That was an unnecessary shot at a culture that values education.
I laughed.
Why do you think it was a shot? If anything it points out just how much they do value education.
If it was a “shot”, it’s directed at others who don’t apply themselves.
I didn’t see it as a shot at Asians who value education, but at the more general culture of white and black America that does not.
There is a truth to it too. My HS had one Asian (Vietnamese) family and my class valedictorian came from that family. I doubt any of her family finished less than salutatorian.