because of racial stereotyping. Multiple posts have linked newspaper articles as well as blog posts discussing the inconsistency of the profiling of Asians versus the realistic depiction of an Asian student.
“Model minority” is a term that is repeatedly associated with Asians, placing a burdensome responsibility for an individual of Asian descent to be naturally gifted in math and science, hard-working, wealthy, the teacher’s pet and so on and so forth. For some percentage of Asians, whether they are international or identify as Asian-American, this may be applicable, but there is a larger portion of the Asian population where these characteristics are non-applicable. Thankfully, this particular generation of students has come to question the wrongdoings of societal pressures and stereotyping and thus some of the conservative views of Asians have been dissipated.
However it would be wrong to blatantly ignore the fact that there is still an immediate association formed in a person’s mind when they see that “yellow skin,” “jet black hair” or “almond eyes.” Ah yes, this person is Asian, so they are smart, right? It may be that this particular Asian is more talented in sports than academics, and yet the unfortunate reality is that because of the way society has already profiled certain races in the past, there is an instinctive response upon seeing a certain skin color or eye shape.
Speaking from personal experience, I have been and still continue to be victimized by the fact that I was born as a Korean. Though I identify myself as a Korean American, I am still expected to be a prodigy in academics and music, be at the very least bilingual and have a “tiger mom.” I am still caged by the fact that my family is of Asian descent and by the expectation that I graduate from a series of prestigious establishments and eventually become a highly paid diligent employee. I am sure that many other Asians can agree that at least one point in their lives, they were told to either become doctors or lawyers and that they had to graduate from an Ivy League university. No ifs, ands or buts. Of course these repetitive mantras can be attributed to our parents’ loving intentions of wanting their children to succeed in a foreign land—this is a perfectly understandable reasoning.
Asians in this century particularly feel the pressure of having to prove themselves through academics and understandably so. How can we possibly compete with the other minorities who will get the sympathy card since they “weren’t born into the right family” or because “they did not have access to the right educational opportunities?” What frustrates me the most is the idiocy of some individuals who are blind to the fact that not all Asians are from wealthy families. There are Asians who are in the same troublesome financial situations as other minorities; Asians aren’t privy to golden opportunities.
How could we, Asians, possibly compete with the families who have connections in businesses and colleges within the States because of long-standing family bloodlines? And so how else would Asians be able to somehow distinguish ourselves when they lack the connections or the emotional pity in an alien country, other than to show their worth through numbers. Honestly speaking, why else would Asians want to burn those extra thousand dollars to go to preparatory academies, the plane-rides to and from the States, donate to colleges and pay full tuition to a college that is supposedly representative of the allure of America? It is certainly not because there is absolutely no chance of leading a fruitful life in another country. It is because there is the regrettable existence of exceptionalism within our society.
The only reason why I bring this up is because recently in history class, keywords that were representative of American culture were discussed, such as “gender,” “race,” “white,” “exceptionalism” and “America.” There is a sense of exceptionalism that is applied to the understanding of labels and particularly so when discussing race. What is considered the norm is not something that was defined as humans came to be but rather what we have developed throughout history. The disparity between the ideal global community of understanding and the one that we partake in day to day is quite shocking. It is even worse to come to realize that there have always been speeches and written pieces of possibly making changes within the absolutely despicable perceptions of particular groups of people, and yet there has never been true change. There is no one moment I can point out within history where an incorrect stereotype was erased from a population’s mind and that is something we must unfortunately accept. This however by no means suggests that there should be any less effort in making a change within the twisted profiling of peoples.
But this also should not make me guilty nor any other Asian student from being able to say that we are not always going to fit into the mold of being a “model minority.” There will inevitably be days when I won’t get that A on a test or I won’t win first prize in a competition. Why? Not because I am mentally insufficient but rather because I am human. And so the final question comes to mind—if I don’t fit into the societal mold of a quote-unquote “Asian,” what am I?