Anti-Asian Bigotry

Why has there been a rash of crimes against Asians? And, by the way, who is committing those crimes? Is it white people or some other group? Is it just another manifestation of American racism or is something else involved?

At the least, we should notice that Asians are among the highest achieving groups in the country. If we were living in a true meritocracy they would be holding most of the places in our elite educational institutions. The fact that they outperform other children by a considerable margin has made several local school districts, like New York City, choose to ignore test scores and accept students on the grounds of race. Asians do not ask for set-asides or affirmative action programs. They want to be judged by their abilities, meritocratically.

If anything, they are persecuted because other people envy their success. They are America’s new Jews.

As for the statistics about Asians in America, we turn to a Quillette article by one Manu Sarna. He begins with the crime statistics. Obviously, no one wants to talk about crime statistics because some groups are overrepresented while others are underrepresented. Asians fall in the last category. They are largely law-abiding:

According to the US Department of Justice Asians commit violent crimes at about one-fifth the rate of the total population. That’s the lowest of any group recorded. By a substantial margin.

How many Asians are on the public dole? Sarna does not say how many Central American migrants are on the dole, but you can easily guess that it is far more than it is among Asians. He adds that Asians are overrepresented in many of the most prestigious professions:

US Bureau of Labor Statistics show Asians claim less employment benefits and have higher earnings (according to census data) than any other group. Further, census data shows Asians have the highest rates of business ownership (and growth) and the most success because of hard work and capital. The National Center for Education Statistics show of all degrees in high-paying professional disciplines (law, dentistry, pharmacy, medicine, etc.) 15 percent were awarded to Asians despite being only 6.3 percent of the population. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition highlight that Asians have, unsurprisingly, accumulated real wealth. 

Is it because of their white privilege? The claim makes little sense, not least because Asians are not white:

But most Asians do not arrive with the advantages (“privileges” in today’s ambiguous phrasing) of English as a first language, nor citizenship, nor meaningful wealth, nor social capital. Each of those is a significant hurdle to overcome. And yet overcome them—at an aggregate level—Asians do.

Why do Asians outperform other ethnic groups? Apparently, they work harder. What a surprise:

Relative to the US population Asian kids do 50 percent more homework, have 35 percent less TV and screen time, are less than half as likely to drink and make up only one percent of all juvenile offenses. The unfortunate “Tiger Mom” stereotype also holds. Asian kids are held to a higher academic expectation than other ethnicities, and Asian parents spend twice as much as others on education.

As it happens, the bigotry against Asians has been provoked by the new equity agenda. If one group has been unfairly kept down, then other groups must have been disproportionately favored. Thus, in order to bring up the underachievers we must bring down the overachievers. It ought to be obvious but affirmative action programs unfairly penalize students who excel in favor of students who do not.

Given the positive story I am telling, why am I calling out anti-Asian bias? Because the recent “equality of outcome” agenda being pushed is a recent and wholly un-American idea. It disproportionately affects Asians. The equality of outcome goal manifests itself in the camouflaged word: “equity.” It is painfully obvious that different cultures have different values. Why shy from the fact? Different values naturally lead to different outcomes. We all start from a different place in life. We cannot change that. We are all raised in different cultures. We cannot change that. Given those conditions we should strive for a level playing field with clear rules of the game. That is American. That is fairness. That is meritocratic.

Of course, meritocracy is currently on life support in today’s America. How under those circumstances can we expect to compete in world markets? We cannot. No surprise there.