There is no denying I am Chinese woman. I look Chinese and because people can see I am a Chinese woman, I’m often the recipient of comments that indicate personal biases and stereotypes. For instance, when I first moved to New York, I was told by both my white and African American colleagues that I should have no problems integrating as I was “almost white”. Since this happened more than once, I started taking notice of how Asian Americans were viewed.
A few years later on a panel discussion, one of the panelists closed his remarks by saying Asians don’t have to worry about discrimination in the workplace as there were only positive stereotypes about Asians.
The panelist had meant this comment to be a compliment and offered it with the best intentions. That’s not how it landed on me though, it caused an immediate allergic reaction on my end. He couldn’t understand why I was not happy about his comments after all these were good stereotypes, what harm could they cause?
Stereotypes are stereotypes, regardless of how positive or negative they seem. A stereotype is a general assumption that a lot of people have about a group or type of person. IT IS NOT ABOUT TRUTH even if some people do embody characteristics of the stereotype. Their very nature puts the person stereotyped in a box and limits how they are viewed as individuals with many dimensions and aspects. Let’s break this down with the “positive” assumptions made about Asians:
• all Asians are hard-working
• all Asians are good at math
• all Asians are polite
If you believe in the above then it makes sense to see a department of Asians in the IT or technical department. Unfortunately, it also makes sense NOT to see Asians in a leadership role, after all, will someone who is hardworking, good at math and polite also have the wherewithal to be a good leader in a fast moving turbulent business environment? Probably not.
And then what do you do with someone like me who is not good at math and barely passed Introduction to Computer Science with a D- (I can say this now as my parents are over it.) Do you say, “You’re not like them, you’re different?” And create a special exception to the stereotype “all Asians are good at math?” It would be the nice thing to do, right? Wrong! All exceptions do are reinforce the prevailing stereotypes without challenging or changing them.
Stereotypes in and of themselves are neither good nor bad. In many ways, stereotypes help us sort our world so we don’t spend precious mental energy sorting and resorting our world. However, when it comes to people, stereotypes, even positive stereotypes can be damaging as it is a biased and limited point of view. If left unchallenged in the workplace, it can cause harm by limiting opportunities and career paths.
So how many positive stereotypes have you received and how have you reacted to them? Have you repeated stereotypes as fact, not thinking about the conversations you are perpetuating? Perhaps, when you see me or your Asian colleague or friend you could also wonder about our life travels, the places we’ve called home and our personal experiences rather than your assumptions of who I am as an Asian. Let’s start new conversations about each other and start throwing out assumptions we have about whole groups of people. Stereotypes do not serve humanity, best leave them in the history books and file under ‘Fiction’.