<story><title>The invisible struggle of the Asian American small-business owner</title><url>https://www.vox.com/21536943/asian-american-restuarant-racism-coronavirus</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>The problem with articles like this—apart from the politically constructed racial category of “Asian”—is that there is no support for anything apart from a lot of narrative and a few anecdotes. Asians have by a good margin the lowest covid death rate of any race, despite being much more likely to live in hard hit urban areas: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apmresearchlab.org&amp;#x2F;covid&amp;#x2F;deaths-by-race&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apmresearchlab.org&amp;#x2F;covid&amp;#x2F;deaths-by-race&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The article’s discussion of the “model minority” stereotype is also a clumsy attempt at racialization. The article points to low-income Asian groups like Burmese. But those groups aren’t poor because they’re Asian, they’re poor because they’re economic immigrants and often refugees. Burmese, in particular, are the most recent major Asian immigrant group. 85% of Burmese Americans are first-generation immigrants, while 80% of Japanese Americans are native born. Less than half of Burmese Americans speak English fluently.&lt;p&gt;But Japanese Americans were also predominantly economic migrants at one point. The important question the article overlooks is income mobility. Asian kids raised in the bottom quantile of income have by far the highest income mobility of any group. 27% will end up in the top quantile by adult hood—almost double the rate for white kids. There is no reason to believe that the Burmese will be any different than say the Vietnamese. Large scale Vietnamese refugee immigration mainly occurred from 1975-2000. As a result, most Vietnamese Americans have been here 20+ years. In that time, Vietnamese Americans have achieved economic parity with whites: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U...&lt;/a&gt;. So have Laotians and Cambodians, who immigrated, mostly as refugees, around that same time period.&lt;p&gt;I can’t help but feel like articles like this are an attempt to racialize Asians and make them identify as a marginalized minority group, instead of as individuals who are in the process of achieving upward mobility. Calling the long-standing economic trends a “myth” is borderline deceptive and risky. Clearly &lt;i&gt;something is working.&lt;/i&gt; But if you make people think that it isn’t working, you might inadvertently break it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dougabug</author><text>Actually, many Asian American communities are being hit pretty hard by Covid-19 in the Bay Area. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.usatoday.com&amp;#x2F;in-depth&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;nation&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;coronavirus-asian-americans-racism-death-rates-san-francisco&amp;#x2F;5799617002&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.usatoday.com&amp;#x2F;in-depth&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;nation&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;cor...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition, racially motivated against Asian Americans are up throughout the country, blaming us for “Kung Flu.”</text></comment>
<story><title>The invisible struggle of the Asian American small-business owner</title><url>https://www.vox.com/21536943/asian-american-restuarant-racism-coronavirus</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rayiner</author><text>The problem with articles like this—apart from the politically constructed racial category of “Asian”—is that there is no support for anything apart from a lot of narrative and a few anecdotes. Asians have by a good margin the lowest covid death rate of any race, despite being much more likely to live in hard hit urban areas: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apmresearchlab.org&amp;#x2F;covid&amp;#x2F;deaths-by-race&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.apmresearchlab.org&amp;#x2F;covid&amp;#x2F;deaths-by-race&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The article’s discussion of the “model minority” stereotype is also a clumsy attempt at racialization. The article points to low-income Asian groups like Burmese. But those groups aren’t poor because they’re Asian, they’re poor because they’re economic immigrants and often refugees. Burmese, in particular, are the most recent major Asian immigrant group. 85% of Burmese Americans are first-generation immigrants, while 80% of Japanese Americans are native born. Less than half of Burmese Americans speak English fluently.&lt;p&gt;But Japanese Americans were also predominantly economic migrants at one point. The important question the article overlooks is income mobility. Asian kids raised in the bottom quantile of income have by far the highest income mobility of any group. 27% will end up in the top quantile by adult hood—almost double the rate for white kids. There is no reason to believe that the Burmese will be any different than say the Vietnamese. Large scale Vietnamese refugee immigration mainly occurred from 1975-2000. As a result, most Vietnamese Americans have been here 20+ years. In that time, Vietnamese Americans have achieved economic parity with whites: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U...&lt;/a&gt;. So have Laotians and Cambodians, who immigrated, mostly as refugees, around that same time period.&lt;p&gt;I can’t help but feel like articles like this are an attempt to racialize Asians and make them identify as a marginalized minority group, instead of as individuals who are in the process of achieving upward mobility. Calling the long-standing economic trends a “myth” is borderline deceptive and risky. Clearly &lt;i&gt;something is working.&lt;/i&gt; But if you make people think that it isn’t working, you might inadvertently break it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oefrha</author><text>TFA isn’t a big revelation, or a great angle.&lt;p&gt;But “Economic parity with whites” doesn’t mean sh﹡t when a racial group (edit: not even a racial group) is discriminated in college admissions, corporate leadership roles, etc., which are some of the most vital external decisions for upward mobility. (These are very widely documented so don’t ask me for citations. You can easily find hundred-comment-strong threads on these topics within this very site.) If anything it means the group has managed to “succeed” &lt;i&gt;despite&lt;/i&gt; all the racial&amp;#x2F;cultural roadblocks, and the efforts they put in are not proportionally repaid.&lt;p&gt;“Individuals who are in the process of achieving upward mobility” — that’s the actual myth. More like work as hard as you can, we’ll randomly select three out of ten to put into the pool of potential upward mobility with all fifty of that other group.&lt;p&gt;I know some people prefer equality of outcome and don’t feel the slightest shame about pushing down hardworking folks based on their ancestries if that’s what it takes to achieve a semblance of equality and diversity. I can’t have a productive conversation with those people. Actually, you know what, I’ve hardly ever seen anyone convincing anyone on this or any other divisive topic, so here’s my opinion, I don’t care what anyone thinks about it, and I’m not gonna further comment on this.</text></comment>