As a racial minority group, Asian Americans are in a distinct position as the subject of stereotypes, both positive and negative. From the very beginning as Chinese laborers who immigrated to work in the California gold mines in the 1840s to the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, Asian Americans were the focus of very express discrimination. This discrimination includes the 1860 California ban of Asian Americans in public schools (Wing, 2007), the 1880 California practice of forbidding marriage between a white person and "a Mongolian" (Shizue Seigel, 1999), and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese immigration to the United States (Yu, 2006). The concept of the "yellow peril" invading the country and threatening the American way of life were commonly portrayed views among Whites until the 1960s when the depiction of Asians began to shift. At that time, two prominent magazine articles highlighted Asian American success despite immense impediments. In The New York Times Magazine article, William Peterson wrote with reference to Japanese Americans who were exceedingly successful, possessed diligence, frugality, strong family ties, and a high regard for education that they were the "model minority".

What qualifies one as a "model minority" is multifaceted. Research has found that Asian American families have a higher median income, have a greater median number of years of education completed, have a disproportionately high population in top universities, and outscore other racial groups including Whites in numerous tests assessing intelligence, scholastic ability, and cognitive development (Ramirez, 1986). The stereotype that Asian Americans are conforming, passive, nonresistant, ambitious, highly valuing education, family oriented, and self-sufficient betrays the numerous members who struggle financially, medically, socially, academically, and emotionally but carry on unnoticed due to the myth.

The perpetuation of this myth and the rapidfire speed with which it spread is in great part due to the timing of its origin. Introduced in the 1960s, it was a divisive weapon to silence those who were fighting for the civil rights of all, but specifically of African Americans. The Civil Rights Movement threatened everything that white supremacy and institutional racism had created and maintained. Using one racial minority as a standard of success permitted the dominant group to dismiss the claims of African Americans at the time, as well as now (Yu, 2006). By maintaining this myth, the dominant group is able to preserve their position of power without truly examining the institutional racism that creates barriers that hard work and education can never overcome.

Asian Americans strive to be the model minority

As Asian Americans have immigrated to the United States, they have sought success for themselves and their families. They quickly learn to imitate the behavior and values of the dominant group in order to be perceived as "true" Americans. Asian Americans choose to work long hours, educate themselves, act submissively, and avoid conflicts in order to avoid the "yellow peril" mentality by Whites. For Asian Americans who are not first generation immigrants, there is no less pressure. In an article contrasting the assumed success of Asian Americans and the supposed failure of African Americans, Asian Americans students made up almost 50% of the student body of an elite magnet public high school in New York City. Surrounded by likeminded peers, these students enjoy academic support, similar familial experiences, and shared expectations of success. However, as Asian Americans, there is the reality that some will always view them as foreigners regardless of immigrant status. Due to this, Asian American parents and students reason they must counteract this reality with exceptional effort and educational success (Lew, 2006).

Asian American parents who are first generation immigrants often seek more for their children in education and assure this by being more likely to attend school meeting and activities, creating study space at home, and just as likely to attend parent teacher conferences, read to their children, and teach them letters and numbers as White parents (Corwyn & Bradley, 2008). It has been found that Asian American students average higher scores in reading and math, higher rankings and grade point averages, higher share of academic awards, and higher attendance and graduation from higher education (Hsia & Peng, 1998).