Running head: ETHNOGRAPHY 1
ETHNOGRAPHY 7
Niannu Zhou
Anthropology
Challenges faced by Asian-American Students
Young Asian-Americans face a lot of challenges socializing and interacting with their peers and the American society as a whole. Despite the rich American culture being accommodative and welcoming to foreigners, the society still faces racism as a major obstacle to integration. They also face the challenge of stereotypes which affects them emotionally and creates conflicts with their peers. The conflict arises from peers of their own race and other races. Stereotyping is also linked to limiting the access to resources and opportunities. This paper focuses on the challenges faced by Asian-American students based on interviews conducted on two Asian-American students. The paper also looks at the positive impacts that the students enjoy from being in the country.
Racism is a hard reality in America for any foreigner. It has been a problem since the 19th century and it continues to plague the society despite the numerous initiatives taken by both the government and the society to combat the demise. Students are most affected by this social evil as foreign students have to learn on ways to combat it. In school, they cannot run away from children from other cultures. The sad thing is that most of the students do not have a reason for being racist. They just do it because their parents do it. The impact of racism has far-reaching effects on the Asian-American community which is termed as the ‘model minority’ for their hard work and ethics. In school, Asian-American students are under pressure to meet the standards set by their parents as well as face racism. This makes learning hard and horrifying for the students. They dread bullying and being shamed for their cultural background. According to one of the interviewees, he used to miss school because some of the boys in his class would always make funny jokes about the Chinese and expect him to act as if it was in the movies. The impact of racism follows the students from when they are young to when they become adults. One of the interviewees states that she could not find work during school breaks because the owners of most of the businesses did not trust the Chinese or feared they would steal their ideas. She says that the trend continued until she was in college and had to get an internship. She says it was hard due to the stereotyping that the Chinese face.
Stereotyping is also a challenge that the students face. The elder section of the model minority has set high standards for the young generation which becomes stressful to meet, especially when the student is a low-achiever. Distress among this group of students is quite elevated as the students feel ashamed to seek the help of their parents or their teachers. They fear that they will be classified as weak and not belonging in the community. One of the interviewees states that the high standards can cause a rift between the student and the parents due to the level of expectations that the parents have and at times lack of tolerance from them. The interviewee says that it was hard to approach the school counselor because Asian-American students are labeled as competitive, nerds, overachievers, and geniuses. Their peers also expect them to be humble, try to be American, quiet, passive, and submissive. They are expected to be poor communicators, therefore, making it hard for them to gain the courage to seek help from professionals when necessary (Chang, 2018).
Minority stereotyping is also an issue for the students. The term ‘model minority’ is a great challenge for the students who have to meet the expectation the society places on them. Asian-Americans are expected to be academically and socially successful (Lyken-Segosebe, 2017). This becomes a challenge because it ignores the differences between and within the group concerning assimilation and adaptation to American society. Also, it does not consider educational, economic, social, or political backgrounds of these students. The expectations of a well-educated family with good professionals on their children will be different with the expectations of a less-educated family working in blue collar jobs. Therefore, the stereotyping becomes dangerous to the students because they have to live with it and face almost on a daily basis. As a result, the students get emotionally stressed and can lead to conflicts with their peers over their identity and understanding of who they are and their culture. Other ways that young Asian-American face is that the females are always considered submissive hence the numerous sexual attacks made against them. Their nations’ outsourcing strategies have also created some form of discrimination against the young group as they are termed ‘job stealers’. Changing the stereotype is hard for the Asian-Americans due to the diverse nature of the group. The numerous communities present make it hard for the group to come together towards one cause. This has led to the lack of proper representation politically. The young Asian-American students are therefore left to suffer the numerous atrocities against them with little or no help from their parents.
However, American culture comes with a number of positive benefits for Asian-American students. Despite the racism and stereotyping, the students get exposure to a wide variety of people at school. This allows them to learn the cultures of the American people as well as of students from other parts of the world. America is among the nations receiving large numbers of immigrants every year. The large influx of immigrants in the nation provides the students with a learning opportunity. They acquire more cross-cultural skills in a globalized world which gives them an added advantage in the ‘model minority’. It becomes easier for them to be more open to working in various parts of the world when they have learned the cultures and understand the values of students from other nations. In the second interview, the interviewee states that she was considering a move to Australia because one of her friends has taught her a lot of valuable lessons about the Australian culture and she would like to experience it first-hand. She also believes that having a diverse network is good in one’s development as a human being due to the level of understanding that one will have of others.
Making new friends is the second advantage that Asian-American students get from school. The diverse composition of the American population allows schools to have students from very many cultures. Making new friends is exciting. One of the interviewees says that he loves school because it has a lot of potentials to meet new people and learn new things. Since there are numerous other minority students in the school who face similar challenges, it becomes easy to make friends with them and offer support for one another. The pressure from the school, parents, and society as a whole becomes lighter when there is support. The friends one makes at school can become lifetime friends who may help at one point in life hence one cannot undervalue their importance.
Therefore, Asian-American students, either migrant or born in American, face numerous challenges in the school system. Racism is still a major problem the community and has spread to schools. They have to face bullying and find ways of coping with other students who find them weird and funny looking. The students also face stereotyping which creates emotional distress. Stereotyping leads to pressure to perform better due to the already established standards for the Asian-American community which gives no regard for the background of the students. It also makes it hard for the students to seek professional help or from their parents because they are expected to be better. However, they gain a lot of advantages being in a diverse environment. The numerous students that they meet and interact with comes with a lot of advantages. The students undergo cultural exchange which motivates them to venture into other nations after school to experience their culture. Cultural awareness is also an added advantage when one gets a job in a diverse working environment. It allows them to make new friends and create connections that may help them in the future after school. Therefore, the challenges of Asian-American students should be addressed to ensure that the students are in a safe environment and one that promotes learning and acceptance of diversity. While issues like racism are hard to deal with, they should be encouraged to access professional help to deal with the challenges that they face.
References
Chang, Y. (2018). Asian Americans, Disability, and the Model Minority Myth. Fordham University Press.
Lyken-Segosebe, D. (2017). Acculturative Stress and Disengagement: Learning from the Adjustment Challenges faced by East Asian International Graduate Students. International Journal of Higher Education, 6(6), 66.
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