On Saturday, Oct. 27, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Rise of the Tiger Nation.” (Click on the link in the title to read the full article.) It adopted wholesale the conclusions and statistics from this summer’s Pew Research Center survey of Asian Americans. In fact, the author wrote at the start of the article:
No one would dispute the opening paragraph of the Pew Research Center’s massive study of Asian-Americans, released over the summer: “Asian-Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success.”
Actually, this past summer, many APA groups came forward with strong criticisms of the Pew Research Center’s study, pointing out its oversimplification of the lives and experiences of the diverse community represented by APAs. Like the Pew Research Center report, this article perpetuates the model minority myth, painting a far rosier picture than actual circumstances would support. In the legal profession, APAs continue to be under-represented at the upper ranks of law firms, corporations, government, academia and the judiciary.
A search on this blog under “Pew Research Center” will call up the reactions we were able to collect this summer to that report. Take a look for yourself. Contrary to the WSJ article, many would dispute the opening paragraph of the Pew Research Center study. About the only statement that would not be disputed is the fact that APAs are the fastest growing racial group in the United States. But the growth of the APA population alone does not signify that all APAs are doing well and succeeding across the board.
What do you think of the WSJ article? Is there a “Tiger Nation” and is it on the rise?
