I’ve posted before about the huge pressure on Asian Americans -- particularly young people -- to achieve material success in American society. Too often, those pressures to live up the “model minority” image lead Asian Americans to commit suicide or harm others. But as the Contra Costa Times reports, such pressures may have led an 18 year old Korean American to pretend that she was a Stanford freshman:

An 18-year-old Fullerton woman spent the past eight months posing as a freshman biology major at Stanford, buying textbooks, sneaking into meals and even moving into a dorm with an unsuspecting roommate. Because she never had a Stanford ID or a school-issued dorm key, she got in and out of her dorm by climbing through the first-floor window.

Her story started unraveling this month, and now the university -- and her stunned circle of friends and dormmates -- are looking back on how a woman described as a sweet student could have pulled off such a ruse. . . . Her story has set off a storm of reaction on campus, with some students disturbed by an apparent security lapse and others wondering whether the high pressure of academic achievement was a factor in why Kim sneaked into the elite university.

Although the article does not specifically note it, I am going to guess that the student, Azia Kim, was rejected by Stanford but was too ashamed to tell her parents, who undoubtedly had huge plans for her going to such an elite school like Stanford. Therefore, she went ahead and pretended to be just another regular Stanford student in order to not disappoint her parents.

If this is indeed her story, I can’t help but to feel very sad for her. Yes she made the wrong decision and deceived a lot of people who trusted her, but she obviously felt desperate under the weight of all the pressure and expectations foisted upon her by her parents and by American society’s image of Asian Americans as the super-smart, high-achieving “model minority.”

I hope her story is a lesson to all young Asian Americans out there -- be realistic and be honest, with yourself and with your parents.

As reflected in the numerous discussion threads across various message boards on the Internet, the topic of interracial relationships and marriages is a very popular and hotly debated topic among Asian Americans. As printed in Nha Magazine and New American Media, commentator Paulette Chu Miniter encapsulates many of the sentiments on both sides:

91 percent of Generation Y-ers say interracial dating is perfectly normal, according to a study by the Pew Research Center in March 2006. By far the most common interracial marriage in America today is one like that of my own—a white husband married to an Asian wife, making up 14 percent of all mixed unions. Interestingly, in 75 percent of Asian-white marriages, the husband is white.

Just about every Asian woman my age I know is dating or married to a white guy. And no matter how different their personalities or backgrounds, they all say the same thing—nothing against Vietnamese guys, but culturally they feel very American and therefore naturally end up dating “American” men, ie, Caucasians. “I have never dated an Asian guy, and will probably never date an Asian guy,” says my cousin Michelle Phi, a student at Texas A&M University. . . .

“I’m a very Americanized Asian girl who needs a very Americanized male,” Phi says. Also, “I fear the potential acquisition of another Asian family.” Another Vietnamese woman I know, a marketing professional in her early 30s, echoed those thoughts: “I think it is an issue of cultural assimilation. Overall, I have found Asian men too ‘Eastern’ in their thinking about women.”

Ouch.

As I noted, interracial relationships is often a very touchy subject for both Asian American men and women. Many readers to this site have cited my article and statistics to support both sides of the argument. As someone who has been interviewed a few times times by reporters doing articles and stories about this subject, I try to interject some objectivity and a sociological framework into the discussion as best as I can.

My position on interracial marriage has always been the same -- it’s hard enough to find a person with whom you are completely compatible. When you find that person, his/her race may be one consideration but in the end, I think love, mutual respect based on a genuine appreciation of one’s racial/cultural identity, and interpersonal equality are the most important factors.

Upon reading Paulette’s article, I think she does a very good job at laying out the emotions and sentiments on both sides. It is very true that many Asian American men still have rather traditional and patriarchal attitudes about Asian American women and that is a large factor that leads many Asian American women away from Asian American men, and rightfully so.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel sad that at least among some of the Asian American women interviewees in the article, they also seem to be caught up in the exact same stereotypes about Asian American men that I presume they would cry bloody murder about if such stereotypes were applied to them. That is, they seem to be categorically rejecting any Asian American man available based on their belief that because he’s Asian, that automatically means that he’s not as Americanized or culturally “liberated” as them.

For example, the student at Texas A&M sadly states that she will probably never date an Asian guy -- she’s not even willing to give any Asian guy a chance and would rather use the blanket generalization that since he’s Asian, that must mean that he’s patriarchal and sexist. End of story.

Ultimately, since this is America, that means that people have the right to believe whatever they want to believe and date whoever they want to date. However, that freedom also gives me the opportunity to say that using broad generalizations and stereotypes like the ones expressed against Asian American men in the article unfortunately only reinforce the larger societal stereotype that all Asians are foreigners and therefore, not real Americans.

While I believe that not all Asian American women have these stereotypical opinions, ultimately, it’s doubly tragic when such stereotypes are perpetuated by members of our own community.

One cultural group in the U.S. that has been under increased scrutiny in the past several years has been Muslim Americans. For better and for worse, many segments of American society are paying much closer attention to their social, economic, and political characteristics these days. In this context, as described by the Christian Science Monitor, the well-respected Pew Research Center has just released a comprehensive report about the Muslim American population:

While the great majority of Muslims are foreign-born and have come to the United States fairly recently, they are happy with their lives, largely assimilated, and remarkably American in outlook. As a whole, they mirror the general population in education and income, and in the role religion plays in their lives. . . .

Almost two-thirds of Muslim-Americans see no conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society. When asked if they see themselves as a Muslim or American first, 47 percent said Muslim. That compares with 42 percent of American Christians (and 62 percent of evangelicals) who say they are Christians first. . . . One unusual development is that Muslims under 30 attend mosque more regularly than older generations, exactly the opposite of Christian youths. . . .

More than 75 percent of Muslim-Americans express concern about Islamic extremism around the world, and only 8 percent say that suicide bombing can ever be justified. Yet 15 percent of Muslim youths say it can sometimes be justified. . . . The survey reveals that native-born African-Americans are the most alienated portion of the Muslim population. Dealing with racial and religious intolerance, they are less satisfied with American life and believe more than others that Muslims should remain distinct from society.

Despite positive views of their communities, most Muslims feel their lives have become more difficult since 9/11. Some 54 percent say the war on terror singles out Muslims. Prejudice, being viewed as terrorists, and ignorance about Islam top their list of problems.

To summarize, the report findings describe Muslim Americans as largely assimilated into the American mainstream and generally satisfied with their lives as Americans. However, because of international events and the war on terrorism, they have some apprehensions about their position in the context of these volatile times. In terms of their cultural identity, they are more likely to assert an American identify first and a religious identity second than are evangelical Christians.

But something tells me that the piece that anti-Muslim critics will pick up on is that 15% of Muslim American youths say that suicide bombings can sometimes be justified, or that only 40% accept that a group of Muslims committed the 9/11 attacks. In other words, like any piece of data or research, this report is likely to be used to both welcome and ostracize Muslims Americans, depending on which piece of data one chooses to focus on.

Personally, I believe Muslims Americans are just like any other Americans and should be treated just like any other American. They are largely integrated into the mainstream of American society, they contribute to its economic and cultural strength, and like the rest of us, they have a range of opinions on different issues. This country is supposedly founded on principles of freedom of speech and religion, so in that sense, Muslim Americans fit in perfectly.

As you may have heard by now, earlier this week, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced an immigration reform proposal that would significantly overhaul the current immigration guidelines. Much of the media’ attention on this proposal has focused on how the new guidelines would affect the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Unfortunately, much less attention has been given to how this proposal would impact Asian Americans.

As the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) argues, it turns out that the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 will, among many things, will no longer allow American citizens to sponsor any child over 21 years of age, terminate the ability of citizens to sponsor their siblings, and ultimately cut the immigration visa quota for parents by half. In other words, the proposed bill would radically shift the current preference system for family reunification toward one based on education and job skills. As Rep. Mike Honda, Chair of the CAPAC argues,

The proposal would undermine this nation’s long tradition of family-based immigration by eliminating several family-based categories. The proposed points system would fail to adequately account for the economic contributions made by family members, who rely on one another to start and run businesses, purchase homes, and send children to college. They provide care for young children, the sick, and elderly.

Rep. Honda’s assertions are consistently backed up by social science research that shows how the presence of family members and relatives have a significantly positive effect on socioeconomic mobility and structural assimilation for immigrants in general, but particularly for Asian immigrants.

Not only do they provide the psychological support network necessary to aid in the process of adjusting to American society, but family members and relatives also provide material support in terms of loaning money, sharing information on available jobs, housing, and social services, labor to help run small businesses, and providing childcare that allows parents to work and increase their education, to name just a few benefits.

In this context, proposals that would severely curtail the family reunification preferences are unfortunately short-sighted and ultimately disastrous in terms of promoting assimilation and socioeconomic integration into American society, which I presume is one of the goals of any legitimate immigration legislation.

While I applaud the Senate for their bipartisan efforts to compromise on this immigration reform proposal (something quite rare these days), in its current form, I cannot support this proposal. If you or your family have also benefited from the advise, assistance, or presence of family members or relatives, I urge you to also tell Congress that they can do better than this.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, many of us might wonder about how events like that fit into the larger context of shooting deaths in daily American life. To try to give us this kind of broader perspective, the New York Times recently came out with a graphic that compares different types of deaths by guns, by different age and racial groups.

The graphic basically shows that the most prevalent form of gun deaths are actually suicides by middle aged White men. Unfortunately, the one thing that the graphic does not show is death rates by population size. In other words, White men make up something like 33% of the U.S. population, so in that context, it may not be entirely surprising that they have the highest numbers of deaths by guns.

However, although the graphic shows that the number of gun deaths involving Black men is slightly lower than that for White men, since Black men make up something like 8% of the U.S. population, it would seem to me that on a per capita basis, Black men are likely to have a higher death rate by guns than White men. Just some food for thought.

Historically and continuing today, a popular issue among Asian Americans is assimilation, otherwise described as the process of combining their traditional Asian ancestry and heritage with their modern lives as young Americans. In fact, this process of negotiating new vs. old, traditional vs. contemporary happens all over the world. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, a very interesting example exists among young Egyptian women and their choices regarding wearing of the hijab:

When she’s not watching Egyptian fashion TV, Ms. Mohammed is checking out what other young Muslim women are wearing on the street or on the subway. “If I like any of their ways of putting [on the] hijab, I can ask them how to do it,” she says of other women she sees in Cairo’s Metro. Mohammed’s two head scarves – aquamarine blue peeking out from under a sea foam green – match her knee-length dress over the top of blue jeans. . . .

Mohammed is like a growing number of young Muslim women in Egypt who have taken to transforming the hijab, the Islamic head dress, from tradition to fashion statement. As head scarves have come to mean many things to Muslims and non-Muslims alike – a sign of piety, a declaration of identity, a center of controversy, a political statement – in Cairo today they sparkle. . . .

As more women began to wearing the scarf, they experimented with new ways to tie it, such as braiding the ends of the scarves or pinning them up to look like flowers. There is even a magazine called Hijab, one of several that feature tying techniques and scarf styles.

The article emphasizes that this growing popularity of the hijab comes at a time when Muslims in Egypt and all around the Arab world are becoming more religious. In other words, they are truly embracing both their traditional culture and their new contemporary sense of aesthetics and fashion and in the process, weaving together their own personal identity that combines elements from both worlds.

Nowadays, Asian Americans have the same opportunity. The reality is that these days, whether we like it or not and with the good and the bad, the world in general and American society in particular is becoming increasingly globalized and transnational -- true international community. As nations such as China and India rise toward global superpower status, we as Asian Americans have the opportunity to capitalize on this situation and to leverage our knowledge and ties to our Asian roots, for our benefit and that of American society in general.

In other words, our expertise is increasingly in demand, here and abroad. In contrast to decades past where being “Asian” was a mark of inferiority, it now has the potential to represent progress into the future. With that in mind, we as Asian Americans have the chance to be at the forefront and lead American society into the 21st globalized and transnational century.

Outsourcing is going on all around us, in various industries and sectors of our economy. But even so, Is it possible to outsource local news reporting to someone halfway around the world? As the Associated Press, that’s exactly what a news website that covers local stories about Pasadena, CA is trying to do:

A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade? . . . James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.

But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India’s lower labor costs. . . . “Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.” . . . The plan has its doubters.

“Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don’t know the institutions but aren’t even there to witness the events and nuances,” said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. “This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become.”

It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth.

Apparently, we have entered the next frontier in the outsourcing and globalization wars. I’m just waiting to see what other jobs will eventually get outsourced overseas? Car washing? Dog walking? Anything seems to be possible.

The Associated Press/Salon.com reports that new data show that the divorce rate in the U.S. is falling and is at its lowest point since 1970, due to several different factors:

Researchers have documented what they call “the divorce divide,” contending that divorce rates are indeed falling substantively among college-educated couples but not among less-affluent, less-educated couples. “Families with two earners with good jobs have seen an improvement in their standard of living, which leads to less tension at home and lower probability of divorce,” said Andrew Cherlin, a professor of public policy at Johns Hopkins University. . . .

What’s fueling that decline? According to 20 scholars, marriage-promotion experts and divorce lawyers consulted by The Associated Press, a combination of things. The number of couples who live together without marrying has increased tenfold since 1960; the marriage rate has dropped by nearly 30 percent in past 25 years; and Americans are waiting about five years longer to marry than they did in 1970. . . .

The per capita divorce rate is different from another method of calculation -- the percentage of marriages that will eventually end in divorce or separation. Many experts discount the popular notion that one of two U.S. marriages end in divorce, and suggest the breakup rate, which is hard to calculate, has stabilized in recent years at between 40 percent and 45 percent.

As I’ve posted about earlier, this decline in the divorce rate has been apparent for some time now. To summarize, the causes are more cohabitation among couples leading to fewer marriages in general, people waiting longer to marry, and people who do marry tend to be more educated and more affluent and therefore more economically stable.

Ultimately, people who have been making doomsday predictions about the end of the “traditional” family are right about one thing -- that families come in all different varieties these days, not just the traditional form of a heterosexual husband and wife and their children. But such critics seem to be a little too pessimistic when they argue that such changes are detrimental to American society.

Although we need to look at more measures than the falling divorce rate before making any definitive conclusions, my impression is that such changes in the structure of contemporary American families mean that yes things are different, but not necessarily that things are worse. In many respects, they’re better.