Model Minority Stereotype, Racialization, and Oppression Among Asian American College Students: A Qualitative Study

Background The model minority stereotype positions Asian Americans as a monolithic group defined by academic and economic success, yet this narrative obscures systemic racism and creates distinct forms of racial oppression. Despite growing scholarship on racial equity within Black-White paradigms, Asian American experiences remain underexplored in racial discourses among college students. This study examines how the model minority stereotype shapes racialization processes and external and internalized oppression among Asian American college students. Guided by Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit), specifically the tenets of Asianization, strategic (anti)essentialism, and counter-storytelling, the research question asks: How do Asian American young adults from diverse ethnic groups describe the ways the model minority stereotype shapes their experiences of racialization, and both external and internalized oppression?

Methods This qualitative study had five focus groups with 21 Asian American undergraduate students (ages 18–24) from a large public northeastern U.S. university. Participants were from Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, and Thai ethnic backgrounds. Focus groups were conducted between October and December 2023, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using a hybrid inductive-deductive thematic approach within Dedoose software, integrating AsianCrit tenets while remaining grounded in participants' lived experiences.

Results Three major themes emerged. First, Asianization through the model minority stereotype revealed that participants experienced pressure to assimilate to White middle-class norms, while simultaneously experiencing hypervisibility and othering driven by racialized assumptions about language, appearance, and academic ability. Second, erasure and invisibility of internal and racial oppression manifested internally through self-monitoring behaviors, perfectionism, and guilt when failing to meet racialized expectations. This theme also manifested in the external pressures and expectations of peers, teachers, and employers who attributed intelligence or work ethic to racial identity. Third, resistance and counter-storytelling emerged among participants who shared that they strategically contested monolithic representations while navigating intragroup tensions.

Conclusion The model minority stereotype operates as a mechanism of racialization that perpetuates both external and internalized oppression among Asian American college students, often downplaying systemic roots of racism. Practitioners in mental health, social work, and education should critically examine internalized racial oppression, provide spaces for counter-narratives, and facilitate critical exposure to ethnic and racial history to more effectively support Asian American college students. Future research should adopt longitudinal and intersectional approaches through an examination of the ways that class, gender, and religion may shape these experiences across diverse Asian American ethnic groups.