Systemic bias against Asian-Americans in schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard teachers make stereotypical comments about Asian American students in social settings and sporting events many times. I have also had parents say things to me and about me (an American born person of Indian heritage) that are based on stereotypes. It’s very hurtful and I didn’t experience this in the midwest probably because thwre were fewer Asian American students in my area and people were not concerned about “cultural” changed. This area is tough.

Poli Sci 101

I'm not sure what it's like on the West Coast or Midwest but here the Asian community basically make supremacist arguments such as school academic clubs should all have Asian student leaders etc. We have large population of very poor Salvadoran students yet have to listen to complaints about the "negative" Asian stereotypes which almost all involve positive traits such as being assumed to be smart or able to answer a math question.

Wow, please educate yourself on the harm of the model minority myth. It’s Asian American Heritage Month and you’re embarrassing yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way this area handles race is very different than how they do it out West. Race is much more explicit here, everything is about race. It's really strange, coming from other parts of the country. Doesn't seem to be better, either. But that's how they roll here.

It works the same in California.

OP is naive and there’s a racial hierarchy there too, and Asians are not at the top.

For example the attention of slavery reparations in a state that didn’t have slaves, and the smallest minority group, and one that was actually treated better than Asians.

There it goes all the way up to political representation, where certain minority groups maintain power at the expense of others.

The solution though in this case, besides not voting for this racism (you get what you vote for) is instead of being asking permission to speak, is to invite yourself.

But these two things generally doesn’t happen, so you can see why things are the way they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a school with a significant percentage of Asian-American students but mostly white teachers. We've noticed over the past year that when teachers have a choice to choose students for leadership positions such as for panels, if they have a request from an outside entity for students to speak with, student hosts for assemblies, or for leaders for class project they are not selecting AAPI students. It's really striking and when parents first brought this up to us I was skeptical but then we saw it happen again and again. They will choose students from other minority groups who comprise only a small percentage of students at the school so it is not all white students who are being chosen.

We moved to the area from California where we were at a school with a similar percentage of AAPI students and did not see this issue. What is going on? Is it just gross stereotyping that AAPI students are not good leaders or speakers? Are we just at a terrible school?

First, I'm skeptical of this idea of teachers choosing leadership positions. I've been a teacher for a long time, and we don't usually choose people for that. They volunteer. At the very least, we would choose from volunteers. And in general, if there is something a teacher needs to choose someone for, they will likely choose a very outgoing student, without regard to race (even the racist ones). So I'm not sure how you can attribute something that really isn't very common in the first place to racism. The sample would have to be pretty small. If you have a child in the school, and your child is not being chosen for something, then I would suggest 1-has your child made his/her desire to step up known? And 2-perhaps ask the teachers about your child specifically.

I'm not sure you're actually a teacher. Your view is so myopic. Teachers at DC's school pick kids for things all the time. No they don't always take volunteers or applications. They chose heads for projects. If there's a request for a student speaker they don't tell anyone about it and just pick someone. Earlier this year there was a request for a group of students to do something special involving a field trip. A teacher secretly chose his favorites. There are also club leaders and they do usually take applications for those but the teachers make the decisions.

[Anonymous]

The anti-Asian sentiment by some posters is disgusting. It's even more disgusting because they seem to have no clue how racist they are being.

[Anonymous]

This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Asians can be praised (i.e., weaponized against other minorities) and then castigated in a single breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The anti-Asian sentiment by some posters is disgusting. It's even more disgusting because they seem to have no clue how racist they are being.

A lot of Asians are very racist.

[Anonymous]

"Racist" is being thrown around too casually. People simply have different viewpoints of the concept of meritocracy.

It is no stretch to say that there is a significant cohort of the US Asian population that deeply believes in the concept of true meritocracy and that decisions should be made based on performance (test scores or other measures of ability). There is another viewpoint (often put forward by liberals) that says that merit can only take us so far as a society, and the benefit of having a broader population represented is critical because of the concept of cohorts and underrepresented populations having "success" stories to look up to.

These two trains of thought are only generally clashing at the margins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Of course there’s anti-Asian racism there’s also racism among the Asian community. I have a friend from China who came here at age 11. The whole extended family is here. She told me that the rest of her family would not let their children be friends with White kids because of the possibility of bad influences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Of course there’s anti-Asian racism there’s also racism among the Asian community. I have a friend from China who came here at age 11. The whole extended family is here. She told me that the rest of her family would not let their children be friends with White kids because of the possibility of bad influences.

So Asians deserve to be underrepresented in their schools? How is this story relevant to the topic of the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Of course there’s anti-Asian racism there’s also racism among the Asian community. I have a friend from China who came here at age 11. The whole extended family is here. She told me that the rest of her family would not let their children be friends with White kids because of the possibility of bad influences.

Good advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Racist" is being thrown around too casually. People simply have different viewpoints of the concept of meritocracy.

It is no stretch to say that there is a significant cohort of the US Asian population that deeply believes in the concept of true meritocracy and that decisions should be made based on performance (test scores or other measures of ability). There is another viewpoint (often put forward by liberals) that says that merit can only take us so far as a society, and the benefit of having a broader population represented is critical because of the concept of cohorts and underrepresented populations having "success" stories to look up to.

These two trains of thought are only generally clashing at the margins.

Except it does sound like there's some racism going on, or at least implicit bias. From the OP's description it sounds like AAPIs are the second biggest group in the school by a wide margin, and possibly a majority. Yet hardly any of them are getting chosen for leadership/speaking positions. By the OP's own words the leaders are mostly white kids with some URMs sprinkled in. The AAPI kids are being ignored.

Yet the gut reaction by many people is to doubt or ignore that Asian Americans experience bias or racism. That first reply is an example of it. Totally ignored what's happening to the Asian American kids and focused on defending the selection of URMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Of course there’s anti-Asian racism there’s also racism among the Asian community. I have a friend from China who came here at age 11. The whole extended family is here. She told me that the rest of her family would not let their children be friends with White kids because of the possibility of bad influences.

So Asians deserve to be underrepresented in their schools? How is this story relevant to the topic of the thread?

If a kid isn’t allowed to interact socially with some of the kids in a group, that kid is a poor choice to lead the group. That’s how it’s relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread hasn’t been too bad, but anyone who doubts the existence of anti-Asian racism just needs to spend some time in the AAP forum. It can get shockingly explicit there.

Of course there’s anti-Asian racism there’s also racism among the Asian community. I have a friend from China who came here at age 11. The whole extended family is here. She told me that the rest of her family would not let their children be friends with White kids because of the possibility of bad influences.

So Asians deserve to be underrepresented in their schools? How is this story relevant to the topic of the thread?

If a kid isn’t allowed to interact socially with some of the kids in a group, that kid is a poor choice to lead the group. That’s how it’s relevant.

Sounds like you’re stereotyping all AAPI based on an experience with one Chinese family. Then you’re using that stereotype to justify the bias against AAPI as leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The anti-Asian sentiment by some posters is disgusting. It's even more disgusting because they seem to have no clue how racist they are being.

A lot of Asians are very racist.

A lot of <insert race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation> are <insert prejudice>. Bigotry is bad, and fetishizing race or other category traits is a prime cause—maybe the cause. The internet loves categories.