Fresh Off The Boat: The Model Minority Stereotypes

Eddie Huang, a celebrity chef, created this series about his experiences as a child of Taiwanese immigrants during the 1990s. It is an all-Asian-American family sitcom since the ill-fated All American Girl starring Margaret Cho filmed twenty years ago. The Asian-American activists feared that if there is not enough audience watching Fresh Off the Boat, it might take ABC network another twenty years before they would attempt another Asian-American TV show. Kaitlin Yin, a Twitter user, questioned the use of the phrase "fresh off the boat," which several Asian-Americans feel are used only by the “in-group” to mock new immigrants. She was concerned that the Americans would think that it is acceptable to use this phrase without realizing historical

origins. "Creator Huang countered by arguing that the show's title was an attempt to reclaim the term FOB as one of pride, and connected his use of the term ‘fresh’ to the hip-hop culture of the 1990s." These television shows are a constant reminder that debates about representation and race are inevitably controversial and even when images of minority groups are effective in gaining visibility, there can be a disparity about what political gains have been accomplished.
Model Minority Stereotype

The most common type of discrimination against Asian-Americans is stereotyping.

"The model minority stereotype is the belief that Asian-Americans, through their hard work, intelligence, and emphasis on education and achievement, have been successful in American society." "Literature suggests that the model minority stereotype is racist and a ‘social problem’ because it oppresses people of color by pointing out excessive numbers of Asian-American success stories." Stereotyping Asian-Americans are labeled as "positive". They are considered financially successful, work-focused, and academically driven (Figure

3).

Figure 3
Popular image of Asian-American students as the "model minority”.

Source. ThinkProgress. "The Damaging Effects of the 'Model Minority'
Myth." Accessed March 10, 2017. https://thinkprogress.org/the-damaging-
effects-of-the-model-minority-myth-5de48554c2d9#.kxf0x4qox.

These characteristics were engrained from the pressure that the first generation Asians experienced to take care of their own families and justify the sacrifices they made by immigrating to the United States. "The disposition for many first generation Chinese immigrants in America to see life as a constant test of survival, to the extent that it almost becomes ethnic symbolism, is a complex mentality."
Asian-Americans who have higher incomes and higher education than Americans place them at odds with the working-class whites struggling to make a decent living and with minorities coping to assimilate.

The Asian-Americans in poverty are also pressured in meeting the standards of the model minority stereotype. The positive stereotype justifies the discrimination confronted by this minority group.
According to Harold Blum, "If we think of Asian-Americans through the stereotype of the 'model minority' - hard-working, academically achieving, responsible - we forget that Asian­Americans like to relax, to party, to go to movies, that they fall in love, have sexual desires, care about their friendships, sometimes flout standards of propriety, and so on." As model minority stereotypes, it is not fair to place limits on Asian-Americans.
Although the model minority stereotype is regarded as "positive", the serious concerns for the identity of the Asian-Americans should not be overlooked. The low and high achieving students are equally pressured with the model minority stereotype. Low achieving students feel the pressure of living up to the stereotype but are unsuccessful, so they feel like an outsider. High achieving students also suffer from the pressure arising from their internal motivation. Their peers frequently base their success, not on their efforts but their

race.
Asian-Americans are seen as a threat to the status quo. Since they are deemed as such, Americans will more than likely have less positive attitudes toward them. "The biggest modern societal impact of the model minority stereotype is that it can easily lead to fear and hostility - a new yellow peril." White families tend to relocate their schoolchildren if there are several Asian-Americans in their schools. They do not want to compete with this minority group for college admissions and scholarships.
Conclusion

The Asian-American journey is a combination of determination, struggles, and assimilation. While Asian-Americans are the fastest growing ethnic/racial groups in the United States and are becoming progressively integrated into mainstream American economic, cultural, and political institutions, they are still misunderstood. Regardless of their integration levels, education, and income, Asian-Americans were adamantly marked as “foreign” and historically barred from participation in American society.
Racial discrimination is a product of three major barriers which include cultural aspiration to assimilate, representation in media, and model minority stereotype. Over the years, Asian-Americans immensely suffered the consequences of these barriers. It is important to recognize these barriers and understand the way that they are being experienced by Asian-Americans.
Firstly, their cultural aspiration to assimilate is used to gain favorable treatment by the Americans. Asian-Americans assimilate by breaking the social ceiling formed by being non-white and by using academic and financial success. Secondly, the media reduces the presence of Asian-Americans that makes them invisible in the eyes of the public. Lastly, in spite of the model minority stereotype adding pressure on low and high-achieving Asian-Americans resulting in inadequacy and depression, it is considered a "positive" stereotype. However, the model minority stereotype is not as positive as it seems to be. It is rather related to a negative stereotype of Asian-Americans as "the yellow peril". This so-called "positive" stereotype is an obstacle to the public considering Asian-Americans as a minority group with a possibility of facing