Response to "The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority"

Sara Tillman
June 1, 2007

In Ronald Takaki's argument "The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority" he writes about the perception of Asian Americans. He makes his argument convinicing by adding persuasive facts about the Asian American population here in the United States; this tactic is quite convincing. However, questions are still left answered after reading this piece. For example, why is the perception of Asian Americans as the "model minority", as Takaki states. Is the media to blame for this misconception, or are American simply not seeing (or looking for) the Asian Americans who are struggling finacially in the United States. Finally, Takaki uses the African American population and briefly compares them to the Asian American people. Takaki raises many interesting thoughts in this piece, but his thesis is that the perception of Asian American as the "model minority" is incorrect. I agree with Takaki's argument that Asian Americans may not be the "model minority", but I disagree with how Takaki twists his facts to make his points.
The facts that Takaki uses in the work is very convincing and he makes it perfectly clear that there are several Asian Americans living in urban America that are struggling. Takaki gives statistics referring to New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but what about America as a whole. These three cities make a large portion of the United States population, but these are not the only cities that Asian American immigrate to.
Takaki also tells how African Americans may be resenting Asian Americans for there alleged success integrating into America. This is another attempt of Takaki to make Asian Americans to look like the victims of America. I don't think that this is necessarily a fair statement. Takaki is working so hard in this essay to make Asians look innocent and troubled, but at the same time he portrays another minority group, the African Americas, as bullies and unneeded members of society. He does this by saying, "the victims (Asians) are blamed for their plight, rather than racism and an economy that has made many young African Americans workers superfluous". Takaki put down one minority while standing up for another.
Why is it that Asian Americans are portrayed as the "model minority"? This is a question that Takaki fails to address in his essay. This isn't something that just happens, something helped Americans to associate Asians as this way. The media is very convincing and may be the culprit in this case. Many times Asians are given roles in the media as the smart people, maybe even the "nerds". A nerd is not a desirable role for many, but their intelligence is. These roles given to Asians may be the reason why America associates success with Asian minorities. Whether it is the media or not that is influencing Americans to think this way, Takaki could have pointed this out in his essay to help clear up why there is this misconception about Asian Americans.
Takaki seems to really care about what he is writing about, but he left some questions unanswered. For example, how did Asian ever get this misconception about them. Also, Takaki puts down the African American minority while arguing for Asian Americans. He makes a point, but the argument would most likely be successful with out it. He also only used certain demographic area for several of his statistics. In the end Takaki still gets his message out that Asian American are not the "model minority", but he leaves his reader with unanswered questions and mixed emotions.