The article, “Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And It Creates Inequality for All” written by Viet-American Author Viet Thanh Nguyen was a highly relatable literary piece as an Asian American. Reading this work, I found myself nodding along in agreement to points he made and experiences he shared. He describes what the ‘model minority’ is through his own experiences growing up in America. From analyzing childhood to adulthood, he puts together pieces of supposedly ‘low-level’ racism that built up his need to be the perfected version of his ethnicity. You begin to realize that the stereotype of Asians being high achievers and docile people, although not terrible traits are still harmful. As the author says, racism is not just physical assault. It can be mocking someone’s accent or language that is meant to just be a ‘little joke’. It can be a mildly rude comment on someone’s culture that was supposedly just them ‘being honest.’ It can be avoiding or refusing to sit with someone on the train because you’re ‘uncomfortable’ being near them, even though they’re completely normal with the only difference being their skin color. These examples may seem minor to some, but they can feel make a person feel terrible and subconscious about themselves.

To connect to this passage, I’ve grown up harshly following the Asian American stereotype that the author talks about, but it was not because of my peers, but because of my family. I now realize how stemmed this ideal version of Asians into the older generations who immigrated here to escape their country. Not only do non-Asians push the stereotype, but our own people do as well because of how they were treated in the very beginning when they were in a white-dominated society. Today, America is more diverse, yet elders tend to push the idea that we must follow a certain set of rules to keep our reputation up as if our lives depend on it.