Asian Americans and Higher Education

Abstract

OR MANY PEOPLE, Asian American minority groups evoke thoughts of elegant cuisine and mysterious communities filled with exotic curio shops, or perhaps politically tinged reactions based upon the improvement in foreign relations with the People's Republic of China or upon the threat of Japanese economic competition. More knowledgeable individuals are likely to have a definite and positive image of these groups. They are seen as once oppressed racial minorities that have attained some degree of success and are now assimilating into the American middle class, largely through their intelligence, patience, hard work, and resourcefulness. They are likely to be admired because they have achieved upward mobility by their own efforts and through adherence to values that most Americans find admirable. This favorable image has received a good deal of attention in newspapers and magazine accounts which depict Asian Americans as model minorities.2 The success image has come under heavy criticism from Asian Americans because it contains implied lessons to other minority groups on how progress should be made in American society. Furthermore, it ignores the high price that has been paid through past suffering and economic losses, the decline of traditional cultures and communities, and the uncritical acceptance of American values and beliefs. The success image overlooks existing community problems such as mental illness, crime and delinquency, housing, health care, employment, welfare, the poverty of the aged, concerns of new immigrants, confusion over cultural identity, and continuing economic and social discrimination.3 Perhaps most important, this new image of Asian Americans ignores substantial segments of the population that experience extreme deprivation. For example, in the large Chinatown community of San Francisco, 41 percent of the residents are below the federal poverty