"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time."
Would she have been that far out of line, say 50-60 years ago?
Posted on 02/09/2014 12:04:23 PM PST by James C. Bennett
Sounding a little wounded from the wrath that greeted her 2011 parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua has nonetheless jumped back into the pop-ethnography circus with a new book and fresh controversy.
Written with her husband, fellow Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld, The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America posits another theory about collective identity, one that toe-tests – or perhaps leaps over – the line of political correctness: Some U.S. cultural groups, the couple say, are bound to be more successful than others.
...
The book isn’t a collection of flame-tossing whimsy: The research staff acknowledged at the back of the book is the size of a small minority unto itself. Nearly half of its 300 pages consist of footnotes and endnotes to support its contentious arguments: The sense of entitlement that comes from a superiority complex is a leading cause of WASP decline, while Appalachians have the opposite problem – a sense of inferiority makes them feel as though they are not deserving of the same success as other cultures. The authors note their concern about the weakening of impulse control among Jewish-Americans and point out that Mormons are an ideal Triple Package. Uncomfortable yet?
Why did you find it important to write this book now?
Chua: I’ve actually been interested in this topic of disproportionately successful minorities for most of my career. I wrote the book World on Fire in 2002, that was about minorities in the world, and Jed and I, we have these cultural differences. He’s Jewish and I’m Chinese-American, and we’ve noticed big differences and similarities. I used to say, “Chinese people are just two generations behind the Jews.”
The Tiger Mom has nothing on the Jewish mother.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
The Vietnamese and Asian Indians are rapidly absorbing into American culture, their children are loyal, patriotic and industrious Americans.
Do you prefer the other immigrants who want to “reconquista” everything west of the Mississippi over ones who actively want to join and add to American society?
My previous reply to you may have been a bit harsh. Apparently, we are in agreement. My previous post stands, for those to whom it applies.
At least Hispanics are partially western. Doesn't change the fact that favoring non-westerners and third worlders through LEGAL immigration is undermine our society, and benefitting the Democratic Party.
Original, you are exactly right. Minorities are not required to be PC. I celebrate that she exposes truths that are not PC. I believe the Chinese/ Asian culture is harsh and brutal, most especially because it is not built on a Christian worldview.
The Asian students I work with who are raised this way (a la Tiger Mom) are anything but happy, and they are often beaten. AND our son told me - “Mom, the Asian girls at my Jr College want to date the white boys and will not date the Asian boys because they are controlled by their moms.’
The arrogance of this women is annoying to say the least. If America is such a mess and not up to her self defined values I do not believe that there is a thing forcing her to stay here. She has no problem with the money she make here, the status she enjoys and the privileges that this country provides to her.
I’m sure she woukd be welcomed back with open arm to the country where she came from and they would be more than dlighted to have her write books pointing out the defects there and arrogance she so willing utters.
She, along with her hen pecked husband, are rearing children who will believe that just because other children laugh, play in the mud, get dirty are some how less than them in status.
I’ll take the children who are kind and willing to praise others for whatever they accomplish and as friends who are blessed with common sense and who are not burdened parents who only see them as status symbols by their annoying standards.
"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time."
Would she have been that far out of line, say 50-60 years ago?
Two politically incorrect things missing...
Blacks are not mentioned
Husbands are not mentioned
I like this one.
After three years in SouthEast Asia, I can see some relevance to the “two generations behind the Jews” comment.
AS a former USAF member, with the title ‘Assistant Shop Chief’ in the electronics field, the sharpest and most cockiest suborrdinate, did happen to be named ‘Sasaki’.
Did you notice that there was one answer of “No Plurality” on that chart, and by whom?
We need to throttle all immigration until we get our employment situation back on-track and then, and only then, once we stop this ridiculous, suicidal trend of celebreating all multi-culti everything which has resulted in a Balkanization of our country.
We need to halt immigrants until they are willing to assimilate to our American culture and not replace with theirs, especially those left-leaning ideals that brought their home countries to ruin.
We shouldn’t be talking about any type of amnesty or increased immigration with the Labor Participation Rate where it is.
And this is why India is such an oasis of prosperity. Right. And China is poorer than Mexico per capita.
The Tiger Mom is unfamiliar with the basic statistical idea of representative and non-representative samples.
It all depends on what type of people are considered losers.
Are losers those who do not qualify as college material?
Are losers those who are defined that way by arrogant parents who push their children to something that they see as status symbol for themselves?
Are losers those who may want to pursue a path other than what their parents have defined for them?
I believe that children should be encouraged to be all that then can be without defining what they must be with no input from their children.
I also believe that that as adults raising their children they have no desire to be preached to by annoying parents who may have a different outlook. If American parents followed their advise we would have all chiefs with no people willing to perform the manual parts that make this great country so great.
“Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.” Who decides who are the “losers” and how are they defined?
She is American. She isn't an immigrant.
We need to stop being touchy. The fact is that there are some groups like the Mormons, who are entirely American and are not immigrants, who do exceptionally well. There are exceptions, but Asians, Jews, Indians, Iranians, and some other groups prosper greatly in this country. Usually this is because of the factors the authors cite in this book. They work extremely hard for various reasons. Too many American kids spend their years of youth smoking, drinking, partying, and fornicating, while doing just the minimum required to meet the low standards of the typical American high school. The Asian kids are working like dogs. Of course there are exceptions, like my children, but the fact is that this decaying culture drags too many American kids down. It's not arrogant or impart optic to say so since it's the truth.
Sorry if that's an unpleasant message for you to hear, but it's true. The question is, what can we do to get control of our kids again and get them caught up?
The book was not about India and China. It is about how self-selected immigrants from these countries and their children do here in the US. The authors are not saying that Chinese culture is better than American or that Indians are smarter. They are saying that certain groups are more successful than others, and there are some definite reasons why. Maybe instead of bring defensive about we could learn something.
You know, I'm sure the authors are probably Democrats, but they are making a very good point that conservatives should agree with. Liberals are terribly angry because the fundamental premise of the book is one dear to conservatives: you can come to this wonderful country with nothing but if you work hard and discipline yourself and your children, the family can earn great prosperity in a few generations. What exactly is wrong with this message? if being
Of course there are exceptions, like my children, but the fact is that this decaying culture drags too many American kids down. It’s not arrogant or impart optic to say so since it’s the truth.
Are your children happy and well adjusted?
When our twin girls were young we had a friend who’s daughter was bon the same day as our twins. As they grew older their mother had them attend dance classes, music classes and art classes without any input from her daughter. One day my wife asked her when does your daughter have time to herself to which she replied when there asleep.
Years later when when she reached their teen years they confronted her mother telling her that she never had a happy childhood. Things she wanted to do she never had time to do because her mother had insisted that she knew best.
Long story made short, the daughter has not spoken to her mother in many, many years.
If this mother want to direct her childrens life whatever way it’s fine with me.
The part that annoys me is that she is so quick to point out exceptional these different races are without giving much credit to others. I just hope that as her children grow that she is not confrounted as our friend daughter did to her mother.
There are not many people who enjoy being preached to by anyone on their decisions while raising their children.
I hope that we will never have to hear from her about the mistakes she made and the heartache of her children confronting her later about their unhappiness of a childhood they never really had.
It seems apparent that you have not read her books. She obviously could not analyze the accomplishments of all races and all groups all over the world, or she would have written the largest book in the world. The purpose of her work was to describe some of the things that make certain groups so successful as immigrants right now--not a hundred years ago when the Greeks and Italians were coming here, not 250 years ago when the Germans and English were arriving, but now, when the Indians and Asians are doing well here. And let us be frank, if you look at the statistics, the Indians, Asians, Iranians, and Nigerians are making tremendous progress. They make far more money and get far better educated than the average American does.
I just hope that as her children grow that she is not confrounted as our friend daughter did to her mother...I hope that we will never have to hear from her about the mistakes she made and the heartache of her children confronting her later about their unhappiness of a childhood they never really had.
This is why I think you are basing your annoyance on fragments of interviews rather than on the books themselves. She frankly admitted her failings in her first book. Part of the reason she wrote it because she was hit hard by the quiet rebellion of one of her daughters, and she had to rethink her approach and her basic ideas. But today her kids are doing well and seem not to have resentments toward her. Nor do I see resentments among the first-generation Chinese kids in our neighborhood.
There are not many people who enjoy being preached to by anyone on their decisions while raising their children.
You shouldn't take these books so personally. There is no detectable preachy tone in the books that I could discern. I will bet my next house payment that there is nowhere in any of Amy Chu's writings in which she says, "Chief QC has done a sucky job of raising his kids." No doubt you did a fine job. And I can't recall a place in which she says that Americans in general are doing a crappy job.
But you have got to concede that millions of American young people are not having a work ethic instilled in them by their parents. We discuss this all the time on FR. If there is any chastisement in the books, it is a subtle one, obvious because it is left unsaid: if Nigerians can do extremely well here, then perhaps American blacks have only themselves to blame for their current economic and social problems because they refuse to study and work. Surely, surely, this is not something any sane Freeper would deny?
Americans were famous for their work ethic. Now we have Congressmen exclaiming that ObamaCare is good for us because we Americans work too hard anyways. FYI, there is such a thing as the Chinese work ethic.
Rep Keith Ellison on Obamacare-Related Job Losses: Americans Work Too Much Anyway
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3121166/posts
I think we’re split down the middle now: half of us still work like crazy people and merit our reputation for a great American work ethic, while half are either slackers or are voluntarily unemployed.
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