O pinion
Bloom Continued from Page 16
call my own. Time after time, I
hear from both Asian American
and Jewish American commu-
nities a joke that the two groups
are so similar; that my parents
come from two extremely
“learned” communities; that
my parents are such a perfect
relationship match. A worse joke
is how “Jewish guys have a thing
for Asian chicks” — straight-up
fetishization. When we take the
time to unpack the reactions
to this match, we arrive at the
deeply planted American model
minority myth.

fail to make the connection
of how the history of slavery
in this country forever shapes
the Black American experience
in entirely harsher and more
systematic ways. On top of this,
both Asian Americans and
Jewish Americans often fail to
address their anti-Blackness.

To begin to rectify this, we
must dismiss the notion that the
American minority experience
is monolithic. By comparing
experiences of minorities in
the U.S. based on “economic
success,” which unfortunately
decides the assessment of overall
“success” in this country, the
premise perpetuates the false
notion that if you simply adopt
We must stop holding up Asian and Jewish
communities as examples of “success” while
ignoring the systemic barriers facing other
minority communities.

When I was applying for
colleges, a counselor (who was
Jewish) advised that I focus my
entrance essay on my Asian
and Jewish identities because
the two communities “highly
value education, and others just
don’t.” I was taken aback, but
it was only recently that I’ve
been able to identify why that
remark made me uncomfort-
able. The implication behind
my college counselor’s state-
ment is rooted in the model
minority myth: that Asians and
Jews are somehow smarter or
more “learned,” and that other
minority communities (Black,
Latinx, etc.) aren’t. Embracing
the idea that Jews and Asians
achieve higher economic
success in the U.S. from a “pull
yourself up by your bootstraps”
mentality is weaponized against
other minorities.

The obvious difference
between the story of the African
American community and the
Asian American and Jewish
American communities is clear:
Black people came here enslaved.

Jews and most Asian people
did not. Yet white people and
other minorities consistently
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM a strong work ethic, you will
“succeed.” It buys into the myth
that the “American dream” is
a tangible goal that supposedly
ignores barriers formed by race,
gender, faith and other identi-
ties. We must stop holding up
Asian and Jewish communi-
ties as examples of “success”
while ignoring the systemic
barriers facing other minority
communities. The intersection of my
identities doesn’t create the
ideal student/worker/contrib-
utor to a capitalist system. My
parents don’t love each other
because they’re supposedly
smarter or supposedly harder
workers. They don’t love each
other because they’re learned
individuals who relate to one
another on some shared value
placed on education. They love
each other because they make
each other laugh. l
Hanah Bloom is an honors first year
student majoring in political science
and philosophy at Miami University
of Ohio. She’s on the prelaw track
and is a 2020-2021 Alma College
Writing Fellow. A version of this
article originally appeared on Alma.

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