On Tuesday August 7th, Cynthia Lin interviewed Nicholas Hartlep, a critical race theory scholar from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Hartlep discussed a critique he wrote regarding Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin’s book The Myth of the Model Minority.
Hartlep writes, “The book is a searing and scathing indictment of how “racial framing” impacts the lives of Asian Americans and how it leaves them vulnerable in myriad ways. The book invokes a mental map, an image of how Asian Americans truly feel and experience the world. This book helps us all to move forward; if we understand the role that “racial framing” plays in perpetuating the model minority stereotype—which serves to marginalize the experiences of Asian Americans—and the maintenance of white privilege, then surely disruption of racial framing is an appropriate way to dismantle the racism that Asian Americans face. This book, through its focus on racial framing, helps readers to better understand the duality of the model minority stereotype—successful opposed to unsuccessful—and how it causes pain and social misery for Asian Americans.” Lin and Hartlep discussed in depth the implications of the model minority myth and what it means for Asians and Asian Americans in the USA.
To read Nicholas Hartlep’s critique of The Myth of the Model Minority:
http://education.missouristate.edu/assets/ele/Modelminorityfinal.pdf
