(via Econlog) Those of the any Asian persuasion in the last 10-15 years have probably heard at least one campus activist screaming about the Model Minority Myth. Now, simple yokel that I am, I would have have thought it a good thing to be a model for just about anything (although I suppose I’m still waiting for swashbuckling, studmeister South Indian action hero…).

But, there’s a certain corpus of thought in Leftist politics that strongly believes otherwise. They assert that the Model Minority Myth is perpetrated by The Man for a variety of motives such as the ones summarized at ModelMinority.com -

…Americans reluctant to address the realities of continuing racism and white privilege have consistently portrayed Asian Americans as a “model minority” who have uniformly succeeded by merit.

While superficially complimentary to Asian Americans, the real purpose and effect of this portrayal is to celebrate the status quo in race relations. First, by over-emphasizing Asian American success, it de-emphasizes the problems Asian Americans continue to face from racial discrimination in all areas of public and private life. Second, by misrepresenting Asian American success as proof that America provides equal opportunities for those who conform and work hard, it excuses American society from careful scrutiny on issues of race in general, and on the persistence of racism against Asian Americans in particular.

A recent, interesting study conducted by Northwestern U decided to put some of these claims to the test.

It’s the richest, most edumacated, most uppity whites who most strongly subscribe to Myth of the Model MinorityInterestingly, they used many of the same attitudinal studies that “Asian Critical Scholars” have cited in the past to tease out some important findings. Their first step was to identify the basket of “non-Hispanic whites” AsiaPhiles who would most thoroughly subscribe to Model Minority tenets. The results -

20% of non-Hispanic whites rated Asian Americans as more intelligent than whites; and 34% of non-Hispanic whites rated Asian Americans as harder working… 70% ranked Asian Americans as wealthier than other minority groups… 42% as harder working and 33% as more intelligent.

Focusing on these “non-Hispanic whites,” the study authors found that -

… education (highest degree attained), performance on a vocabulary test, individual income, and occupational prestige all correlated positively and strongly with believing that Asian Americans work harder than whites and work harder than other minorities. Such respondants were also more likely to live in the 12 largest metropolitan areas…

…stereotyping the positive work habits and financial success of Asian Americans rises with education and socioeconomic status…

So it’s the richest, most edumacated, most uppity whites who most strongly subscribe to Myth of the Model Minority. The second issue was that when these folks were queried about specific policy issues, the ill effects of the Model Minority myth become difficult, if not impossible to find in at least a few, pointed policy examples -

We draw three main conclusions from our data. First, generally the data do not confirm the hypothesis that non-Hispanic whites who hold positive model minority-type views fear or hold negative opinions about about Asian Americans or about immigration more generally. Second, the belief among non-Hispanic whites that Asian Americans work harder than other minorities does not usually correlate with increased antagonism toward government assistance for African Americans or opposition to affirmative action. …The data simply do not support the thesis that people who hold model-minority beliefs generally think that all minority groups must pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Now my personal views when it comes to minority politics tends to be more Thomas Sowell than Al Sharpton so parts of this result don’t sit entirely well with me. For example, when the rubber hits the road, it’s tough to reconcile an argument that Asian achievement is underrecognized with a desire for more college affirmative action. BUT, while I may disagree with the policy prescribed, it’s important to note that this is still a significant departure from the standard Asian Critical Studies narrative - AsiaPhilic whites are the most aggressive in changing the “status quo in race relations”. More specifically, Whites - well, these Whites, at least - are least likely to use Asians to abandon / indict Blacks & Hispanics.

There is one important area where the model minority myth was upheld -

People who think that Asian Americans are smart, hardworking, or rich tend to be less likely to think that Asian Americans are discriminated against.

Color me guilty. As countless developmental economists over the years have discovered, the factors that create wealth are mighty tough to master and notoriously multivariate. Individual stories of discrimination might be easy to come by but their significance needs to be weighed against mighty aggregate data like household income.