bibberly:

kevtor:

reclaimingasia:

A white: but saying Asians are naturally smart is POSITIVE discrimination:)))

Me: The model minority myth was invented by whites as a tool of antiblackness to create divisions between communities of color and prove that ‘anyone can succeed in America if they just TRY hard enough!!1!’ thereby implying that antiblackness is black ppl’s own fault for not TRYING enough. Additionally, it relies on false interpretations of data and hurts the opportunities of all Asians, particularly less privileged ones, and dehumanizes Asians by furthering stereotypes of us as some kind of innately robot-like monolithic-minded hive, devalues our individual accomplishments and uses us as a tool to further antiblackness

i love this post

As a teacher, I can say with certainty that “smart” stereotypes are absolutely not positive for my Asian students. A few things I’ve heard repeatedly:

– Asian student gets the highest grade on a test; other students say, “Well, of course he/she got an A.” Any work the student did is minimized because it’s assumed perfect scores come naturally.

– Asian student is in a class for lower-performing students; other students question aloud whether he/she is really Asian and/or in the right class.

– Asian student gives a wrong answer in an advanced class; other Asian kids say, “You can’t be on our team anymore.” White kids say, “You’re one of us today.” Jokes ensue.

– Teachers complain that Asian students did poorly on district or state tests. Actual quote: “With a name like that, he should have brought up our class average.”

Those are just some of the most common comments, but there are many others. There is no way this stereotype is positive for these kids.