Racism-Related Stress in the Asian-American Community

Asian-Americans tend be held to high expectations in the U.S. Terms such as “Asian advantage” and “model minority” are the cultural expectations placed on Asian-Americans as a group that each individual will be highly intelligent, wealthy, self-reliant and obedient, and live the “American dream.” Not living up to these stereotypes and expectations places a great burden on the individual and often makes her/him feel inadequate. Perceived racial discrimination has been associated with several negative mental health outcomes, including higher psychological distress, suicidal ideation, state anxiety, trait anxiety and depression. The facts are that Asian-Americans are a diverse group of individuals, with diverse experiences.

In honor of Asian-American Heritage Month, the Ethnicity and Health in America Series is raising awareness about the physiological and psychological impact of microaggressions and the model minority myth. We are featuring the work of Derald Sue, PhD, the most cited multicultural scholar today, with over 150 publications under his belt. Sue obtained his PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Oregon. In 1972, Sue co-founded the Asian American Psychological Association with his brother Stanley Sue, PhD. Currently, Sue is a professor of psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

We are also featuring the work of Kevin Nadal, PhD, who received his doctorate in counseling psychology from Columbia University. Nadal is one of the leading researchers in understanding the impacts of microaggressions on the mental and physical health of people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people; and other marginalized groups. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the The Center for LGBTQ Studies at the Graduate Center (GC) at the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as an Associate Professor of psychology at both John Jay College of Criminal Justice and GC-CUNY.

Racial Microaggressions and the Asian American Experience

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2007
Gerald Wing Sue, PhD
Jennifer Bucceri, PhD
Annie I. Lin, PhD
Kevin L. Nadal, PhD
Gina C. Torino, PhD

Racial Microaggressions and the Filipino American Experience: Recommendations for Counseling and Development

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2011
Kevin L. Nadal, PhD
Kara Mia Vigilia Escobar, PhD
Gail T. Prado, PhD
E. J. R. David, PhD Kristal Haynes PhD

Preface Nadal: While the term "racial microaggressions" was first coined by Chester Pierce in the 1970s, the concept did not become widely popularized until 2007 when Sue and his colleagues first introduced Microaggression Theory in a seminal article in the American Psychologist^®. Since then, there have been hundreds of articles that have focused on racial microaggressions (as well as microaggressions based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability status, religion and others) and their impacts on mental health and other psychological factors. According to Sue and colleagues (2008), Asian-Americans experience an array of racial microaggressions, including being exoticized, being treated as a perpetual foreigner (despite being US-born) and being stereotyped as the "model minority." According to Nadal and colleagues (2012), some Asian-American subgroups may also experience specific ethnic-specific microaggressions, including Filipino-Americans who describe being assumed to be criminals, to be intellectually inferior or to be mistaken for members of a number of other racial and ethnic groups. As we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, it is important to recognize the important roles that more than 40 Asian-American ethnic groups have had in this country, as well as the diverse cultures that comprise the vast Asian-American diaspora.