March 30, 1995
The model minority myth cannot be explained in two simple sentences. And the protest vote cannot be labeled as a campaign to protest the lack of Asian representation in Associated Students. It goes beyond this.
This election was an opportunity for conscious Asian students to spread awareness to other Asian students.
This myth damages all people of color.
Some Asians, not all, believe that other people of color should model themselves after our community; that other people of color are inferior to us because they have not succeeded in the system as much as we have. Many people fail to see that Asians have been allowed to succeed only so far. Asians are placed as scapegoats to be used for target practice.
Here is where the divide and conquer tactic comes in. All of us should be battling the same oppressor. But some people of color pit themselves against each other -- each saying to the other that their opportunity is unavailable because the other has taken it away.
The myth created by the white man says, "It's in our culture." But is it? Or have we been socialized to believe that it's inherent in our culture that we succeed? If we are inherently successful, then why is there such low graduate school Asian enrollment? Why, on this campus with a 36 percent Asian population, isn't there one Asian dean of the colleges? If the Asian-American studies faculty were eliminated, how many Asian instructors would there be?
How many of us receive higher paying jobs?
Look beyond the academic and business world. What about the newly arrived immigrants? How many services are provided to accommodate language and cultural barriers? How many Asians work in garment factories and clean hotel rooms, only to leave one below-minimum-wage-job just to go to the next below-minimum-wage-job, just to put food on the table? And how many Asian immigrant women are placed in a situation where they have no choice but to have an abortion because they can't afford to feed another child?
Is this called success? No.
On our protest vote stickers, we placed a question mark after the words "model minority" because we wanted to question our "success"; we wanted to question ourselves.
The article "Asian American group votes 'Model Minority?'" (Gater, March 21) brought the actions of a few students to the attention of the entire campus. This silent protest vote campaign was not to say to the two slates: "you clearly would have won if there were Asians on your slate."
We aren't that petty. It wasn't only to question the myth and its implications, but bring it to the campus' attention and, more importantly, to bring a most needed awareness within the Asian community.
I would like to condemn any implications the Gater has caused with the aforementioned article and others like it. The action taken by Asian students during the past election were not spawned from the Asian Student Union and the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor leaving the Progressive Coalition, nor did it cause "the significant loss in the coalition's voting strength." The ASU and PACE did not lead the "model minority?" campaign.
Asians came out to vote for themselves.
Elizabeth Suk is a junior and an Asian student activist.