Ronald Takaki

Ronald Takaki, "The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority"

Ronald Takaki (1939- ) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and earned a B.A. from the College of Wooster in 1961, and both an M.A. (1962) and a Ph.D. (1967) from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a professor of ethnic studies at U.C. Berkeley for more than thirty years. Takaki frequently writes about ethnic topics, and his books include A Pro-Slavery Crusade: The Agitation to Reopen the African Slave Trade (1971), Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (1989), and Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II (2000). His work also appears in periodicals such as Dissent, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Technology Review. Among Takaki's awards and honors are an American Book Award and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. "The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority" examines an often-overlooked aspect of stereotyping. It was first published in 1990 in the New York Times and reprinted in A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993).

CONTENT

1. What is the main source of the image of Asian Americans as highly successful?
2. Where do the majority of Asian Americans live?
3. Explain the term "model minority."
4. Describe the context in which the author mentions Korean greengrocers in paragraph twelve. Why does he mention their level of education?
5. What does Takaki find troubling about comparing Asian Americans to African Americans and other minorities?
6. According to the author, what's the major problem with celebrating Asian Americans?

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. Generally, we don't think of "superior" things to be "harmful." Discuss this juxtaposition in the title, and argue for the title's effectiveness or ineffectiveness in this light.
2. How would you describe this essay in terms of rhetorical mode? Does the author structure it by means of showing cause and effect, by providing examples, or by illustrating comparisons and contrasts? Support your answer with specifics from the essay.
3. Review your answer to Content question c.) above. How can you link the author's feelings about the representation of Asian Americans with his consistent use of quotation marks around the phrase model minority?
4. The paragraphs in this piece are noticeably shorter than those in most of the others in your text. Discuss how this article's origin as an Op-Ed column affected this decision. How would the piece change if the media context changed? Pick one specific mass medium and explain.

1. Do you interact with Asian Americans often? Are you an Asian American yourself? How did the answers to these questions affect your reading?
2. Recall a time when someone made a misperception about you based upon your cultural background. How did it make you feel? What did you do about it? How can you relate your recollection to your experience reading this piece?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. State the thesis of this essay as precisely as you can. What are the author's main points, and what is the nature of support for each of them?
2. Here's a proverb: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Relate this proverb to the author's view of stereotypes. Make sure your ideas of "Hell" and "good intentions" are clearly stated.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

This article was first published in 1990. Pick two facts mentioned by the author dealing with income, education, or population density among a particular Asian American group in a specific location. Do some research to find out how the situation regarding that group has changed, if at all. What conclusions can you draw from your research update?

WEB CONNECTION

Take a look at these reviews of Takaki's book A Different Mirror. Some of them are blurbs. What methods would you use to find the whole review in these cases? What information on this page would you feel comfortable about using for a paper about "The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority," and what information would you avoid using? Why? What's a major difference between the two types of reviews found here?

LINKS

Biographical

Ready to start your online research of Takaki's life? Here's a brief biography of the author from the University of Southern California.

For a slightly different approach, take a look at the author's homepage at Berkeley. Which of these two links contains more useful biographical information? Explain. Which might be more reliable? Why?

Bibliographical

This interview with Takaki centers around promoting Asian American studies and the general awareness of such programs.

Ready for some of Takaki's work in etext? Visit this link and you can read a chapter from Double Victory. Do you like using etext? Why or why not? Does etext have any advantages over hard copy?

Cultural

Interested in the huge topic of multiculturalism, but not sure how to start narrowing a topic for a research paper? Take a look at this directory on multiculturalism from the Open Directory project, and you'll find plenty of good ideas to get you going.

Let's get more specific. Takaki's grandparents immigrated to Hawaii from Japan in 1886. For more information about Japanese immigration patterns to Hawaii, take a visit to this site.

Click over to this site, where you'll find some information about Takaki's American Book Award. Which of the other authors do you recognize on this page? Where could you find out more about them? What does this say about the company Takaki is keeping?