3 ms·

As someone who is Asian, I've just kind of accepted this kind of casual racism. The stereotype of Asian men are that we are better at math, science, and logic (

As someone who is Asian, I've just kind of accepted this kind of casual racism. The stereotype of Asian men are that we are better at math, science, and logic (sadly enough, this is where I spent most of my working career) and everyone kind of laughs about it and jokes how it's great this stereotype is so positive. Except, of course, that it leads to these kinds of policies. Just like Jewish people are ascribed the stereotype of being good with money leads to other policies that have occurred in the past and probably still continue to this day. To me, though, this is just another example of why higher education is becoming a parody of itself. To become personally angry about decisions that are based on the angle of my eyelids is a waste of my time; and this reaction is overwhelmingly common in the Asian community. It has been for decades since Korematsu v. United States, too. I'm not sure it's the "best" approach, but I've learned to live with it, knowing that others have it a hell of a lot worse. Is that rationalization and "giving up?" Perhaps. But I just can't bring myself to care.

obviouslynot 12y ago
The head of my (STEM) course at a university in the top 5 of most global rankings (not Harvard, though) once told me casually (I am white) that she was upset at the high percentage of Asians in her course since they were "great at tests, but really bad at leadership" and "never move beyond middle management" which looked bad on statistics and (implied) wasted seats. So, anecdotally, another example of that "casual" racism.
dengnan 12y ago
As I said in another comment, this stereotype of American Asian men is partly caused by the universities admission procedure and the country's immigration policy. In short, they just like foreigners in STEM. Another reason is probably the culture differences. Asian people are not only interested in STEM. We do have other majors in universities. However, Asian has an equally long, if not longer, history with Europe. Many fields are "stateful", i.e. they rely on the history. For example, a physicist could have a very successful career even he does not know Newton's anecdotes. However, a art-majored student probably needs to know some history in his field --- at least, he needs to remember some names and their corresponding achievements. People majored in literature in China definitely know poets like Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and they have devoted lots of time to learn these poets' work. The culture barrier prohibits them from studying in another country in a different language. That's probably another reason why there's little Asian students outside STEM.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  There are actually lots of Asians outside of STEM. Art doesn't involve that much history (art history is quite different), and especially design doesn't. Also, Asian American vs. Asian is very different. > That's probably another reason why there's little Asian students outside STEM. I totally read that wrong the first time.
- obviouslynot 12y ago
  I guarantee you they do not "just like" foreigners in STEM. I currently live and work in Asia and the growth in the region (particularly China) can be orders of magnitude that of the US. Just looking at Vietnam, you went from 0.25% to 43% internet penetration between 2000 and 2014. China alone has over a billion people to the US' 0.3 and the percentage of Asians in the middle-upper class (those that both can afford, and desire an Ivy education) is rapidly rising, whilst the quality higher education supply remains constant. It's one of these cases where you have to refresh your view of the world every couple of years. Not only are candidates more numerous, they are better prepared, some even doing a year or two in a local university to stack on the skills. In my experience, "locals" in the West don't see the sheer drive and intelligence of these students because of the language barrier (yours truly was, of course, guilty of that back then - it's been an expensive lesson). I've seen engineering undergrads with a tenuous grasp of English skip every lecture in the year and still get in the top 5% of the class (after all, grad-level maths lectures were so much more interesting) - the "Western" students were just nowhere near as prepared. There is nothing inherently special about the mythical Asian undergrad, it's just a numbers game - the top 100 Chinese candidates by IQ are equivalent, statistically, to the top 30 American ones. The same story plays out with capital and is driving real estate prices up in major global cities. And in both cases, it is dismissed the same way that the British would dismiss the rise of the USA as a global economic power just as the Fabians put the finishing blows to prosperity at home (or, in Sydney's case, happily embraced with negative gearing and rationalized via any graspable straw). The region has issues the US did not, so the story's not written up yet. FWIW I've seen plenty of Asians do great in non-STEM subjects (including publishing, acting and music). As a classically trained musician, I know many more Asians with a great knowledge, understanding and interest of music history and theory than Westerners, even those who studied the subject full time, even though it is theoretically the latter's "cultural baggage". I'm not a fan of Lang Lang, but hearing musicians like Yuja Wang is incredibly promising and shows that "foreigners" with not much local exposure to so called Western culture can easily master "our" arts.

obviouslynot 12y ago

The head of my (STEM) course at a university in the top 5 of most global rankings (not Harvard, though) once told me casually (I am white) that she was upset at the high percentage of Asians in her course since they were "great at tests, but really bad at leadership" and "never move beyond middle management" which looked bad on statistics and (implied) wasted seats. So, anecdotally, another example of that "casual" racism.

dengnan 12y ago

As I said in another comment, this stereotype of American Asian men is partly caused by the universities admission procedure and the country's immigration policy. In short, they just like foreigners in STEM. Another reason is probably the culture differences. Asian people are not only interested in STEM. We do have other majors in universities. However, Asian has an equally long, if not longer, history with Europe. Many fields are "stateful", i.e. they rely on the history. For example, a physicist could have a very successful career even he does not know Newton's anecdotes. However, a art-majored student probably needs to know some history in his field --- at least, he needs to remember some names and their corresponding achievements. People majored in literature in China definitely know poets like Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and they have devoted lots of time to learn these poets' work. The culture barrier prohibits them from studying in another country in a different language. That's probably another reason why there's little Asian students outside STEM.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
There are actually lots of Asians outside of STEM. Art doesn't involve that much history (art history is quite different), and especially design doesn't. Also, Asian American vs. Asian is very different. > That's probably another reason why there's little Asian students outside STEM. I totally read that wrong the first time.
obviouslynot 12y ago
I guarantee you they do not "just like" foreigners in STEM. I currently live and work in Asia and the growth in the region (particularly China) can be orders of magnitude that of the US. Just looking at Vietnam, you went from 0.25% to 43% internet penetration between 2000 and 2014. China alone has over a billion people to the US' 0.3 and the percentage of Asians in the middle-upper class (those that both can afford, and desire an Ivy education) is rapidly rising, whilst the quality higher education supply remains constant. It's one of these cases where you have to refresh your view of the world every couple of years. Not only are candidates more numerous, they are better prepared, some even doing a year or two in a local university to stack on the skills. In my experience, "locals" in the West don't see the sheer drive and intelligence of these students because of the language barrier (yours truly was, of course, guilty of that back then - it's been an expensive lesson). I've seen engineering undergrads with a tenuous grasp of English skip every lecture in the year and still get in the top 5% of the class (after all, grad-level maths lectures were so much more interesting) - the "Western" students were just nowhere near as prepared. There is nothing inherently special about the mythical Asian undergrad, it's just a numbers game - the top 100 Chinese candidates by IQ are equivalent, statistically, to the top 30 American ones. The same story plays out with capital and is driving real estate prices up in major global cities. And in both cases, it is dismissed the same way that the British would dismiss the rise of the USA as a global economic power just as the Fabians put the finishing blows to prosperity at home (or, in Sydney's case, happily embraced with negative gearing and rationalized via any graspable straw). The region has issues the US did not, so the story's not written up yet. FWIW I've seen plenty of Asians do great in non-STEM subjects (including publishing, acting and music). As a classically trained musician, I know many more Asians with a great knowledge, understanding and interest of music history and theory than Westerners, even those who studied the subject full time, even though it is theoretically the latter's "cultural baggage". I'm not a fan of Lang Lang, but hearing musicians like Yuja Wang is incredibly promising and shows that "foreigners" with not much local exposure to so called Western culture can easily master "our" arts.