A more accurate look at Asians in the USA - no "Asian Advantage"

The New York Times isn't the quality newspaper it used to be in its glory days (the days in the far past when it was truly great). It did not adjust well to the development of the internet and has lost many of its best journalists. Many of the pieces I read in the Times (when I bother to read it) are not especially well-written or thought-provoking. Some articles are really bad.

Recently someone who writes for the NY Times stupidly asserted that "Asians" as a group had an 'advantage' over other races in the USA and he provided various statistics to 'prove' this. Asian folks, themselves, have responded by saying he is merely promoting a harmful stereotype about Asians.

A stereotype is an image or belief about a certain group of people based on a few examples. As other Asians have pointed out, there are many Asian people who are suffering in the USA. Certain Asian groups in the USA are doing well, but this does not mean that a racist stereotype should be created. But that's what the NY Times did. 

The Economist also did this by calling Asians 'the model minority group' - meaning the perfect group of people in the USA who do not represent the 'dominant' group...but everyone knows the Economist is a piece of garbage conservative magazine.  (A conservative person or magazine does not like to see things change and supports businesses over people. George Bush was a conservative in the USA.)

This article below is just wonderful - so intelligently written. It points out that there were two basic 'waves' recently of Asian immigration to the USA. In the first wave highly educated Asians were allowed into the country and in the second wave people escaping from war were let in. Yet, when some people look at 'Asians in the USA' they only look at the first wave of immigrants and ignore the second wave. Then they look at the first wave and say, "Look at how well they are doing! There must be something in Asian culture to make Asians so successful. maybe it is Confucianism!" This is, basically, racist and encourages non-Asians to look at Asians the wrong way. What a great article! Thank you CNN.

An article about this (this is a GREAT article):

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/14/news/economy/asian-americans-disadvantage/index.html?fb101415asiandisadvantage700story

Vocabulary to help you understand the story:

to be ignored - if something is being ignored, attention is not being paid to it

troubling - if something is troubling it makes you feel concerned, worried

the numbers are compelling - the statistics make it seem as if what they are saying is true. If something is compelling it holds your attention and seems to be true.

when you dig a little bit - when you investigate a little further

diverse - wide, not uniform, not the same, a variety

he penned a response - he wrote a response

perpetuates - continues

garment workers - people who make clothing under terrible conditions

disproportionally stars - there are more 'stars' among Asians than other groups

to air their discontent - to express their anger and how upset they were

to elide it - basically he used the wrong word here. He should have used 'avoid' - to elide is to not pronounce a sound that is supposed to be pronounced in a word. God the NY Times sucks.

trauma - if you experience trauma you have had a terrible experience and still feel the psychological effects of it

war-torn countries -  countries where there is war occurring

tenet - assumption or belief

to fuel something - to keep it going

devastating - shocking, psychologically harmful