Mobility and Model Minorities: How Liberal and Conservative News Magazines Understand Asian American Achievement

• In Event: 3181 - Section on Asia and Asian America Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Education and Schooling

Abstract

Asian Americans are often described as highly successful, both professionally and academically. Their purported success has been a topic of fascination for decades. How do liberal and conservative news magazines explain Asian American achievement? Are conservatives more inclined to favor cultural arguments? Are liberals more likely to invoke structural factors? I argue that both liberal and conservative news magazines consistently rely on cultural explanations of Asian American success. Whereas conservative publications use Asian Americans to illustrate the importance of individual behaviors and attitudes to discredit structural factors, liberal news magazines’ portrayals of Asian American mobility function to legitimize the possibility of social mobility. The model minority stereotype is also invoked by both types of magazines to quell anxieties about demographic and economic decline. For conservatives, in particular, the model minority stereotype is used to illustrate fragmentation among nonwhite groups, diffusing the potential threat of changing racial demographics.

Author

• Lili Dao