Re:Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age
by danans on Monday April 23, 2018 @08:31PM
(#16908802)
> Everything is against them. Poor language skills, widespread PTSD from what they witnessed, no savings - pretty bad picture.
A lot against them, but a lot of important factors working for them too. For one thing, their family and community structure remained intact, allowing them to build community capital.
Also, because they are Asian, they benefit from the beneficial stereotypes of Asian Americans in educational and business environments AKA "the model minority" myth, and don't experience the presumption of criminality that blacks are often subjected to to this day.
As others have stated, they were also a self selecting group who were fleeing a single acute experience of trauma due to the war vs the intergenerational and normalized trauma of slavery and segregation that blacks face. And to add to that, they arrived with a strong work ethic, but at a time when many immigrant groups landing in the US were doing well. They weren't redlined. Their children weren't excluded from white neighborhoods and schools.
I, as an Asian American, grew up in in a 90% white city with excellent schools, but with a conspicuous lack of black people around. No segregation for me, but it was there if you were black.
None of this is to say Vietnamese and Cambodians had it easy at all. In fact, they are still poorer on average than other immigrant groups who arrived around the same time with better circumstances, like Indians, Taiwanese, etc. That's who you should be comparing them to to understand the effects of disadvantages.
A lot against them, but a lot of important factors working for them too. For one thing, their family and community structure remained intact, allowing them to build community capital.
Also, because they are Asian, they benefit from the beneficial stereotypes of Asian Americans in educational and business environments AKA "the model minority" myth, and don't experience the presumption of criminality that blacks are often subjected to to this day.
As others have stated, they were also a self selecting group who were fleeing a single acute experience of trauma due to the war vs the intergenerational and normalized trauma of slavery and segregation that blacks face. And to add to that, they arrived with a strong work ethic, but at a time when many immigrant groups landing in the US were doing well. They weren't redlined. Their children weren't excluded from white neighborhoods and schools.
I, as an Asian American, grew up in in a 90% white city with excellent schools, but with a conspicuous lack of black people around. No segregation for me, but it was there if you were black.
None of this is to say Vietnamese and Cambodians had it easy at all. In fact, they are still poorer on average than other immigrant groups who arrived around the same time with better circumstances, like Indians, Taiwanese, etc. That's who you should be comparing them to to understand the effects of disadvantages.