The Myth of the Model Minority Myth

Abstract

Abstract With continued cost increases as well as demands for charitable donations and economic subsidies, universities are concerned with public relations and political legitimacy. The latter are fostered by the Model Minority Myth which implicitly asserts the moral superiority of universities and their graduates by condemning American society in general and the white working class in particular as being racist. Despite its intellectual and empirical limitations, the Model Minority Myth persists because it promotes the political power of universities in the current era of increasing inequality and the rising exploitation of the working class that are fostered by educational credentialism.