This post originally appeared on www.reyes-chow.com.
This is exhausting.
If you have not read the recent New York Times opinion piece from Nicholas Kristof, The Asian Advantage, this op-ed, has once again riled-up those docile, quiet, and respectful Asian Americans.
Kristof, in his attempt to confront and dismantle the, "If the Asians can do it, why can't the rest of you do it too?" American Dream argument, ends up giving weight to and reinforcing a myth that continues to divide communities of color, makes white institutions feel better about their "diversity" accomplishments, and discounts the experience of Native and Black communities whose greater experience in the United States is vastly different from that of Asian Americans -- namely not immigration, but annihilation and slavery.
I have no idea who else Mr. Kristof talked to for his op-ed, but if he would have talked to a broader representation of folks who are doing deep work around race and the Asian American experience, he would have a very different understand of this "success" upon which he bases his opinion.
It's no secret that Asian-Americans are disproportionately stars in American schools, and even in American society as a whole.
Thanks to the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and Christopher Kang for their response, The "Asian Advantage" is a myth. Plain and simple. which does a great job and breaking down this idea of the success today and the Model Minority myth.
For more responses, be sure to check out #MyAsianAmericanStory on twitter, originated by @jasonfongwrites.
As for me, this is all the energy that I could muster up this morning...
All images used with permission of the kids and their parental units.