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The real reasons the U.S. became less racist toward Asian Americans
Jeff Guo

Posted on 11/30/2016 9:36:52 AM PST by ErikJohnsky

Between 1940 and 1970, something remarkable happened to Asian Americans. Not only did they surpass African Americans in average household earnings, but they also closed the wage gap with whites.

...

[The real secret to Asian American success was not education]

How did that happen? About the same time that Asian Americans were climbing the socioeconomic ladder, they also experienced a major shift in their public image. At the outset of the 20th century, Asian Americans had often been portrayed as threatening, exotic and degenerate. But by the 1950s and 1960s, the idea of the model minority had begun to take root. Newspapers often glorified Asian Americans as industrious, law-abiding citizens who kept their heads down and never complained.

Some people think that racism toward Asians diminished because Asians “proved themselves” through their actions. But that is only a sliver of the truth. Then, as now, the stories of successful Asians were elevated, while the stories of less successful Asians were diminished. As historian Ellen Wu explains in her book, “The Color of Success,” the model minority stereotype has a fascinating origin story, one that’s tangled up in geopolitics, the Cold War and the civil rights movement.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: asianamericans; asians; immigration; racialism; racism; trends
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To: ErikJohnsky

or its because Asians know how to stop whining, start behaving, and try working!
Or because they are family oriented, goal oriented and worked their butts off?


21 posted on 11/30/2016 9:51:51 AM PST by Bitsy
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To: ErikJohnsky

baseball


22 posted on 11/30/2016 9:51:52 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: MichaelRDanger

I think the real reason for the negative attitude toward Asians was that they worked cheap, undercutting the wages of white Americans. That’s a sure recipe for working up resentment.


23 posted on 11/30/2016 9:52:52 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: ErikJohnsky

OMG, like it’s a complicated mystery! Any reasonable person knows why. Let’s do a real quick, easy summary. They...

Learn and speak common American English successfully, everywhere.
Study successfully.
Work successfully.
Make strong families.
Respect their elders.
Assimilate.
Don’t continually talk of their race and claim racism against themselves.
Don’t break laws more than the societal average.
Are kind and sociable with whites.
Are not gibmedats and dindu nuffins .


24 posted on 11/30/2016 9:54:07 AM PST by polymuser (There's a big basket of deportables.)
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To: ErikJohnsky

A relatively recent movie on racism towards Asian Americans is Grand Torino. I would highly recommend this Clint Eastwood movie.


25 posted on 11/30/2016 9:55:44 AM PST by the_Watchman
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To: polymuser
Your post reminds me of a fascinating article posted here within the last couple of years that was written by a lawyer who worked as a public defender in a big city somewhere. He described himself as a hard-core liberal but freely admitted that there were real cultural and ethnic trends among criminals he dealt with.

One thing he pointed out was that he never represented a single client of Asian descent.

26 posted on 11/30/2016 9:57:53 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: ErikJohnsky

Asians are perceived as being hard working, intelligent, responsible people willing to assimilate into American culture because they are.


27 posted on 11/30/2016 9:58:09 AM PST by thorvaldr
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To: ErikJohnsky

I don’t think any of this is true. The real reason Asians have done so well is two fold. Firstly they assimilate. After a child is born in the US they have no accent. They think and talk American. In China they call these people ABCs (American Born Chinese). They look the same but real Chinese know they are very different. And they have little clinging traits. They are as likely to live in a white neighborhood as a mixed race or Asian neighborhood. Additionally, the Asians that come here are not the average Asians, they are coming here for college. They are the cream of the cream. So of course they do well. The average Asian came here a 150 years ago to work on the railroad. And they still lived in ghettos in the wast coast cities.

African Americans came to American largely on slave ships. Not only were they not creme. They were often the bottom of society. And they grouped. They still cling to ghettos of almost all blacks. Many could live anywhere but choose to be near other blacks. Also, they speak ghetto even if they can speak perfect American English. So, while individually they can escape the ghetto, many are not really trying. They just want to be the richest person in the ghetto.


28 posted on 11/30/2016 9:59:05 AM PST by poinq
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To: ErikJohnsky
what is this "racism"people talk about?.....my family nor anyone I know has ever been "racist"....

of course "racism" has grown to mean anything terrible the whites do , have done, will do, or even think about...its all bad because we're white....

29 posted on 11/30/2016 9:59:46 AM PST by cherry
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To: RummyChick

“I don’t see a lot of Asians terrorizing neighborboods , killing police, and burning cars.”.....

They’re too busy working, attending to their children or getting a good education. Wonder why they carry the highest grades and IQ’s?

I grew up during WWII and remember the hatred for the Japanese quite well. I am certain there are some who still carry that grudge for their starting WWII. It’s now over.


30 posted on 11/30/2016 10:00:46 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: ErikJohnsky

Asians work.


31 posted on 11/30/2016 10:01:51 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (The Media were SuperPacs for Clinton. Throw them in prison.)
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To: ErikJohnsky

“The Bell Curve”


32 posted on 11/30/2016 10:01:55 AM PST by aquila48
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To: ErikJohnsky

All of the Asians I know are good, decent, enjoyable people. They’ve made me “racist” in the opposite direction: if I see an Asian person, I just assume that whatever interaction we may have will be a good one.

Wish I could say the same about a certain other racial group.


33 posted on 11/30/2016 10:02:15 AM PST by bus man (Loose Lips Sink Ships)
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To: poinq
many Vietnamese came her on boats, with nothing...

their redeeming characteristics is that they work hard, long hrs, live in large groups..grandparents,mom,dad, several kids and perhaps an uncle or two, and they try to buy some business where the whole family works, but they still live together...

AND, they feel strong obligations to help other family members....they will send big chunks of money back to their parents or to a niece or nephew that is in college....

my Vietnamese friend says that it is EXPECTED that they do so...

34 posted on 11/30/2016 10:09:16 AM PST by cherry
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To: ErikJohnsky

My recollection is that the seismic shift in white American’s attitudes about Asians began in the 1960s, when G.I.s returning from our Southeast Asian adventures came home with Japanese cameras that were vastly better than American cameras, Japanese consumer electronics that were vastly better than American consumer electronics, and happy memories of Asian women who were, frankly, a hell of a lot lower maintenance than American women.

Then, when Americans began to see that Japanese cars were so much better than American cars, and — it pains me to say this, as I used to work for Harley-Davidson and still own stock in it — Japanese motorcycles followed suite, a lot of Americans began to think: “Hmm. Maybe they’re onto something over there.”

The first wave of the anime invasion clinched the deal.


35 posted on 11/30/2016 10:09:52 AM PST by Flatus I. Maximus (Hillary for Prison!)
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To: ErikJohnsky

Because they are statistically less likely to rape and murder us?


36 posted on 11/30/2016 10:10:56 AM PST by TalonDJ
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To: ErikJohnsky

They did not turn to and depend on politicians to improve their lot. They took responsibility for their lives, their lot and their future. They did not demand but rather they produced and contributed.


37 posted on 11/30/2016 10:12:16 AM PST by all the best
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To: polymuser

At the basis of those attributes is IQ. The smarter blacks understand that and are successful, but the great majority don’t and we see the results of that all over the world. It’s a tragedy.


38 posted on 11/30/2016 10:12:17 AM PST by aquila48
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To: Alberta's Child

Truths that shall not be spoken about our entitlement class is sickening America.

I am absolutely sick of it, sick of all the proggy lies, sick of all the PC censorship, sick of my hard-earned money being confiscated to enable it all, and sick of our pubic schools, universities and Enemedia promoting it.


39 posted on 11/30/2016 10:12:37 AM PST by polymuser (There's a big basket of deportables.)
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To: ErikJohnsky
[The real secret to Asian American success was not education]

Dunno about that. I was in California when the Viets started arriving in huge numbers. Next thing I read was that U.S. college kids were checking the class registration lists to see if there was a predominance of Asians - if so, they opted for another class. It seems the Asians were skewing the grade curve so much that the U.S. kids had to WORK to pass the class.

At Camp Pendleton, where a lot of them went through the registration phase, the running joke was that these people were so industrious that they were making egg rolls for sale on the flight over here.

I know that at the time I thought that the Viets were a good analogy to aliens from another planet. They looked different, spoke a different language, worshipped a different God and stood out in most ways.

Four years later their kids were class valedictorians and there were Viet food shops all over the place.

What hit me recently was when I went to a small optometry shop in Las Vegas, run by two women. Their last names were Vietnamese but there first names were "Stephanie" and "Tiffany" - talk about assimilation! I always think of those women when I read those made up black names so many inner-city types come up with, indicating to me anyway, a reluctance to adopt America and its values.

40 posted on 11/30/2016 10:14:32 AM PST by Oatka (nd 14)
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