git rm -r the-model-minority

As I finish up my final years of undergrad, I contemplate what’s next. Along with my degree, I’ll have romanticized ideas of what life has in store. But, as an Asian-American woman endeavoring to break into tech, it’s critical I recognize a reality of the space I long to join: Asian stereotypes have diluted the Asian narrative in this industry, trivializing the societal problems they create.

I place most blame on the “model minority” stereotype, which characterizes Asians as hard-working, law-abiding, and assimilating. For instance, academically, I have a “tiger mom” with expectations so high that an A- is considered failing. Professionally, I work tirelessly to get every line of code or equation right. Socially, I never complain about microaggressions or prejudices since I’m generally treated okay and rewarded for my efforts. This how I’m seen, and I’d be lying if I said that these traits impact me only negatively.

For example, in Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing, one Latino student described a typical computer scientist as “A dude….[T]hey’ll probably be white or Chinese, ’cause they’re, like, smart and they like those things” (Margolis et. al, 2011, p. 60). I and other Asians are perceived to work alongside whites, who dominate society, as opposed to beneath them. (I’m also perceived to be male, but we’ll talk about that later.)

All of this sounds relatively positive, right? How can I argue with such a perception, especially when other minorities face harsher stereotypes in education and industry? After all, I apparently don’t complain about anything and just do my work.

No.

The model minority stereotype has been put on the backburner by society in that there is little to no conversation about its issues. This is because Asians receive the best treatment of all the minorities, men and women. However, recognize the convenience and power of this social construction to whites, the majority. It gives them license to further criticize other minorities: if one minority can assimilate into their society, others can as well. If Asians can supposedly grind to be good at math and programming, African-Americans and Latinos can too. It’s also a form of leverage for them. Whites granted Asians higher status, and because the model minority persists, they can take it away. It’s easy to say that I shouldn’t let whites hold this over my head, but they dictate my culture. Despite efforts, it’ll be some time before anything changes. What’s curious, though, is while other minorities have tried to break their stereotypes to gain the majority’s respect — like African-Americans with the Civil Rights Movement — Asians stick to it. Perhaps that’s another reason why the bamboo ceiling perseveres, propagated by Asians themselves.

Now, the whole discussion has been purely racial thus far, but I did hint that gender is in play. Asian women in tech is another ceiling — the glass one, that is.

Regardless of a strong Asian presence, Asian women are the least represented group in leadership positions relative to their percentage in the field. They climb, until they are reprimanded for assertiveness or pushed back into traditionally feminine roles by male colleagues. While this experience is generally faced by women, the industry takes advantage of “Asian culture”. Along with the model minority’s traits, Asian women specifically are seen as obedient, docile, and objects of sexual desire. Through this lens, their treatment is not surprising. However, it is surprising when such “docile” women take a stand. Some other minority women face stereotypes that expect aggressive behavior. In combination with a greater need for better treatment, they just might receive less backlash than an Asian would. But here, whites use the disadvantages of one minority to perpetuate the disadvantages of another — and again, we’ve all been manipulated into stereotypes. For Asian women, silence is the price to reap the benefits of the model minority, though as I’ve learned, they’re not real benefits in the first place.

When we Asians fail to represent ourselves in tech, we let whites craft our narrative as they see fit. We enable them to generalize us, despite having a range of experiences that don’t always include a tiger mom. We allow them to alienate us from other minorities, even though we face our own prejudices in industry. We settle, when we deserve more.

Maybe the future’s a little bleak, but it’s to my advantage to work off of this simple idea: the model minority doesn’t exist.