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Alex Huang, Serena Sewdat, Tan Ling Lam, Teyanah Cleve, Hannah Schwartz

Three specters haunted Cold War American in the 1950s; the red menace of communism, the black menace of race-mixing, and the white menace of homosexuality. To combat these menaces, Asian Americans were lauded for their success in being able to fully assimilate into American society. The model minority myth characterizes Asian Americans as a law-abiding group who have achieved higher levels of success due to inherent cultural traits and attitudes.

The construction of the model minority myth was based on the lack of Asian American representation in politics. Asian Americans were seen as self-sufficient because most Asian families didn’t apply for welfare programs. This distorts the fact that immigration laws favored skilled workers who were mainly from the middle class. In addition, it obscures the fact that Asian Americans were the largest ethnic group living in poverty. The model minority myth ignores the diversity of Asian Americans and tries to erase racism against Asian Americans.

To combat the red menace known as communism, the United States attempted to squash any “pro-China” organizations. Communism was represented as a perversion of the natural economic order. The model minority myth erases American injustice against Asian Americans, such as the Chinese Confession Program. This program allowed for the deportation of anyone deemed as a domestic troublemaker. By destroying any indication of dissent, the United States could emphasize the benefits of a democratic nation such as economic opportunity and political equality. Furthermore, the model minority myth helped perpetuate the idea that complete assimilation of American culture was possible. For instance, in the 1950s, Japanese Americans were now depicted as loyal citizens. Showing the world that the defeated Japan can join  the anti-communist coalition helped strengthen the appeal of a multi-cultural America. Debates framed within this culture of integration minimized the visibility of internment within the United States.

Black menace/ race mixing: The model minority myth helps to discredit the struggle that minorities face due to racism. By stereotyping that all Asian Americans do well economically, it discredits. Those who don’t and b. Other ethnicities who try to fight for equality. It helps to perpetuate the idea that those who fail to be economically successful do so because of their own laziness, choices, and inferior culture. It pits Asian Americans against other minorities and even white Americans.

Despite the fear of race mixing, films like “Sayonara” and “Flower Drum Song” promoted White male and Asian female marriages while excluding other types of racial mixing.This was promoted since the Asian woman was seen as submissive and obedient, thus made the perfect wife. This could be seen as a model for American women at the time who were adopting a more feminist outlook.

America’s fear of homosexuality or the white menace also further reinforced the Asian American as the model minority. Since Asian culture emphasized a patriarchal head of the household and heterosexuality, this paralleled America’s emphasis on the importance of the nuclear family. Thus, highlighting the Asian family as the standard for other minorities like Black Americans who were looked down upon for having a matriarchal family.

Housed in the Hyperghetto, discusses the origin of the Hyperghetto and describes the past and present warfares. In this chapter, we see how Ra, Heng, and their children have been spending the past four years in Khao-I-Dang, but now they are landed in the LAX airport and Ra accepts the housing arrangement they are provided. After accepting this offer, they are then shipped off to the Bronx where they see their new housing arrangement there. Being that New York could get really cold at times, Ra insisted they take the winter coats because they knew that their living arrangements wouldn’t help them much. During cold winters, these winter coats were the only thing that kept them warm. The apartment they lived in was a small two bedroom that didn’t include heat or hot water because the owner didn’t want to pay for fuel. Because of this cold weather,  Soon after moving in to this defected and run down apartment, the apartment caught on fire and they had to move again. Ra, heng, and their five children could not catch a break from moving. Finally after being settled in one place for 8 months, they had to move again. The fire had caught on to the few belongings they had when they came from LAX airport. This chapter shows us how Ra, Heng, and their family were constantly being shipped off between different war zones. Many might assume that because they were shipped off the america, they were rescued but this chapter shows us how this is not the case.

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Option A - Group Hot Cheetos: Grace Kwak, Cat Abano, Sandy Liang, Caroline Casella, Angelica Foronda 

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Option A - Group Hot Cheetos: Grace Kwak, Cat Abano, Sandy Liang, Caroline Casella, Angelica Foronda 

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1) The Model Minority Myth reinforces the idea that Asian American success comes from inherent cultural traits which are often harmful stereotypes. The Model Minority Myth ignores the diversity of Asian groups by essentializing and homogenizing Asian Americans, exaggerates prosperity, and erases injustice. During the Cold War, there were three things that were considered a threat to America: the red menace of communism, the black menace of the civil rights movement, and the white menace of homosexuality. The model minority myth was based on the failure of African Americans to assimilate into American dynamics rather than Asian American success and falsely portrays Asian Americans as “fully assimilated”. It was a way to provide containment and closure during the Cold War.

In Chapter 5, Lee describes the “Black Menace” as Ethnic Assimilation -- or the ability of non-white peoples to fully assimilate into the American framework by achieving middle/upper-middle class status. The Model Minority Myth delegitimizes the Civil Rights Movement by suggesting that because Asian Americans were able to succeed while being politically silent, race is no longer a problem in the US.

Lee also describes the “White Menace” as the Nuclear Family as Civil Defense to homosexuality. During the mid 20th century, American (men) were participating in homosexual activity. Homosexuality was seen as a threat to national security as these types of relationships were unable to reproduce and it challenges the natural biological order (Lee 161). Unlike these Americans, Asian Americans are described within the Model Minority Myth of having nuclear families, where in a family both parents (of different sex) are present and are all living under the same roof. Additionally, the Americanization of the Asian war bride reconstructed the American family as modern and multi-ethnic.

In relation to the Red Menace, or Communism, the model minority myth erases American injustice against Asian Americans, particularly the history of FBI surveillance of Chinese American communities to find supporters of the communist regime in China. This is important in the sense that the same tactics were used against members of the Black Panther Party. Erasing this important part of Asian American history reinforces racial boundaries between Asian Americans and Black people. The Chinese Confession Program helped perpetuate the model minority myth as it provided an incentive for giving up who an individual knew as being “pro-China”, or pro-Communist China,  and erasure of these organizations, helping maintain the image of complete assimilation to American culture.

2) We commented on Olivia's post for assignment 1 (article: The Stories We Tell, Don't Tell,  About Asian American Lives)

3) From the reading Housing in the Hyperghetto, the model minority is portrayed in the idea of refugee exceptionalism. Cambodian refugees were housed in hyperghettos, or inner-city neighborhoods predominantly made up of the black proletariat and urban poor, which had very poor living conditions. Even in this setting, Cambodian refugees consulting resettlement agencies for better housing situations were largely told that only "gainful employment" would allow families to leave poor housing. The agencies expected these refugees to “achieve economic independence when all external economic conditions made self-sufficiency unlikely, if not impossible (68).” This view upholds the model minority myth in that Asian Americans are expected to attain material success, but erases the specific experience of Cambodian refugees. Additionally, although the refugees and African Americans were placed in the same difficult housing situation, it was expected for the refugees to be self-sufficient and make ends meet based on the stereotypes placed by the model minority myth. For example, one of the social workers in the reading claims that the Cambodians were okay living in the situation and that they didn't have the same problems as the Black and Latino residents. However, this was definitely not the case and further shows how the model minority myth is casted. The model minority myth also creates preconceptions about Asian Americans that could have caused larger rifts between the Black people and Cambodian Americans within hyperghettos.

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Cheryl Chen, Ting Liu, Alisha Ajani, Rima Khaykina, Niam Mostafa
Option B: Racial Triangulation
OUR NOTES:

The two conventional models of explaining race are the different trajectories approach and the racial hierarchy approach. The different trajectories approach sees racialization (the creation/characterization of racial categories) as an open-ended, variable process that plays out differently for each subordinated group. However, the problem with that is that it portrays these racialization processes as being mutually exclusive/separate, but the fact of the matter is that every group has been racialized in relation to and through interactions with other groups. The racial hierarchy approach, on the other hand, places an emphasis on the ordering of groups based on a single scale of status and privilege, where whites are on top, blacks are at the bottom, and everyone else is in the middle. The problem with that though is that historically, whites have ordered non-whites along at least 2 dimensions/axes/scales (e.g. blacks on an superiority/inferiority axis and Asians on an axis of foreignness/alienness). Therefore, CJ Kim has proposed a new theory called the field of racial positions, which conceptualizes racial dynamics as something continuously contested and negotiated within and among racial groups. The plane or field the author proposes is defined by at least 2 axes: superior/inferior and insider/foreigner, and groups are racialized in comparison with one another and differently racialized. Kim argues that the field ultimately reinforces white dominance and privilege, because different groups are racially triangulated by whites and other groups in this field and "kept in their place." In other words, minorities are essentially pitted against each other while whites continue to maintain and enjoy their privilege.

Racial triangulation occurs by two linked processes which ultimately serve to reinforce white power and privilege:

1. Processes of relative valorization where dominant group (Whites) valorizes subordinate group (Asian Americans) relative to subordinate group c (Blacks) in order to dominate both groups but especially the blacks.

2. "Civic Ostracism" is where the dominant group A (Whites) constructs subordinate group B (Asians Americans) as immutably foreign and unassimilable into whites, in order to ostracize them from politics and civic membership.

Conservatives valorize Asians over Blacks claiming that Asians are superior to Blacks due to their respect to education, hard work ethic and notable successes. This implies that there are deficiencies in the Black racial group. However, Asians continue to be inherently alien and unassimilable to mainstream white culture. They are never perceived as true Americans.

Racial triangulation of Asian Americans has lasted from the mid-1800s to today, the difference was that in the earlier period (from 1850-1950), it was clear that race was being used to order non-white people. In the later period (from 1965-present), it turned into a coded form of racial triangulation because white people wanted to continue to be dominant while not looking racist, promoting the American Dream that can be achieved by anyone. This pushed the Model Minority myth on Asian Americans, claiming that it was their culture that allowed them to gain success. But the catch is that this "culture" is always going to be linked to one's race. The use of Asian American as model minorities that have good or some culture is used as a comparison to demonstrate black people's lack of culture thus "underclass". Both the model minority myth and the underclass myth work to solidify these groups of people into their respective racial positions created by white people.

Link to the content we picked from assignment 1:

https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8416
It is the content posted by Hannah Schwartz and our comments are under her post.

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Nazia Mahjabin, Harry Wu, Chenkai Zhang, Darnell Jones, Chengxin Liang
The three menaces are the red menace of communism: the Fordist compromise, the black menace of racial integration: ethnic assimilation, and the white menace of homosexuality: the nuclear family as civil defense.

The model minority myth was created to address all three menaces in some ways.

For the red menace, according to Lee in Chapter 6 "The Model Minority as Gook", the background of the creation of model minority myth was in the mid-1970s. During this time, the world economy was going to a downturn, many Americans lost jobs due to the restructuring of both social and economic organization. In the Post-Fordism society, most of the heavy industries and the manufacturing of durable consumer goods went overseas or to the places where "organized labor is weakest." (Lee 181). The de-industrialization in America caused the collision of the Fordist compromise, plus the collapse of boundaries made Asian Americans the representation of model minority.

For the black menace, the model minority affects racial integration and ethnic assimilation because it was created to contrast them. It was pushed that Asian Americans are striving in the country despite African Americans saying that racism plagues the country keeping them as well as other minorities advancing. They attributed the success of Asian Americans to there docile nature and Confucius teaching. The model minority myth also delegitimizes demands especially black demands. for social justice arouses resentment. In Chapter 6, Lee mentioned many of the news at that time that writes articles one after the other about black students protesting and Asian American students winning awards. The New Republic magazine made articles about how Asian Americans can be self-sufficient and didn't ask for institutional change while African Americans always assault, and demand more. (Lee, 185). Simultaneously, the US and the Soviet Union were engaged in a cold war over the legitimacy of capitalism/communism. To the dismay of the US government, the civil rights movement revealed anti-Black racism that weakened their argument for capitalism over communism. The model minority myth was consequently constructed to represent Asian Americans as an example of success in America's capitalist society. They were falsely described as ethnically assimilated and upwardly mobile, and their success was attributed to their preservation of the nuclear family unit and their hardworking culture. By its idealistic portrayal of Asian Americans, the model minority myth disregarded anti-Black racism and implied that Black communities merely suffered from internal cultural and familial problems.

For the white menace, the three ideologies of the model minority are "discipline, obedience, and return to family values". These served as the nostalgic mirror of American culture and the stereotype of Asian Americans. The white menace of homosexuality dealt with America’s fear of white racial degeneration. The only way to deal with it was by establishing an intact nuclear family, something that many Asian American families were stereotyped with. Nuclear family was "a natural social unit that would reproduce America." (Lee, 161). The government took drastic measures to limit homosexuals from obtaining federal jobs and they were condemned in many areas of public and professional life as well. Any threat to the white national family needed to be dealt with strictly. Robert Lee describes the nuclear family as a core sustainable unit that can reproduce the entire nation if it were ever in danger. Hence, it needed to be protected. The nuclear family can be sustained by women who uphold traditional family roles and that applied for Asian American women as well. As seen in films such as Sayonara and Flower Drum Song, women needed to submit to their husbands and fully assimilate to the American lifestyle to contribute to the nuclear family. Homosexuality and transgressive sexuality were attributed to the allegedly exotic Orientals, but through their marriage to American men and by submitting to their will, Oriental women can play their part to uphold the nuclear family and rid themselves of the heinous mark of homosexuality as well as transgressive sexuality.

The post we choose from assignment #1 is Sandy Liang's post "Coronavirus fears show how 'model minority' Asian Americans become the 'yellow peril', the link to this post is https://www.notion.so/profpark/Coronavirus-fears-show-how-model-minority-Asian-Americans-become-the-yellow-peril-c0445bfe54db4b81a5c08803573487c2

*Our response to this post: (It's also shown on Sandy Liang 's comment section on Padlet of Assignment #1)
The model minority myth focuses on successful Asian-Americans and forgets about those at the underclass. The so-called “American dream” only welcomes people with ability and capital. Plus, we're an excuse, a scapegoat for people to admit that it wasn't their fault. In short, this mentality leads Asian-Americans to be seen as "permanent foreigners" who are not accepted and who are perceived as a threat to stability and order. In racism and pervasive stereotypes, Asian-Americans are both a “model minority” and a “yellow menace,” leading Asian-Americans to become victims and sources of the outlet during the epidemic because we are like a “time bomb,” full of unsafe information.

In Sandy's post, she mentioned how opposite the ideas of "model minority" and "yellow peril" are while Asian Americans are stereotyped as both in different time periods. This again shows how "model minority myth" was created to address three menaces such as suppressing other minority groups but not benefited Asian Americans. What's more, this myth is harmful to Asian American group. For example, many might believe that Asians are successful since they are mostly portrayed as doctors, lawyers, etc, but the fact is that many Asian Americans also live in poverty or working-class immigrants or even refugees. Sandy's post explains this by showing how Asian Americans were less likely to receive resources during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sandy's article also brings to light the model minority myth and yellow peril, two of the six faces of the Oriental employed to spew racism and bigotry. The model minority myth was systematically inculcated into the American perception in light of the three menaces that threatened the United States from mid to late 20th century. The founding argument supporting the model minority myth was a belief that Asian Americans extremely successful compared to other non-white minority groups as well as the white working/middle class. Their self-sufficiency and intact family structure were always used to justify their success. However, this perception grossly overlooks the history and struggles of Asian Americans that shaped who they are, how they work and form communities. But the fact that the concept of model minority is just a myth becomes apparent at the beginning of a crisis, when the allegedly assimilated Asian Americans are suddenly cast with the mark of an "alien" or "enemy." Such was the case after the coronavirus pandemic swept across the nation and it is very much evident in Sandy's article. Following the coronavirus outbreak, Asian Americans have been faced with increasing racism and this was apparent in the dismal commentaries of an interviewee who feels as though they "are wielded as a “model minority" against other groups, particularly other people of color and these dually harmful, racist and pervasive stereotypes — of Asian Americans as the “model minority”— shape the narrative of how we can place these hostilities that consistently emerge during moments like the current outbreak in context" (Lee, Matthew). This interviewee highlights the sad truth in the matter that the model minority myth is just that – a myth; something that can be easily crushed whenever the social needs arises and constructed when necessary. It does not define who Asian Americans truly are and only spews endless racism.

*Bonus Point:
According to Chapter 2: Housed in the Hyperghetto, Cambodians refugee faced a difficult problem when they arrived at the place that they live. They need to be self-sufficient to live better. Because they lived in the consisted mainly of the black proletariat and the urban poor, whose living conditions were deplorable. “They were expected to achieve economic independence when all external economic conditions made self-sufficiency unlikely, if not impossible” (68). They must go to work training classes and avoid conflicts with landlords to improve their living environment. In this way, the economic level of the whole society will be enhanced. And, because Cambodians despite living in such poor conditions. They wouldn’t cause the same problems as Blacks and Latinos did. They are also used to undermine accusations of racial and economic injustice by Americans and Latinos (62). This supported the model minority myth. Nevertheless, they were subjected to “a new underclass” and “they were institutionalized to a ‘blackening, in contrast to the broke of the Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese immigrants.” (65). As you can see, the lives of those who have suffered Cambodians will be more complicated than Blacks and Latinos.

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Olivia Nasef, Emily Zhang, Natasha Lerebours, Ka Yi Lee, Zhao Jin

1) The model minority myth addressed the red menace, white menace, and black menace.  The white menace was considered homosexuality as a threat to the nuclear family, the red menace is communism and the supposed threat that Asian Americans posed during this time, and black menace is race mixture and integration during the Civil Rights movement.

Homosexuality, the white menace, became a prevalent concern in the government (Lee, 162). The US government believed that homosexuality was against the biological laws of nature, and thus the government distrusted the queer community. Emphasis on nuclear family was incredibly important to the economic stability of the US. The nuclear family allowed for a working class that kept women at home and that would preserve life as the conservatives in the country knew it. Therefore, the government believed that no reproduction and unstereeotypical life of queer people was detrimental to the health of the country. Hence, there were many screenplays showing heterosexual interracial relationships. Since Asian-Americans are known for their heterosexual strong family units in traditional Asian culture, they embodied the ideal of the US government. Media publicized and used the concept of Confucian ideals that prioritized family (which didn't necessarily apply to second and third generation Asian-Americans) to explain why Asian-Americans became superior to every other race in terms of success. Thus, Asian- Americans were used as the model minority to squander the white menace in America. Movies like Sayonara and Flower Drum Song also highlighted this aspect of interracial marriage and heterosexuality.

The red menace, communism, was also perpetuated by the model minority myth (Lee, 171). Any events that were tied to Asian-Americans in foreign countries led to the persecution and hate attacks against Asian-Americans. The rise of communism in China led for the stigmatization of Chinese Americans even more so.  Likewise, even today, they are attacked today due to xenophobic fears of the coronavirus. The attacks on Asian-Americans based on actions of a country that they are no longer associated with caused a mass fear in the US government towards Asian Americans. This led to Asian-American silence in asking for resources, amplifying the model minority myth versus the common perception that Asian Americans are naturally more capable.

The model minority myth falsely portrays Asian Americans as fully assimilated into American culture and more politically quiet. The media portrays Asian Americans as able to overcome adversity due to their culture of Confucianism and that they have been able to succeed without asking for government assistance. Especially during the Civil Rights Era, or black menace, when African Americans had been arguing with the government to receive more resources in order to function and thrive, the government would point to Asian-Americans as the model minority. It was perceived that African-Americans were being lazy since Asians clearly didn't need help as shown by their lack of their communication to government, perpetuating the model minority myth.

2) We placed our comment underneath Sandy Liang's post of "Coronavirus fears show how 'model minority' Asian Americans become the 'yellow peril.'"

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1) In your small groups, explain racial triangulation (CJ Kim) and the 2 conventional models of explaining race. Write notes from your conversation in a post here.
2) Then pick a post from assignment 1. How does the content triangulate Asian Americans from other racial groups? Respond to the post in the comments section (including your group name and members present).
Bonus point: Use something you learned about in the Housed in the Hyperghetto.
*You can edit your notes and group comment through Saturday 7/4/20 noon.

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1) In your small groups, clarify how the model minority myth was created to address 3 menaces (Lee), and what it obscures and distorts. Write notes from your conversation in a post here.
2) Then pick a post from assignment 1. How does the content engage the model minority myth and/or the 3 menaces? Respond to the post in the comments section (including your group name and members present).
Bonus point: Use something you learned about in the Housed in the Hyperghetto.
*You can edit your notes and group comment through Saturday 7/4/20 noon.