“Asians Are Good at Math” Is Not a Compliment: STEM Success as a Threat to Personhood

Abstract

In this conceptual article, Niral Shah critically analyzes how the narrative that “Asians are good at math” positions Asian people as racial subjects. Despite being false, the “Asians are good at math” narrative is prominent in STEM education and is also familiar to the general public. To analyze the narrative's discursive impact on Asian personhood, Shah uses poststructural race theory and Mills's notion of the racial contract, focusing on the interaction between discourses of STEM and discourses of race. Rather than a harmless compliment, Shah argues that the type of mathematical success implied in the narrative dehumanizes Asian people and perpetuates White supremacy, and calls for racial equity and justice work in STEM education to account for ontological questions of personhood alongside traditional concerns about academic content learning and economic access to STEM careers.

Asian American women in STEM in the lab with “White Men Named John”

“…She recalled, “They were like, ‘Oh well, she was just raised robot. There was nothing special about her.’ It wasn't because she was more competent but she was just like a robot who could crank things out.” Thus, this faculty member's talents and accomplishments were depersonalized, furthering the perception of Asian Americans as deviant from the norm, overly‐evolved, and therefore subhuman (Shah, 2019).…”

“…Michelle and Heather reflect the vulnerability to negative stereotyping and the power of the forever foreigner and model minority narrative; one casts Asian Americans as unassimilable and the other portrays them as overly evolved androids (Kim, 1999; Lowe, 1998; Pak et al, 2014; Shah, 2019). In the context of science spaces, where scientist is equated with White males, Asian American women are viewed as outside the bounds of normalcy, both within science and American culture (Lowe, 1998; Pak et al, 2014; Shah, 2019). Viewed as subhuman, Asian Americans “never seem to have just the right amount of the ‘right stuff’ to qualify as human beings” (Shah, 2019, p. 679).…”

“…In the context of science spaces, where scientist is equated with White males, Asian American women are viewed as outside the bounds of normalcy, both within science and American culture (Lowe, 1998; Pak et al, 2014; Shah, 2019). Viewed as subhuman, Asian Americans “never seem to have just the right amount of the ‘right stuff’ to qualify as human beings” (Shah, 2019, p. 679). Thus, the process of dehumanization via externally imposed identities and the attribution of negative stereotypes limited identity development, constraining positive sense of selves and successful identity integration.…”

“…In STEM fields, Asian Americans are simultaneously viewed as idealized labor, quiet, hard-working, naturally talented in STEM but also perceived as the yellow peril, overrunning elite American colleges and universities to the exclusion of others and posing a potential threat to the normative structure of race relations (CARE, 2008;Chen & Buell, 2018;Pak et al, 2014). In the process, Asian Americans are dehumanized; therefore, the racialization of Asian Americans is ultimately about personhood and who gets to be seen as fully human (Shah, 2019).…”

“…The model minority presents Asian Americans as universally successful, both academically and occupationally, an image that has consistently been used to pit Asian Americans against other minority groups, particularly African Americans (Museus, 2014; Poon et al, 2015). As model minorities, Asian Americans are also viewed as passive, compliant, and apolitical (Kim, 1999; Shah, 2019; Shrake, 2006). At the same time, they are depicted as foreign (Kim, 1999; E. Lee, 2015), which highlights the conceptualization of Asian Americans as incapable of assimilating into American society and reinforces the ideal of the White American (Museus, 2014).…”