Internalized model minority myth among Asian Americans: Links to anti-Black attitudes and opposition to affirmative action.

OBJECTIVES

The current study contributes to the field's limited knowledge about the sociopolitical consequences of internalized Model Minority Myth (MMM) among Asian Americans. In particular, we examine how the MMM serves as a legitimizing ideology, in which the perpetuation of beliefs about society as fair ultimately maintain racial inequality.

METHODS

Using path analysis with 251 Asian American college students, we tested a model linking internalized MMM (i.e., attitudes towards Asian Americans as achievement oriented and as having unrestricted mobility, compared to other racial minorities) to anti-Black attitudes and opposition to affirmative action for Black Americans. We examined direct effects of internalized MMM on such outcomes, as well as indirect effects through other legitimizing ideologies, including just world beliefs and racial colorblindness.

RESULTS

Findings demonstrated that greater levels of internalized MMM among Asian American college students predicted greater anti-Black attitudes and opposition to affirmative action. Greater internalized MMM achievement orientation and unrestricted mobility also directly predicted greater just world beliefs and colorblindness. Results from our test of indirect effects showed that internalized MMM achievement orientation and unrestricted mobility both indirectly predicted opposition to affirmative action through colorblindness, and unrestricted mobility also indirectly predicted anti-Black attitudes through colorblindness. Also, achievement orientation and unrestricted mobility indirectly predicted anti-Black attitudes through just world beliefs.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings have implications for research and practice that promotes awareness of and seeks to challenge the MMM, anti-Blackness, and beliefs about affirmative action among Asian Americans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).