Asian Americans Are No Smarter Than You

I will be honest. I always believe in candor, but especially if I portray myself as small, mean, and petty. Any argument that runs against one's own self-interest should be treated with greater respect. Its credibility depends on facts, not assumptions.

Here is what I would like to disclose by way of further background. When I was a kid growing up, my parents often — it seemed to me always, but I will cut them some slack here — compared me to some child of their friends', or a cousin, who was doing better than me in school. They wanted, I know now, to inspire me to apply myself. The effect at the time, however, was to make me want to punch my supposed better in the nose and it has been ever since to generate resentment.

With that out of the way, I will express my anger. As an Asian American, I cannot stand the headlines that I read about Asians, Asian immigrants, and Asian Americans being academically superior to other Americans. Nobody would stand for someone saying, "I am better than you. You ought to be like me." As is true of individuals, so perhaps also communities.

Asian Americans should not be running around telling people to be more like them. Others should not point to them to send that message either. That's if you are sincere, if you intend to promote self-improvement, not cause trouble. If you want anyone to adapt the behavior shown by someone else, stating that the characteristic is a defining trait of the other person(s) does not encourage anyone to emulate it or give them hope they could do so.

The reason I am put out is the most objective investigations actually show not that Asians are smarter in general, but that they make more effort on average. This distinction makes all the difference. It isn't an "Oriental" secret that explains their grades. It's old-fashioned elbow grease.

That means anybody else can do exactly the same. It isn't racial, it isn't proprietary, and it isn't all that remarkable even. The message should not be: "Asians succeed, because they're Asian." It shouldn't even be: "Asians succeed, because they work hard." It should be simply anybody who succeeds, likely has worked hard.

You could do Asian American youngsters no worse favor than to characterize them as super nerds. Even if they do not become smug and self-satisfied, they cannot help but be turned into targets. I might not be normal in every respect, but I'll bet I am not atypical in my irritation with those deemed to be my superiors. Add to such sentiments the volatility of racial stereotypes, and you will not improve anybody's lot in life.

What is worse is the demoralizing consequence for non-Asian Americans. For some time, there has been talk about African Americans and Hispanics who feel compelled to avoid "acting white" in school. Nowadays, the parallel problem has developed of whites who complain they cannot compete with Asian Americans on campus.

Of course, they can! It hardly seems as if I should have to say that. Yet it's a reasonable inference from the press coverage of the "model minority" that the valedictorian spot and the rest of the top ten of the class in high school, college, and beyond are racially reserved for the invading horde of Wu, Patel, and Nguyen.

This isn't idle sensitivity (on behalf of whites). Alongside the studies of Asians doing well are batches of studies that show how a belief that effort pays off makes it so, while the contrary conviction that innate talent is all that matters leads to all-around less desirable outcomes. There also are reams of research on self-fulfilling prophecies about which student is bright and which is not.

I'm willing to entertain the possibility that, as some suggest, immigrants of various backgrounds display superiority to compatriots of the same nation whom they have left behind as well as native Americans of that respective ancestry. That is a generalization about the drive to attain freedom and opportunity, not an invidious stereotype about race and ethnicity.

I come back to a statement that does not advance me one bit: There is nothing special about Asian Americans. My parents did offer advice about achievement worth repeating: Always try your best.

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