{"id":32638,"date":"2021-04-12T12:27:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T16:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=32638"},"modified":"2021-04-23T21:54:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T01:54:25","slug":"model-minority-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/","title":{"rendered":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the definition of model minority? Why is the model minority stereotype harmful? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic that is deemed to be a model or a reference group that outgroups should aspire to. At first glance, the model minority stereotype may seem innocuous, even positive, but it can have serious negative consequences for the demographic group in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for the definition of model minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is the Definition of a Model Minority?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The phrase \u201cmodel minority\u201d was first used by sociologist William Petersen. Petersen was describing his research on Japanese Americans and how they had become financially and academically successful within a short period of time after migration. He praised this group for their work ethic, talent in math and science, strict parenting, social docility, and conformity, explicitly contrasting them with other \u201cproblem minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With waves of migration from different parts of Asia over the last fifty years, the Asian American population has become far more diverse, but the model minority myth persists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Is the Model Minority Myth Harmful?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, that we&#8217;ve got the definition covered, the next question to ask is: why is the model minority myth harmful? What harm can a positive stereotype cause? And isn&#8217;t there some truth to it, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Positive stereotypes <em>can <\/em>cause harm. Remember that this stereotype wasn\u2019t created to praise aspects of Asian culture. It was created to talk about the \u201csuccess\u201d of one group in integrating into White Supremacist society, in explicit contrast to other minorities that had failed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an economic sense, there\u2019s a small amount of truth to the stereotype, though it masks a great deal of difference. Taken as a group, Asian Americans <em>do<\/em> have the highest salaries, highest college graduation rates, and lowest rates of imprisonment of all racial minorities. But trying to live up to a stereotype of academic and social perfection can <strong>put enormous pressure on Asian American kids<\/strong>. And besides, <strong>lumping all Asian American communities together disguises profound differences in outcomes<\/strong> depending on a person\u2019s country of origin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The myth renders invisible those who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/pressure-to-conform\/\">don\u2019t conform<\/a> exactly to the stereotype. For example, Asian Americans who choose humanities rather than science, or who seek political office, commonly run into barriers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The model minority myth can have serious effects on the health and safety of Asian Americans. The stereotype of docility and compliance is particularly strong for Asian American women, with their partners tending to project it onto them with damaging results. <strong>Asian American women are twice as likely as the national average to suffer physical or sexual abuse at the hands of their partners<\/strong>, and experience higher rates of depression than the general population. But they\u2019re largely overlooked in mental health and domestic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/violence-awareness\/\">violence awareness<\/a> initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the definition of model minority? Why is the model minority stereotype harmful? The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic that is deemed to be a model or a reference group that outgroups should aspire to. At first glance, the model minority stereotype may seem innocuous, even positive, but it can have serious negative consequences for the demographic group in question. Keep reading for the definition of model minority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24],"tags":[266],"class_list":["post-32638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-society","tag-so-you-want-to-talk-about-race","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\"},\"wordCount\":481,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"So You Want to Talk About Race\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\",\"name\":\"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications - Shortform Books","description":"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications","og_description":"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications","datePublished":"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/"},"wordCount":481,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","keywords":["So You Want to Talk About Race"],"articleSection":["Ethics","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/","name":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-12T16:27:31+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-24T01:54:25+00:00","description":"The definition of the model minority is contained in the phrase itself: a minority demographic deemed to be a model for others to aspire to.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/model-minority-definition\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Model Minority: Definition and Societal Implications"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/asian-woman-girl.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32638"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33449,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32638\/revisions\/33449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}