The term “model minority” can seem kind of confusing, but I am sure everyone has either seen or experienced it themselves in their life. I’m sure we all had been compared to someone or been compared at and sometimes these situation creates a very awkward mood. For instance, I have always been the eye of my family because I was the first one to attend a school in America, speak fluent English, and graduated high school. This gave my parents the opportunity to uphold as a standard for my siblings, nephews, and cousins. This could be considered a micro version of the model minority, in my case the whole reason this was a conversation in the first place was due to my American culture. This type of thinking from my parents can sometimes be really awkward and hurtful at times, and this is very well what the author Viet Thanh Ngyuen felt about America’s stereotype culture.

This specific question “Does our being Southeast Asian, both our communities brought here by an American war in our countries, mean we see the world in the same way?”, showed that not only did stereotypes created misunderstanding among several different ethnics, cultures, and races but also catalyzed several different types of prejudice in varying categories. A lot of people might sometimes unconsciously say something, and it comes out as discrimination; many of these cases are due to the stereotypes we grew up with. Just like what Nguyen wrote, “the stupid jokes told by my Catholic-school classmates, like Is your last name Nam?”, is a good example where young kids say stereotypical phrases and in most cases, they don’t even realize the meaning behind those words. These types of actions at a young age influence both the speaker and listener, it makes them numb to these words, creates tolerance, and at some point disregard these as offensive.

As for my stand on minority groups, I believe there is no such thing.  This term is only an effect after years of certain group’s selfishness, hatred, and childish criticism.  This type of thinking should not be involved in our society, the country was designed to be equal. Yet, due to our lack of acknowledgment that this is an issue; it has become a growing issue through the years.