As long as it’s APA Heritage Month, I thought I’d drop some stats from the US Census Press Releases:
- 14.4 Million Asian people live in the US. That’s about 5% of the total population. And if it seems like it’s not a lot of people percentage-wise, well it is. Consider that African Americans make up about 12.8% of the population and the Latino & Hispanic population make up about 14% of the population - Asian Americans are about 1/2 of each (if you round….). My point is simply this - 14.4. million people should be recognized and should be represented.
- 11% of Asian Americans live in poverty - and that number is up from 9.8% in 2004. That translates into over 1.5 million people who don’t have enough to live.
- 18% of Asian Americans live without health care. Translation? Over 2.5 million people living without a safety net.
So what is it all saying??
It’s just reiterating that the Model Minority Myth is just that - a MYTH. That while some, or maybe A LOT of people think that ALL Asian-Americans have no problems, that?ALL Asian-Americans are the “good minority” and overachieve - that this?isn’t the case.
There are serious needs in the APA community that need to be addressed not just by our “own”, but by everyone.
