Free Essay Sample «''Model Minority'' Stereotype»

Stacey Lee in "Unraveling the ''Model Minority'' Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth" notes that stereotypes are an integral part of popular culture, and examines the role of stereotypes among students. Students in the United States have stereotypes relative to Asian American that were not formulated from their own personal experience, but from friends, media, etc. They attribute a particular person’s traits that he or she must have only because of the membership in a particular group. This forces a person to resort to clichéd intelligent solutions. Lee drew attention not only to the socio-psychological particular phenomenon under study, but also pointed to some laws of its formation and functioning. Stereotype forms of social perception are treated as a phenomenon, deterministic moral norms, and political propaganda.

Stacey Lee treats the problem of truth-falsity of stereotypes as a selective and inaccurate way of learning, leading to a simplification of reality. The special features of manifestation of this factor, in the first place, are the conditions of interaction of ethnic groups with each other, when the idea of ​​a different ethnic group, formed in the process of real relationships between ethnic groups. The author argues that social setting is the attitude, which is favorable or unfavorable valuation reaction to something, or someone, which is expressed in opinions, feelings, and goal-directed behavior. The author defines stereotypes as ordered, schematic, and deterministic culture "images" of the world "in the head" of a person, who saves his or her efforts in the perception of complex social objects and protect its values, attitudes, and rights.

The author, a professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, wrote another book "Up Against Whiteness: Race, School, and Immigrant Youth". An important feature of this study is that it is mainly devoted to autostereotype (for example, images, formed in a particular social group, such as a student environment) and their role in social and political life. Source credibility is provided by the fact that the existing social patterns of behavior have a significant impact on the economic, political, and many other processes, largely determining the level of national development. The author analyzes various aspects of the concept and phenomenon of social stereotype in American psychology.

Lee mentions the importance of the development of young people’s state and society, which comes at a time of his life, when it, thanks to political activity, has a significant influence on all the processes taking place in the country. Nevertheless, concrete psychological mechanisms underlying the formation of stereotypes are rather poorly analyzed and, in our opinion, for a complete understanding of stereotypes, their properties, characteristics, the degree of influence on the everyday consciousness of these mechanisms, they should be studied more closely. The formation of ideas about the identity of their own Asian American groups and their characteristic features is inseparably linked to the awareness of its differences from other ethnic groups. Against this background, there is the actualization of ethnic stereotypes that have a significant impact on the perception of different ethnic groups. From a cognitive point of view, the stereotype is a double-edged sword - it provides information in an easy and digestible form. However, this information is very far from reality and is able to mislead students.

The author somewhat analyzes the stereotypes in the media but is trying to deny that, in general, Asian Americans are portrayed in the American media more positive, than other minorities. In the American media, there is a positive stereotype, which creates an image of the "ideal of a minority group," which succeeds in education, commerce, and the social sphere. Sometimes the perceived image of success is used to silence the problems faced by this group or criticism of other minorities, which are not so lucky. For example, “the attitudes of these students highlight the fact that the position of Asian Americans as a model minority is contingent upon the stereotype of African Americans as the failing minority” (Lee 126). Ethnic stereotypes are formed in the process of socio-cultural communication. Important and dominant in our case, is a socio-historical factor affecting student stereotypes in the United States with respect to Asian American students.