Adam Ruins Everything - How America Created the “Model Minority” Myth | truTV

When Soviet propaganda started to make America seem racist during the Cold War, America went from a country that despised Asians to one that held them up as a shining example of assimilation to gain them as allies. #truTV #AdamRuins

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In Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted. A blend of entertainment and enlightenment, Adam Ruins Everything is like that friend who knows a little bit too much about everything and is going to tell you about it... whether you like it or not. 

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Adam Ruins Everything - How America Created the “Model Minority” Myth | truTV

[Elsisalittleconcerned]

I was raised by White parents, am a Chinese woman myself. We’re not rich, just somewhere in the middle class. My math scores SUCKED but I excelled in anything writing based. Hearing from teachers and other students that I “wasn’t really Asian, ” or “not living up to” my heritage/background hurt growing up. Positive stereotypes are still harmful! They build heights to which we can never climb.

[wow]

Just to let everyone know: yes, in Asian cultures, there is a VERY high emphasis on academics. Some families will even physically or verbally abuse their children if they get a low grade, and it is really damaging. But when classmates and friends start expecting you to be smart and better than everyone else, it just gets worse.

All I’m trying to say is that when classmates and friends start making comments like “whoa you got a 70% on the math exam? I thought you were Asian” it just makes Asians feel more inferior and that they’re dumb. We get enough stress from our parents about good grades; the people we spend literally 8 hours a day with for most of the year shouldn’t put that pressure on us too.

[versaceslug]

Everyone in the comments arguing about politics, but no ones gonna mention the fact that they thought that was Travis Scott at the beginning.

[NoliMeTangere]

This is quite interesting from a teacher's perspective. This myth has been so ingrained into the American culture that yes, typically when I have an Asian student, I do have to purposefully take a step back and not dig into the stereotype that somehow they will be my smartest and my best. In education, we've really focused on teachers addressing negative stereotypes that might be held about racial, ethical or religious minorities (yes, we DO discuss this with professionals, sometimes in meetings as often as once per week). We attend countless Professional Development meetings to combat treating some minorities differently (such as African American, Native American or Latinex students), but I've never attended a single one which has ever focused on Asian students. In fact, I admit, this past year when one of my Asian students began showing major behavior issues in class, I was really surprised. If any other race had done the same, I would have had an established routine for how to handle it. This is a very good episode. Even stereotypes which might seem positive on the surface can be very damaging if we look closely enough. We might not be able to change our initial reaction right away, if an idea has been presented to the point of muscle memory, but we can take the minute to consider our actions and ask if they are based in fact, or just on what we've always been told. As for my Asian student and her misbehavior: her parents were going through a divorce. I would have misbehaved too, in her shoes. My hope is that more awareness is brought to this issue in the classroom. We all know inherently that a person's race or ethnicity does not make them smarter or more focused than someone else, but it's good to sit down and actually address any subconscious stereotypes we are carrying-especially as teachers who truly need to be able to make each child feel welcomed, appreciated and cared for.

[jacobusdreyer]

"And frankly it's kinda ridiculous that we lump people from so many different backgrounds together as Asians" you can say the same about African Americans because Africa is not a country It's a continent with multiple countries.

[gilbertthebushwacker]

"Soviet propaganda started to make America seem racist "
Lmao

[billybobobson]

0:20-0:25 How I feel when they upload these 62 different times on 23 different channels

[SmN]

We Russians are called Commies. Even though Soviet Collapsed in 1991.

[dwzm]

Asians also face a lot of discrimination from ALL races. They just don't talk about it as much.

[jasoncheung]

the fact that this stereotype exists in many english/European speaking countries makes this myth more concerning and rather a understatement at this point

[jeffapellido]

The most important part of this video seems to be flying over the head of most of its critics. The US government changed the immigration laws to be strongly based on merit, so a large fraction of Asians that live in this country are descendants of these rich and highly educated Asian immigrants. While most other races, both legally and illegally, came here through slavery or to escape poverty and war. So, citing statistics about how successful Asians are relative to African Americans and Latinos in the US means little because it is extremely biased.

[ditoo]

I need to update my list.
"Cut it out" Joey
"Have mercy" Jesse
"Sammy and the rippers" Jesse
"Watch the hair" Jesse
Creating lists like this one, Danny

[whoami]

Im asian
South east asian
And when i only said asian they imagine im chinese, or japanese, or korean

[penndawt]

I taught ESL in Korea. I told them that American stereotype Koreans as studious. They laughed it off, knowing that's far from the truth.

[nessa]

My mom thinks this is fake. She thinks the Chinese worked hard and got the "model minority" status all on their own rather than from government propaganda.



(my mom is Chinese and doesn't include other Asians in the "model minority" except for Koreans and Japanese)

[popolin]

Asia is a continent not a country. A lot of people tend to forget that there are many countries in Asia and that each of these countries have completely different cultures, languages, history and so on.

[chinmayanand]

The consistent combing by uncle sammy sure resembles his desperation to create a perfect(fake) image

[CassandrashadowcassMorrison]

Actually, the "Yellow Peril" idea started In the UK and moved over here. Ever heard of Dr. Fu Manchu? The author of that series "Sax Rohmer" (real name Arthur Sarsfield Ward) hails from Merrie Olde England.
1900's London was dealing with the "yellow peril" question, a term evolved from the imagined threat and racial bias concerning Asian immigration. Films and books as well as the politics of the day reflected this attitude. From Ch. II The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu (1913);
"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government-- which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man." *
Heady words for heady times. From the thriving merchant trade Chinese communities were established in London's Limehouse district, populated partly by dockworkers and sailors. Tales of opium dens, illegal immigration, corruption, and death were rampant topics in the news and intoxicating material for readers and novelists including Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde. Rohmer's The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu profited from these morbid worrying expansionist effects. The evil genius and his wickedly sadistic and cunning daughter Fah Lo Suee fight the Western powers embodied in Commissioner Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. Mysterious Eastern instruments and shadowy evil figures are at their disposal. The novel was an instant best-seller.

Yet I have watched Samuel L. Jackson commenting on how Britain was never racist like the US.
Nick Fury is an idiot if he believes that. 😎
Ask him why British Soldiers during the 2nd World War were known to refer to people of color as WOGS.
It was because they had the bad habit of referring to His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia and Elect of God as "That Dirty Little (insert N word here)" and were ordered by Montgomery to refer to him as that "Worthy Oriental Gentleman".

*The only thing Fu Manchu doesn't have is the thing he is most famous for. A "Fu Manchu"

[Davidparkdo]

You were years ahead of the times by creating this video. Well done Adam!

[NightcoreSkies]

Agreed. I'm Chinese-Japanese-Vietnamese and I can ASURE you that even though I grew up in Hong Kong, where there's extremely strict academic rules and absolutely NO rights for students, I still suck ass at maths. The idea why many Chinese (I'm going to use that as an example since I have experience in it) are good at that is because they're abuse both verbally and physically for not having good grades. Basically the reason why one student jumped off a parking lot in Hong Kong. I'm just sick of these sterotypical model that asians are seem as nerds and smart.