Playing Into A Positive Stereotype

I read with mixed feelings an op-ed written last month by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times extolling the brilliance of Asian-American whiz kids, which comprised the majority of the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search. Of course it's nice to hear that kids from immigrant families from China and India, similar to the one in which I grew up, have distinguished themselves in the adolescent academic world. It's sure better than being unfairly stereotyped as a minority who suck up welfare rolls and join gangs while stealing American jobs. No, scratch that - Asians are still blamed for the latter - they just tend to be much higher paying jobs that our immigrant brethren are accused of stealing.

The reinforcement of the Asian-American whiz kid stereotype also irritates me because it leads Asians and non-Asians alike to idolize academic success as the be-all and end-all of existence. When you hear that "Local San Jose realtors are running ads in newspapers in China and India telling potential immigrants to 'buy a home' in her Lynbrook school district because it produced 'two Intel science winners,'" this is an example of the exploitation of this worship. As I wrote in an earlier post, not enough attention is given to the "collateral damage" of well-meaning parents who sincerely want their kids to succeed, leading to burned-out and embittered kids, some of whom which still end up as academic conquerors, and some who don't.

Another bone to pick in Friedman's article is that he uses the success of these Asian kids to launch into a love-fest for the globalized economy, which is sort of leap. While he talks about how wonderfully convenient it is for me to take an idea, have a "designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it." This is all well and good unless you happen to be an American designer, prototype developer, or manufacturer with no intention of moving to Taiwan, China or Vietnam who isn't particularly gifted at coming up with "ideas". Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the efficient use of resources and the globalized economy, it's just that Friedman seems to conveniently leave out the messy pain and casualties of jobs and families left in offshoring's wake.

So yes, there are good things about immigration, academic achievement and the global economy - but it doesn't take an Asian kid to realize that there's a dark side, as well.