Model Minority Myth: The real risks of stereotyping

Hartford HealthCare’s Steve Coates talks with Mui Mui  Hin-McCormick, Clinical director of Adult Residential Services with Rushford, part of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network.

The topic: The Model Minority Myth - which is an assumption made, most commonly with Asian-Americans, that they are smart, successful, good with subjects like math and science, polite and law-abiding.

While that might sound flattering, this stereotype not only ignores the diversity in the Asian-American culture, but it positions the community as not needing resources and programs to help them.

The goal: To equip people to ask for help when they need it, whether it’s teachers in school or colleagues in the workplace. It’s an important and ongoing journey to awareness.

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Related articles:
Unrealistic Expectations on Asian Americans: the ‘Model Minority Myth’

Related episode:
Health Equity: Examining the past, present and future

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

I was bullied quite frequently for having a different name. Moi Moi is hard to pronounce. I also brought in, you know, food that was very different to my peers. When I was younger, I clearly remember trying to go to faculty, to teachers. The response to me was, sticks and stones will break your bones, words will never hurt you. And after going to them a couple times and getting that, I stopped going to them.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Welcome to more life. In this episode, Hartford Healthcare's Steve Coates talks with Moimoyin McCormick, Clinical Director of Adult Residential Services with Rushford, part of the Hartford Healthcare Behavioral Health Network. The topic? While this all might sound flattering, this stereotype not only ignores the diversity in the Asian American culture, but it positions the community as not needing resources and programs to help them. The goal? To equip people to ask for help when they need it. Whether it's teachers in school or colleagues in the workplace, it's an important and ongoing journey to awareness. Here's Steve Coates.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Before I began to prepare for this interview, admittedly and unfortunately, I had very little knowledge of the impact that model minority myth was having. Explain to us what perpetuating this myth means.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Absolutely, and I definitely appreciate this opportunity to be able to expand on model minority myth. I know it might be a new concept to some, but in our the Asian American Pacific Islander community, it actually is something that's been haunting us for quite some time. So basically, it frames Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, also abbreviated as AAPIs, as a racial success story. This was coined by sociologist William Peterson back in 1966. In an article that he wrote about Japanese Americans in the New York Times magazine, Peterson claimed that it was their strong values rooted in hard work and diligence that allowed the Japanese to avoid becoming a probable minority. So it characterizes AAPIs as a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a high level of success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and also kind of pull yourself together immigrant kind of work ethic.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

When we think of stereotypes, we often think that they're we see how they're directed in a hateful and very intentional manner. How can model minority myth impact people with what some might view as a positive stereotype?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Absolutely. So, you know, stereotypes, right? Um overall, Steve, you're absolutely right. Uh a lot of these stereotypes in the model minority myth are positive. It um, you know, indicates the homogeneous group of Asian American Pacific Islanders as intelligent, smart, good at math, well educated, economically stable, no health issues, no mental health issues or substance use issues, successful. Um, and that it also clumps everybody into one group, regardless of their ethnicity. It doesn't matter if you're Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, or another ethnicity, you're just you know in the pool of Asian American. It has a huge impact in our communities, right? It ignores the diversity in the AAPI cultures, like I just mentioned regarding the breakdown of ethnicities. It wedges um you know communities uh against colors of communities and AAPI communities. So you're talking about pitting community against community. Um, it implies that certain ethnic minorities are better than others, better at adjusting to different culture, more hardworking, more academically gifted. It's unrealistic expectations that people are placing on to these communities, in addition to individuals within these communities placing expectations on themselves, which is added pressures to succeed, whether it's an um it be internal, family, peer, community, or social pressures. It also perceives this community as not needing resources. You know, when you are identifying in stereotyping communities as being healthy and no medical, mental health, or substance use issues, um, funding is oversight, right? There's no funding or resources that are designated to these communities. These programs and services aren't then being individualized or tailored to specific cultural needs, specific language needs. There's also the internalized racism. For example, one person may dislike the physical characteristics that make them racially distinct, such as skin color, hair texture, or eye shape. Others may stereotype those from their racial group and refuse to associate with that. And then some may identify more as white. So if you are seeing there is more advantage and privilege in being white, then you are going to try to disassociate from being the, you know, um part of your Asian culture.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Talk a little bit about your personal background and how you've been affected by this.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Um, thank you for that question. You know, I think it's been a struggle for me for quite some time until I became older and had avenues to be able to actually have these conversations. Um, as we were talking before, it's a difficult conversation to have. Um, and I think a lot of times when I have these conversations, people will respond back that they had no malintent. And I understand that. But I think, you know, um trying to really have these conversations early on in, you know, elementary school with our children, um, all the way up through high school, college, um, my personal life was absolutely impacted by the model minority myth, right? I was one of few Asian Americans growing up in the town that I lived in in Connecticut. Um, I was bullied quite frequently for having a different name. Moi Moy is hard to pronounce. Um, and it's also very different from other common names that people are used to seeing. Um, I also brought in, you know, food that was very different to my peers. Um, my mom would send me in with Asian food because that's what we ate at home. And I was definitely a target of a lot of bullying, criticism. Um, and then also on the other end of things with teachers, their expectation of me and my sister was of high achievers. So it placed a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves because if we got an A-, that was an issue, right? But an A- is actually a great grade. A B is actually a great grade. Um so I think there is a whole host of various impact that it had. Um, I think also with our children, when we are not addressing these issues early on, um individuals are internalizing things and they're not able to really seek out services or supports. And then it's equipping our adults who are teaching and um really working with our children on how to navigate these areas of conversation. When I was younger, I clearly remember trying to go to faculty, to teachers. Their response to me was sticks and stones will break your bones, words will never hurt you. And after going to them a couple of times and getting that, I stopped going to them. It ended up being where I would really just cry, right? Getting off the bus, my mom would just be at a loss, constantly crying, not knowing what to do. She also was facing some language barriers. Um, so I think there's a lot of negative repercussion when it comes to model minority myth.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Have you carried some of the stereotyping or some of the inadequacies you felt from the stereotyping into your adult life?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Absolutely. And I think that's why I'm in the field that I'm in, right? When it comes to being in the behavior health field, it's because of my own personal experience and now having a 12-year-old daughter, making sure that she will not go through, you know, certain situations that I had, and then also trying to make sure that we have identified role models. We have people that actually look like us. We have individuals within our community, we have um, you know, individuals that are in various positions that really can reach out. Um, it had a long-term impact. When you're not understanding and you're going through development as a typical teenager, then young adult, um, you have this piece of culture playing into things. And when you're feeling like you're not being accepted and you're experiencing that, um, that has a dramatic impact on your self-worth. And I think I was very fortunate to be able to have friends that really came to my aid, right? They were able to really indicate that I was a good person, that I did have value. Um, I just wish growing up I had more role models to be able to look up to, to be able to reach out and actually have these conversations, to be able to share similar experiences.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

We touched on this a little bit earlier. So often the intent of stereotypes is to be hurtful. Even though model minority myth can be hurtful, a lot of times it is done without knowledge, ignorance, without people really intending it to be hurtful. So, how do you how do you talk to people about it to let them know that, hey, these this is hurtful speech, this is hurtful behavior?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, and what you're referring to are really microaggressions, right? It's subtle interactions that you're having that have negative, unintended consequences. And I think, if anything, it's really being able to acknowledge when it's happening, to be able to understand that the collective group is important, but there's also individual differences and uniqueness that exists. Um, it's like you said before, not perpetuating these stereotypes, stopping the stereotypes, right? Providing education, trainings and services, speaking up in a non-confrontational manner when you're on the receiving end. And then if you are the person, you know, um actually doing that behavior, it's being able to listen and avoid being defensive. Um it's addressing when you're able to observe it, supporting individuals that are going through something like this, even just to lend a ear or say, I'm here to help, you know, I'm here to listen. Do you want to kind of just touch base about what just happened? Or I just heard something and I found it troubling myself. So I wanted to reach out. Um, educating others, like I said, is a huge component that we continue to do. And I always try to stress this, it's not a one and done, right? You can't be culturally sensitive and you can't educate one time and think that you are the best at it or that you are done with it. This is something that will be ongoing that needs to continue to be a journey that we all take on. Increasing awareness through various activities throughout the year, creating environments where people feel comfortable and raising issues, and ultimately utilizing our H3W leadership behaviors, um, having the, you know, respecting and leveraging separate realities, being curious versus judgmental, having those courageous conversations.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Are we making progress as a health system, as a society and addressing this?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

I think we have started the progress. We've started the change. I really, you know, feel like a lot of this came up because of George Floyd and the social media coverage and just everybody kind of being able to witness firsthand and repeatedly witness, right? We also saw a lot of communities coming together, galvanizing, mobilizing, and really trying to speak up for their rights. Um, but we've also forgotten or may not have been taught. Um these things have been happening for quite some time. It's not a nuance, right? I mean, you talk about the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. There's the Japanese internment camps in the 1940s. And then we also had the um racial murder of Vincent Chin back in June 19th, 1982. Um, you know, the individuals that attacked him and um, you know, really kind of just uh isolated him, assumed Chin was a Japanese American, and they blamed him for the success of the Japanese auto industry, when in fact he's a Chinese American. Um so that was a really unfortunate case. But I don't remember hearing about that in schools, and our children hearing about these, you know, histories in school.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

A very important conversation that needs to continue. Moimoy, thanks so much for your time. We hope to speak with you again on this really important topic. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Thank you so much. Thank you. Moimoy Hinn McCormick and Steve Coates. Check the links in this episode's show notes to learn more about the model minority myth, related episodes, and articles. You can subscribe to more life and be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford Healthcare on your favorite podcast platform and then hit follow. For Hartford Healthcare, I'm Enron DePierre. Thanks for listening to More Life.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

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