The Woke €˜Model Minority Myth
By William McGurn, 2/22/21, Wall St. Journal

The North Thurston Public Schools in Lacey, Wash., made
headlines in Nov when their €œequity report€� classified
Asian-Americans along with whites instead of as €œstudents
of color.€� Apparently the Asian-Americans were doing too
well academically to be students of color. After what the
district said was €œan overwhelming public response,€� it
admitted its €œcategory choices€� had €œracist implications€�
and dropped the equity report from its website.

To normal Americans, it makes no sense. How are Asian-
Americans not €œpeople of color€�? But give the North
Thurston folks credit for following progressive logic to
its conclusion. Modern progressive theory more or less
divides the nation between the oppressors, defined as
whites, and the oppressed, defined as everyone else. In
this framework, achieving success puts you on the side
of the oppressors and thus makes you white or €œwhite-
adjacent€�€”even if your family came from China or India.

Calling it progressive to send children of color the
message that achievement is white is an irony lost on
the woke. Bigoted laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act
of 1882 or actions such as the internment of Japanese-
Americans during WWII were once thought among the worst
stains on American history left by anti-Asian racism.
But these days the characterization of Asian-Americans
as the €œmodel minority€� triggers the woke.

€œAsian-Americans are caught in a bind€”condemn the system
of white supremacy and privilege along with other people
of color or be €˜banished from the victim group as white-
adjacent,€� says Wenyuan Wu, exec dir of Californians for
Equal Rights. €œThe end goal here is to pit people against
each other as if our hyphenated identities are bigger
than our common destiny as Americans.€�

The principal reason for this is the fact of Asian-
American achievement. This is an embarrassment to
progressives because it undermines the claim that
structural racism dooms nonwhite citizens to the margins
of the American dream. So Asian-American achievement must
either be dismissed as somehow white or sacrificed at the
altar of equity.

Examples abound. A report last year called €œThe Secret
Shame€� notes how public schools in Americas most
progressive cities have been failing their black and
Latino children for decades. How does New York Mayor
Bill de Blasio respond? In January Americas self-styled
progressive in chief announced that New York will abolish
the entrance exam for the citys gifted-and-talented
programs for young students. If you cant fix the schools
that are broken, you cut down to size the schools that
are working.

In 2019 Mr. de Blasios School Diversity Advisory Group
reported that though Asians are only 17% of New Yorks
kindergarten population, they account for 42% of the
gifted-and-talented seats. Plainly the mayors €œsuccess€�
requires reducing the number of Asian-Americans no matter
how qualified they are. The mayor has also tried to
abolish the entrance exam for the citys high-performing
high schools, where Asian-American students again are
€œoverrepresented.€� And the progressive war on merit is
by no means confined to New York. San Franciscos renowned
Lowell High School abolished its own merit-based admissions
this month, again in large part because a student body
selected by merit will have too many Asian-Americans and
too few students from other minority groups.

The progressive contention is that admitting students on
individual merit is really about upholding white dominance.
What about Asian-American success, then? In this narrative,
thats using the model-minority myth as a €œwedge€� against
African-Americans, to send them the false message that with
strong families & hard work Americas racism can be overcome.

In reality, by applying different entrance standards for
different racial groups, the equity movement is stoking
racial resentment and pitting one group against another.
Note that the same people who decry the model-minority
stereotype have little to say about the stereotype Harvards
admissions office has created with subjective personality
assessments whose results consistently rate Asian-Americans
as lacking in traits such as courage, leadership and
likability. This lowers their overall admissions scores
and makes them easier to reject.

In the past, anti-Asian bigotry took the form of direct
assaults. These reflected claims that Asian-Americans
were inferior, incapable of assimilating or stealing jobs.
But today many Asian-Americans are learning that the
progressive form of discrimination may be the most
insidious of all.

€œWhat do progressives say to a Chinese-American or
Indian-American when she realizes their ideology means
her children will be held to higher standards to get into
college simply because of their race?€� asks Wai Wah Chin,
charter president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance
of Greater New York.

€œShould she really have to tell her children they must
just accept that because of their race they will have to
work harder to get the same opportunities as others€”and
accept this new racism as the price of a woke America?€�

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wok...th-11614035596