Asian American Overachievers when test taking endsing ends.

[eg1]

Originally Posted by mafoofan

You must have a higher opinion of people in general than I do. By your definition, most people are idiots.

Originally Posted by Manton

I bet we are closer than you think on this.

A misanthropic engineer friend of mine has a numerical expression for this group -- "the 95ers". If we are brutally honest with ourselves, I am sure there are contexts wherein each and every one of us belongs firmly among them. YMMV

 

[TonyHuynhTwo]

This is an absolutely unbelievable thread.

I'm a first generation Asian-American. It's pretty obvious to me why Asians aren't proportionately represented in corporate management, asians that want to run a business own their own businesses. My dad has always owned his own business, most of his Asian friends own their own businesses, and most of my extended family own their own businesses. My uncle worked for a server management company for five years as a division head before leaving to open up a chain of gas stations. After the COO and CFO of his former company were fired for impropriety as fiduciary's, my uncle was offered the COO position. Which he declined because the offer was significantly lower than what he was earning as a small business owner.

For the self-hating Asian from the first page: it sounds like to you got the short end of the stick when it came to looks, personality (obviously), and racial tolerance. For me I'm attractive, intelligent, well adjusted, and very charismatic (pre-requisites for a salesman). None of these traits can be directly attributed to my race, because none of these are racial characteristics. I feel sorry for the people that put stock into generalizations and racial stereotypes, because they're never going to fully understand the people in the world they live in. How could a person that thinks all Black people are lazy and dumb, explain a Black President that was able to locate and kill the most wanted terrorist in the world; a feat his white predecessor was unable to accomplish. Everybody conceptualizes the world differently, some choose to make judgements about other people before they get to know them because of preconceived notions about a group, while I myself like to get to know individuals before making my own judgements about them. Race is just one of those useless and outdated socially constructed ideas people cling on to that really serve no purpose.

 

[Cavalier]

From what I've seen and heard, 16-25 year old Indian kids' ambitions have been pacified by obtaining coveted iPhone ownership and shopping/walking around malls. I see azns heading down similar path.

 

[javyn]

Tony, did that have anything to do with Asian immigrants being pre-approved for business loans?

This completely changed the face of the Gulf of Mexico shrimping industry for instance. I still to this day hear groans and complaints from native ex-fishermen in TX and LA who were put out of business by this.

 

[Stazy]

The business school I went to had tonnes of Asian students who mostly majored in accounting or finance. That being said, that's ALL they did. All the business clubs were dominated by white kids who, by virtue of their involvement, had far more networking opportunities and more well rounded resumes. There is more to success than 4.0 GPAs...

 

[javyn]

 

[Kajak]

Originally Posted by thenanyu

The issue isn't about corporate America discriminating against Asians, the issue is Asians struggling to learn what makes white people comfortable. We are in the laowai country and it will take many more generations to integrate completely. When we are 15% of the population, it will make a big difference.

+1

If I were to emigrate to Asia, I would not expect my Western mannerisms, habits, leadership/work style etc to be as successful as it is here. Likewise, in a Western business environment, raising children in the "Tiger Family" or whatever fails horribly at setting a child up for corporate/executive success here. It just teaches the wrong skill set.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by Kajak

+1

If I were to emigrate to Asia, I would not expect my Western mannerisms, habits, leadership/work style etc to be as successful as it is here. Likewise, in a Western business environment, raising children in the "Tiger Family" or whatever fails horribly at setting a child up for corporate/executive success here. It just teaches the wrong skill set.

I made a point a while back, but it seems to have been lost. Pretty much "every" first generation Chinese family is a Tiger family. However, until fairly recently, these immigrants were coming to the US and Canada for economic opportunities, and they did not have the capabilities to groom their children for real leadership roles. In any culture, people tend to stay within their socio-economic class. There are compelling exceptions, but they are exceptions nonetheless.

That working class Chinese have been able to groom their children, within a single generation, to middle and upper-middle class success should not be looked on as a failure. I think that this thread shows clearly that the fact that it is is wound up with insidious cultural stereotypes. I don't think that an African American who made it out of the slums to become a doctor would be looked on as a failure. I don't think that a white woman who becomes the first of her working class family to graduate college and become and engineer would be viewed as a failure. And yet, posters have characterized the Asian guy who made it to the same level as anemic, lacking in social graces, lacking in leadership potential, etc...

There are second generation Chinese immigrants who become successful "leaders", and unsurprisingly, those I know nearly all come from more affluent and educated families who have assimilated more fully with western culture, while maintaining a lot of the discipline that is a characteristic of Chinese culture. Again, there are, of course, exceptions.