ENGL 1302 The Asian American Success Analysis

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ENGL 1302

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Ma 1

Antony Ma

Ranne Fresse

ENGL 1302

20 July, 2018

The Asian American Success Analysis

How well are Asian Americans and Asian immigrants doing compared to other minorities

in the United States of America? When people consider the status of minorities in the United

States, many people often consider that, Asians are the most successful “model minority” in this

country. This is the key point of misconception that Ronald Takaki was trying to convey in his

essay, “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority.” The author discusses many good points to

elaborate on why he believes this to be true.

One of the biggest arguments in politics are, when facing the issue or racial equality,

Asian immigrants and Asian Americans are doing well, why can’t other minorities do the same?

Takaki brings this argument up when discussing African Americans and how politicians use

Asian Americans as an example of being “model minorities”. He then goes to discuss that this

does nothing but create animosity between African Americans and Asians in America, “The

victims are blamed for their plight, rather than racism and an economy that has made many

young African American workers superfluous” (Takaki). This was a good way of showing that

by using Asian Americans and Asian immigrants as a “model minority”, it actually creates a

volatile situation for them and causes other minorities to despise and hate Asian immigrants and

Asian Americans. To create malice among minorities, it only separates races in the United States

even more. This is a targeted ethical and emotional stance to take by the author. When he talks

Ma 2

about how using Asian Americans and Asian immigrants for reasons in politics, it seems

unethical to create animosity and it makes you emotional to think that hatred was spawned

towards a culture and society that did nothing but try and work hard to survive. They also never

bring up the areas in which most Asian Americans and Asian immigrants reside in when

discussing the success of wages they earn.

There is confirmable fact, through the census, that a majority of Asian Americans and

Asian immigrants mostly reside in the states of California, Hawaii and New York. The reason

why this is an important fact is that these, “…states with higher incomes and higher costs of

living than the national average” (Takaki). When comparing the average salary of an Asian

American or Asian immigrant, people tend to neglect that by living in those states, their incomes

would be far less in states outside of those three. Also, “Some 60 percent of the workers in the

Chinatowns of Los Angeles and San Francisco are crowded into low-paying jobs in garment

factories and restaurants.” (Takaki) is another good usage of statistics to show that incomes and

wages earned by Asians in those areas are very low and do not really show in average income

salaries. The author uses these comparison to show that, though these numbers are important,

they do not explain the details of which they are based on making it hard to differentiate that

Asian American and Asian immigrant family incomes are higher because the average family

members of Asian American and Asian immigrant households yield higher numbers than the

average Caucasian household. Compelling facts and the use of statistics are very straightforward

and easily comprehensible to the reader which allow you to take a more understanding position

on this issue.

Individual Asian American races are affected differently and the author uses those

examples to explain what they do and how they fair in the United States. Using facts such as,

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Ma 1 Antony Ma Ranne Fresse ENGL 1302 20 July, 2018 The Asian American Success Analysis How well are Asian Americans and Asian immigrants doing compared to other minorities in the United States of America? When people consider the status of minorities in the United States, many people often consider that, Asians are the most successful “model minority” in this country. This is the key point of misconception that Ronald Takaki was trying to convey in his essay, “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority.” The author discusses many good points to elaborate on why he believes this to be true. One of the biggest arguments in politics are, when facing the issue or racial equality, Asian immigrants and Asian Americans are doing well, why can’t other minorities do the same? Takaki brings this argument up when discussing African Americans and how politicians use Asian Americans as an example of being “model minorities”. He then goes to discuss that this does nothing but create animosity between African Americans and Asians in America, “The victims are blamed for their plight, rather than racism and an economy that has made many young African American workers superfluous” (Tak ...
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Tags: Asian Americans Asian immigrants Ronald Takaki The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority Model Minorities