Stop the Minority Labeling & Start Connecting with Everyone

Have you heard of the phenomenon, often referred to as the "Bamboo ceiling." When I first joined the Navy as my first career in the US, I was the first part of the statistics but no longer true in today’s world.

But is it?

In 2020, Lu and colleagues published a research article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science explaining that East Asians are less likely than South Asians and whites to succeed in American organizations, partly because the non-assertive communication style of East Asians does not match the leadership or communication styles of American mainstream culture. This research proves that most East Asians - but not so much South Asians - are less likely than other ethnicities to emerge as leaders in multiethnic environments partly because East Asians tend to socialize more effectively in their own native way with their own cultural members.

I would also add besides the East Asians that Lu mentioned, other cultures like the black community were more likely to be nominated and elected as leaders partly because they tend to socialize our communicate more especially with their own ethnic in-group members. But I can only speak based on my last 6 years in business and 23 years of military experience from 1991-to 2014.

In short, East Asian Americans particularly people from Japan, Korea, and China who are native English speakers raised in the United States, tend to succeed and socialize more with their ethnic in-group than other Asians from Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This may be why there are challenges for many Asians due to the cultural mismatch between their ethnic belongingness and the social dynamics of becoming leaders in multiethnic American settings.

Now, of course, there are exceptions to the rule, as an Asian American from the Philippines love to socialize and host networking events like the group I created in 2016 called FusionMeet.

There is still Asian underrepresentation in the black community because of our timidity (me speaking in general as Filipino American) and being a role model (in school or tech industry) should bring more networking opportunities for diverse interactions, mentorship, and representation.