Model Minority No More
By Emil Guillermo

For years, Asian Americans have been saddled with the ethnic equivalent of the “goody-two shoes” image. Nice, docile. Great at math. Not so great at driving.

But boy, do they have drive. They’re quiet, successful people. Emphasis on successful.

Even to this day, when compared to other ethnic groups, there’s a tendency to zero in on that last point. Since Reagan, it’s been the fall-back position of the anti-affirmative action crowd. Social policy? Who needs it? The underlying message has been to point out Asian Americans, and hold them up for all to see. Put them on display and show them off to society. Simply say, “Be like them.”

It’s the basis of the so-called “Model Minority” idea. Some say myth, but let’s not build in the bias. It’s an idea. And it’s not a myth. It does exist. A positive stereotype hangs around our neck like an Ancient Mariner’s Peking duck. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to have. It’s just that many observers of the Asian American community never get past it.

They get stuck in the “Model Minority” muck.

Here’s how it works: Looking at the community as an outsider, it’s too easy to stop at, say, a Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo, and think you’ve got Asian Americans covered. They’re hard-working, smart as hell, and capable of unbelievable achievement, right?

Except one’s understanding of the Asian American community shouldn’t end there.

And sometimes it takes a home invasion for people to realize it.

Last week, when 22-year-old Mesa Kasem and his 21-year-old pal Soknoeum Nem decided to bust into the Alamo home of Dr. Kim Fang, we saw the Asian American community in all its full complexity.

We had both the model minority and model victim idea rolled into one.

In Kasem and Nem, we have what has become an all too familiar tale for Southeast Asians who come to America and find nothing but hardship. With many living at or below the poverty line, with limited education and employment opportunity, it’s not difficult to see why some resort to gangs for a sense of belonging and excitement.

When you’re born Asian but grow up in the pop culture of America, you’re halfway in between. Not third world, not first world.

You’re barely second class.

It’s hard to see your future as running a donut shop off Highway 99.

When the news came that both young men from Cambodia were affiliated with the Stockton-area gang known as the “Asian Street Walkers,” I wasn’t surprised. It’s a short walk from outsider to “outlaw.”

Consider their rap sheets: At age 17, Kasem pleaded no contest to a charge of firing into an occupied dwelling. Sentenced to three years in the California Youth Authority, he was out after only one year.

Nem was known by his gang name “Half Dead.” He was on parole from the California Youth Authority for two counts of residential burglary. Nem was just 17 when he was arrested in a stolen car.

Dr. Kim Fang represented everything the boys wanted. He had all the signs of material success and they were Asian American to boot. Fang was a retired plastic surgeon. His wife Winnie was an anesthesiologist. They had the nanny and the two soccer playing kids. The big suburban house in a remote part of the Bay Area. It’s the risk of model minority success. You become model targets. And as this case proves, victims.

This case shows the different Asian American experiences with parallel American “dreams.” But they suddenly intersected when Kasem, who worked as a warehouseman for an auction house, reportedly delivered a piece of furniture to the Fang home back in November.

One can only imagine Kasem’s feelings when confronted with the “Model Minority” image that didn’t include him. His emotions must have run deep enough to make him return in January to invade the Fang home.

In the end, Dr. Fang is dead; his wife widowed; his kids fatherless.

Kasem is dead. His accomplice Nem, wounded and under arrest in his hospital room, awaits charges of murder and robbery. Models? Victims? It really is hard to tell one from the other. Condemn Kasem and Nem. But what made them do it? Nem was reportedly about to become a monk. Kasem was employed. Something brought them back to the Fangs.

The unfortunate thing is we’re likely to see this scenario again and again.

The dynamic of the Asian American community in the New California has changed. With immigration, there are more Kasems and Nems than there are Fangs these days. The “Model Minority” idea lives on through the example of a handful of people. But it has little meaning to the majority of us who struggle to find our way in America.

When public attention and social services stop at the “Model Minority” level, we’re setting ourselves up for a situation that could become unmanageable. Stockton alone is said to have over 140 known gangs with nearly 3,000 members.

One way toward a solution is to see the Asian American community for what it has become. It’s more complex, far beyond our most stereotypical notions. It’s a community with needs that requires a lot more from a politician or a bureaucrat. We’re beyond the stage when you can point a finger to a Jerry Yang and say, “Be like him.” Assimilation is an on-going societal problem that can’t be ignored.

But will it take another home invasion before anyone really cares?

Catch Emil Guillermo on CNET Radio 910 (Noon, weekdays starting Friday). Also: NCM-TV:New California Media on KCSM-TV (Friday nights,7:30 p.m.). E-mail: emil@amok.com