causes of model minority

Model minority refers to a minority ethnic, racial, or religious group whose members achieve a higher degree of success than the population average.

I suggest that model minorities are those whose cultural values compel them to excel. Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese are more intelligent nor harder working that other ethnic groups, but their cultures highly value hard work, education and material success. By the same token, the culture of European Jews highly values education and material success. So it is common to see people of European descent who are Jewish working hard to get a good education and succeed materially. I suggest to you that culture is the cause of "model minorities."

Not much. What do you think of them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_minority

I agree, but there are many Asian families that do not actively push their children to succeed. Our family is third generation Japanese-American from a very poor family background; we lived in hostels when we were children, and really didn't have our own 'home' until I was in my late teens. Our family really didn't have a father-figure, but all my siblings and their children have accomplished what we consider the "model minority." My older brother became a lawyer, and ended up as an administrative judge in CA, my younger brother an ophthalmologist and politician, and my sister a RN.

I'm really not sure why we were able to accomplish what we did.

As a young adult, I used to feel proud that we were considered the "model minority," but the fact hit me hard that many Japanese-Americans commit the same crimes as everybody else. Reading about them made me cringe. I have also learned that many live in poverty, and struggle like most poor people.

My story can probably be used by all the other so-called model minorities; we must never forget that we are all the same. I know that some minorities are still treated differently in this country, and that's our greatest weakness. Racial bigotry pops up all over this country, because people are insecure in their own skin.

c.i.- I think that each culture has certain values, but not all people in that culture
represent those values.

I have always been curious as to why Asian kids consistently excel in math. It makes me think that maybe there is a genetic thing going on.

I would suspect that as intermarriage amongst cultural groups become more of the norm, some of the traits ascribed to different groups will weaken.

Many of our children are married to other cultural backgrounds, but it doesn't seem to affect them negatively. We have German, Italian, English, Dutch, Hispanic, Chinese, and others that I'm not sure of, but they seem to be doing relatively well in school.

I'll ask my siblings at our next brunch gathering to see how their grandchildren are doing in school.

Good points all . . . truly, culture will not change human nature. However, a cultural imperative to excell at this or that will likely have its impact. I have known many Chinese students from the diaspora, that is, from Hong Kong, Singapore, various cities in Thailand, or Indonesia. The ones i knew (this was while i worked in universities) were all being sponsored by a wealthy relative, usually an "uncle" (i never quite knew if they were a blood-relation). They were expected to meet a standard of performance, and often expected to work as well as study. On a couple of occasions, i have been introduced tothe uncles involved, who had traveled to the United States to check the progress of those whom the sponsored in person.

But of course, lazy or poor people of the Chinese diaspora would never show up on the radar screen of American universities.

I don't think it has much to do with culture.

China's experience is not that much different than other developing countries. They lag most developed countries in education. Recently they have been working hard (with success) in increasing literacy and basic education, but still in rural communities in China there is a problem with families who pull their children from schools to have them work in farming.

I am not saying that they are inferior to anyone. Quite the opposite, I am saying they are pretty typical human beings. The idea that there is something in blood or in the culture that makes someone from China superior is nonsensical.

I think part of it is the fact that immigration from China is very difficult meaning that takes a certain determination and resolve to get here (meaning the people who did it have been particularly determined and resolved).

And I think part of it is mythology. We get the stereotypical ideas about different races, then we exaggerate examples that support our ideas while ignoring any examples that contradict them.

I think there are two key factors:
1) Self selection: Those who chose to emigrate usually have to overcome significant hurdles to do so. This means that only the most motivated will emigrate to a new country. The higher the barriers, the more motivated the immigration group.
2) Discrimination: When in the new country, the immigrants have more barriers to overcome. They have to work much harder and attain a higher level of performance to reap the same reward.

Thank u for reply. But what I'm not sure is that the causes of this model minority.

3ks for your reply. but I want go deep into the interaciton between ethnic groups and host country

Thank you for telling me your story. Color is still a big problem, no matter which kind of minority they belong to. They are minorities.

True! I've seen it for most of my life in the US: We were once the brunt of it, but I still see it and hear about it.

Women still don't earn equal salaries compared to men in many jobs, and we still hear about violence against Muslims and blacks - even some of the police departments have been found guilty of violence against them, and we're talking about recent events.

thank you for your reply

cindy, What is interesting about where we live in Silicon Valley is the simple fact that whites are now the minority. The growth of Asians have been amazing, and some communities are now Asian majority.

that is unimaginable...
but minority is not defined by the population.

You're correct; they are not identified as a "minority," but this area was once a white majority population. The Hispanics and Asians (now 58%) are growing while the white population gets smaller.

Where are you that you say this?

Today's front page article in the San Jose Mercury News show some interesting stats on Silicon Valley cities.
In Cupertino, the population is 63% Asian, 29% White, 4% Black, and 4% Hispanic. Their city council is 60% Asian, and 40% White. Gilroy's population is 58% Hispanic and 31% White. Milpitas' population is 62% Asian, and 15% White. Mountain View's population is 46% White, and 26% Asian. Los Gatos and Monte Sereno, two wealthy communities, are 77% White. Our city of Sunnyvale is 35% White, 41% Asian, and 19% Hispanic. I remember a time when we first moved to Sunnyvale in the early 70's, when we were the only Asians on our block. It's now about 50% Asian.