For Asian Americans, Claiming American Identity Means Rejecting the Model Minority Myth

Andrew Yang’s op-ed is clearly the product of someone who hasn’t learned about structural racism

Last month, Andrew Yang wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post on how Asian Americans can be “part of the cure” during this COVID-19 pandemic. I was annoyed after reading it and sighed in disappointment that he is one of the more prominent Asian American politicians (well, political candidates) at this time.

I was comforted when I saw Twitter comments coming through that pushed back on Yang’s ideas, and I was heartened to see a thoughtful piece authored by John Cho and a strong response published by Densho, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans.

There are almost too many problematic statements in Yang’s op-ed to even enumerate.

When describing pre-COVID times, Yang said his “place in this country felt assured,” followed by a description of an incident when “a teenager had yelled “Chink” at [Yang] from the window of his car” and “it barely registered.” I was incredibly bewildered to read this as an example of how Yang’s place in this country felt assured. Using this encounter to describe pre-COVID normalcy shows me that he tacitly accepts a very low standard for public conduct and tolerates the usage of racial slurs in our society.