Although I formally learned about the model minority concept for the first time in this psychology course, I encountered the notion many times in high school through my close friendships with several Asian Americans. All of these friends outwardly embodied the model minority stereotype; two of my Chinese American friends followed the math track that began college calculus work two years before the “advanced placement” track, three of these friends qualified as National AP scholars and all of them enrolled in highly selective universities with two entering as engineering majors. The intelligence, motivation and work ethic that these friends displayed made them exemplary students that fulfilled the stereotypes associated with the model minority.

I distinctly remember several occurrences when after receiving a high exam grade or doing well on a paper, when these friends joked about their academic success resulting from being Asian. Although in high school I rarely thought twice about these light-hearted jokes, it occurred to me when filling out the “association charts” in class (writing down the first words that come to mind after reading the name of a racial group) that I internalized the stereotypes behind these jokes. The first words that popped into my head after reading Asian American were intelligence and motivation – words that characterize the model minority identity.

Throughout high school, I never considered the negative implications and falsehoods associated with the model minority label because my Asian American friends seemed to be on the fast track to success with their exceptional performance in academics. It never occurred to me that society used their educational success as a stab against other racial groups of color or that their salaries remained lower than White Americans despite their hard-work and dedication (Wu, 51). I think that this obliviousness to the destructiveness of the model minority stereotype contributes to its resilience as a “meme” that “can be passed on from person to person, society to society, and generation to generation” (Wu, 59) because it seems much easier to ignore or justify a stereotype that apparently represents positive attributes and achievements. After learning about how the model minority concept, I wonder how it affected my Asian American friends in high school. Did they feel more pressure to perform well academically? Why did they make so many jokes that played off of the model minority?

During class last Tuesday we constructed and discussed social identify profiles that illustrated our various group memberships. A couple characteristics of my social identify, such as physical ability, I rarely thought about until put in a situation where I no longer belonged in the dominant group. Dr. Beverly Tatum observed this same trend when she asked students to complete the sentence “I am_______.” She found that students seldom mentioned an element of identity “where a person is member of the dominant or advantaged social group” (Tatum, 21). When I broke several bones in high school and the doctor ordered me to not lift anything over five pounds, I suddenly became keenly aware of my lack of physical ability when getting books down from my locker at school or lifting coffee pots while working at Caribou Coffee. In retrospect, this experience demonstrated an important lesson in not taking for granted the components of my identify in which I belong to the dominant group.

The element of my social identify that I struggled most to analyze in terms of “most aware of” or “have strongest effect on how you see yourself as a person” was race because until taking this course, I seldom thought about my racial identify just as I hardly ever considered my physical ability. The majority of the assigned readings for the past week focused on the development of racial identity, and because I experienced difficulty in analyzing how race effects my social profile, I thought it would be interesting to assess what stage of racial identity characterizes me.
The models discussed thus far in class are primarily used as a framework for people of color because forming a racial identity is a much more salient issue for people of color living in a dominant White culture. Nevertheless, it seemed as if the overarching ideas for development applied also to those with White skin. After much thought about where in the cycle my identity lies, I came to no conclusion. Although I am able to recall past interactions and thoughts about race, especially in the "encounter" stage when my predominantly White middle school integrated with a predominantly Black middle school, I was never forced to grapple with the emotions and inequalities that accompany not belonging to the dominant racial group. This whole thought process made me start to consider questions such as “What exactly is “White” culture to me?” In the past when asked to define my “culture” I immediately think of my Norwegian heritage, and the language, food, songs, customs and values that I grew up with. This, however, constitutes my ethnic culture, and I never contemplated what exactly White culture entails. I guess it will be interesting to see what the psychologists say about my development when we read about the models for white identity.

While watching the “Ethnic Notions” film in class last Tuesday, I felt disturbed and uncomfortable about the portrayals of Black Americans in the media. One section of the film addressed the concept that for many White Americans living in Northern States, the image of Jim Crow, the wild man dressed in unkempt clothes and dancing in a “humorous” manner, symbolized the behavior and intellect of Black Americans. I found this portion of the film particularly unsettling because it illustrated the immense influence the media holds over perceptions and opinions. Later in the week this initial reaction returned to me while reading another student’s blog which discussed how she was unable to recall any negative experiences with other racial groups, but nevertheless found herself locking her car doors if a person of color was approaching because these habits are ingrained into society. I identified with the situation she described, and began thinking about why both she and I formed these instinctive reactions without any personal experience to rationalize such actions. Later on that same day while flipping through channels on the television I came across one of the “Bring It On” movies and was surprised at the explicit racial stereotypes represented in the film. The scene depicted a White high school cheerleader on her first day enrolling in a predominantly Black high school. The White cheerleader drove a brightly-colored convertible with upbeat music blasting into the parking lot of a gray school surrounded by tall fences and Black students hip-hop dancing. The scenes progressed to show the conceited and wealthy cheerleader insult a colored student about her fake designer handbag, followed by her disgust with the security guards at the entrance of the school. Although I watched this movie several times in high school, I never noticed the racial undertones in the film which illustrates how I unconsciously breathed what Dr. Beverly Tatum referred to as the “smog” of racism. Viewing this film and noticing the blatant racial stereotypes reminded me of the “Ethnic Notions” film, and I realized that the current racial prejudices represented in the media have impacted me greatly.