Blog 11

When people say disaggregate data, what is happening is that the data itself is being put in sub-categories. It brings forward things that may not be seen in an aggregate data set. When we look at Asian American and Pacific Islander, it’s important to have as many categories needed to have good representation as what they identify as. For example, in the video “Adam Ruins Everything – How America Created the ‘Model Minority’ Myth”, Computer felt misrepresented as he was called “the smart Asian neighbor”. He explains that he is actually Korean American and also loves frisbee. Disaggregate data is important because instead of grouping all Asians and Pacific Islanders in ONE big group. We are able to see the different and many racial ethnicities. They also show the data accurately represented numbers and statistics. And if we decide not to use this way, with aggregate data you’re only giving a single number and it represents a larger data set. Without good representation, individuals and families may feel underrepresented and discouraged to be who they are.  

Personally, I believe in knowing your roots and what your ancestors hoped and wished to be passed down. I think Asian American and Pacific Islanders should do the best they can to try to preserve their cultural values within their family. I think this is good for character development. Although, it’s not bad to try to accommodate to the American values. But everyone is not the same. It’s good to be different. The American way is not always the right way. Some challenges may be adjustment. In the article, “Tiger Mother: Popular and Psychological Scientific Perspectives on Asian Culture and Parenting”, it speaks about acculturation with the Asian American families do not correlate with decreasing academic performance. But due to cultural values, Asian Americans believe that “that their ethnic group members are more successful because of cultural values of hard work and achievement orientation.” But due to that pressure, it causes stress levels to become so high because of the expectations to be better.  

Something that I learned this week that I never heard about the “mode minority” and I found it really interesting to hear about. Model minority is basically a group of stereotypes and high expectation of a minority figure. Since I’m not Asian American, it left me wondering how many Asian Americans feel about the model minority myth. Words hurt but it seems that Asian American families put a heavy load of pressure and expectation of their child. It’s different to see how they understand their parents love language as they say and do things that may seem strange to an outsider.