The Misbegotten Critique of the Model Minority Myth

Abstract: I argue in this article that Asian Americanists' standard critique of the "model minority myth" does more harm than good and should therefore be abandoned. I show that the critique misses the forest for the trees, disavowing structural anti-Blackness and the differentiated positioning of Asian Americans and Black people that it produces, thereby misconceiving the stakes and function of model minority discourse. What I offer here, then, is a critique of the critique of model minority discourse—as well as suggestions for how to re-assess such discourse in relation to anti-Blackness.