Recently, I came across this article in Audrey Magazine about Asian Americans and success. The bulk of the article focuses on the authors of "Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers — and How You Can Too." These two sisters are Korean American, but they are not mothers.
I couldn't help but cringe a little when I read through the article. There are a lot of areas where it misses the mark by quite a bit. I am proud of the values that my Asian American family instilled in me, but I don't think it's something that you can replicate in a 12 (or 17 as they suggest) step process. Culture is more than the specific things you do - there are the underlying things you don't do, don't say.
The author says, "numbers don't lie." Well, numbers don't lie, but they can be misleading.
If you look at the statistics, the numbers don’t lie. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average income for Asian Americans was $52,018 in 2002, about $10,000 higher than the median salary for the rest of the U.S. population.
Average income is typically measured by household, without taking into account the number of members (wage-earning or otherwise) in a household. According to this report, the average per capita income of Asian Americans is $2000 lower than that of white Americans given the fact that 19% of Asian American families have more than 3 earners.
The article talks about the disproportionate numbers of Asian American college students at ivy league institutions - but doesn't talk about the fact 44% of all Asian American college students are enrolled at 2 year colleges.
Asian Americans here are discussed as one group when there are smaller segments of the population with vastly differing experiences - some groups of Asian Americans are amongst the poorest in the country, not all Asian Americans succeed in college.
And then, at the end, the article talks about how the book is being received.
Despite its extreme methods, Top of the Class has found itself an unusual set of fans: African Americans.
This shocked me - not because African Americans shouldn't be fans of the book, but because it reeks of the kind of propaganda that dismantled affirmative action in California. Once again, we are the model minority - look, if all those Asians can raise their kids to be successful (and they've published their "secrets" in a book) then why can't you???
update: here's a short sweet article about one writer's experiences with the model minority stereotype and the expectations of asian american parents.
~ eliaday