“模范少数族裔”理论:神话与现实

The Model Minority Thesis: Myth and Reality

“模范少数族裔”理论是在 60年代民权运动的背景下 ,在联邦政府刚刚通过了一系列反对种族歧视法规的形势下出台的。它以加州大学社会学教授威廉·皮特森在《时代》杂志上发表的“日裔美国人的成功”一文为标志。 80年代该理论再度升温 ,并将其赞美范围由华、日裔扩大到韩、菲、越等亚裔族群。该理论的核心内容是借夸张宣扬亚裔族群在经济方面的成功实例 ,影射美国黑人的惰性及其对联邦政府的经济依赖。这不仅掩盖了亚裔族群遭受的种族歧视 。

The model minority thesis was born during the civil rights revolution in the 1960s, shortly after comprehensive federal laws were passed against racial discrimination. 'Success Story, Japanese American Style,' written by University of California at Berkeley sociologist William Petersen and printed by New York Times Sunday Magazine, was the most influential article which marked the forming of the thesis. In the 1980s the range of the accolades on Chinese American and Japanese Americans expanded to Korean, Philippine and Vietnamese Americans. The core of the thesis is to criticize African Americans for their laziness and reliance on the federal government's financial support by bestowing exaggerated praise on Asian American success in economy. The model minority myth does more than cover up racial discrimination Asian American suffered for over a hundred years; it instigates anti-Asian sentiment not only in the group of the black people, but also among the whites.