OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015
The Asian advantage in America
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
T
his is an awkward question,
but here goes: Why are
Asian-Americans so successful in
America?
It’s no secret that Asian-
Americans are disproportionately
stars in American schools, and even in
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
American society as a whole. Census
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
data show that Americans of Asian
heritage earn more than other groups,
including whites. Asian-Americans
also have higher educational attain-
ment than any other group.
I wrote a series of columns last year,
“When Whites Just Don’t Get It,” about
racial inequity, and one of the most com-
mon responses from angry whites was
along these lines: This stuff about white
ow does a community regain its equilibrium after an ep- privilege is nonsense, and if blacks lag,
the reason lies in the black community
isode of mass, public violence?
Just look at Asian-Americans.
The Oregonian evoked that
The semantic, forensic dis- itself.
Those Koreans and Chinese make it in
question Monday with a front- agreement over whether guns America because they work hard. All
page headline: “The slow path kill people or whether it’s peo- people can succeed here if they just stop
back to normal.” The topic was SOH PHOWV LQWR LQVLJQL¿FDQFH LQ whining and start working.
Let’s confront the argument head-
Umpqua Community College, light of a simple realization — on. Does the success of Asian-Ameri-
which suffered one of the worst the rest of the world doesn’t do cans suggest that the age of discrimina-
school shootings in the U.S.
this. Other nations do not endure tion is behind us?
A new scholarly book, The Asian
Some soldiers who return the epidemic of gun violence
American Achievement Paradox, by
from combat zones deal with that has become emblematic to Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, notes that
their experience for the rest of America. This is a strange dis- Asian-American immigrants in recent
decades have started with one advan-
their lives. In other words, their tinction we put up with.
They are highly educated, more so
war experience moves the nee-
The most sensible approach tage:
even than the average American. These
dle on what is normal in their to this epidemic is to treat it as immigrants are disproportionately doc-
lives.
a public health issue. That is tors, research scientists and other highly
It would be one thing if the what a group of public health educated professionals.
It’s not surprising that the children of
Roseburg massacre were an iso- physicians attempted during $VLDQ$PHULFDQ GRFWRUV ZRXOG ÀRXU-
lated incident. But it was not. the 1990s. Then Congress pro- ish in the United States. But Lee and
Many other such school shoot- hibited the National Centers for Zhou note that kids of working-class
ings preceded it and in the two Disease Control and Prevention Asian-Americans often also thrive,
showing remarkable upward mobility.
weeks since Roseburg, there from gathering numbers on inci-
And let’s just get one notion out of
have been domestic shooting in- dents of gun wounding, killing the way: The difference does not seem to
be driven by differences in intelligence.
cidents elsewhere in the nation. and suicide.
Richard Nisbett, a professor of psy-
We don’t know who will be
Some of those physicians chology
who has written an excellent
our next president. But we can have offered ideas that amount book about intelligence, cites a study
predict with great assurance that to incremental change. One of that followed a pool of Chinese-Amer-
the next president will be called them is Dr. David Hemenway ican children and a pool of white chil-
dren into adulthood. The two groups
upon to speak just as frequent- of the Harvard School of Public started out with the same scores on IQ
ly as Barack Obama has in the Health. His book Private Guns, tests, but in the end, 55 percent of the
wake of incidents of gun vio- Public Health is a good place to Asian-Americans entered high-status
occupations, compared with one-third
lence.
start.
of the whites. To succeed as a manag-
er, whites needed an IQ of 100, while
Chinese-Americans needed an IQ of
only 93.
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
H
Shootings change
what’s normal
Disadvantage and
marginalization are complex.
So the Asian advantage,
“It’s advantageous when they
Nisbett argues, isn’t intel-
think that.”
OHFWXDO ¿UHSRZHU DV VXFK
(Of course, positive ste-
but how it is harnessed.
reotypes create their own bur-
Some disagree, but I’m
den, with sometimes tremen-
pretty sure that one factor
dous stress on children to earn
is East Asia’s long Confu-
those A’s, at the cost of enjoy-
cian emphasis on education.
ing childhood. And it can be
Likewise, a focus on educa-
hard on Asian-American kids
tion also helps explain the
whose comparative advan-
success of Jews, who are
tage isn’t in science or math
Nicholas
said to have had universal
but in theater or punk rock.
Kristof
male literacy 1,700 years
Among Asians, there’s some-
before any other group.
times concern that there’s
Immigrant East Asians often try too much focus on memorization, not
particularly hard to get into good school enough on creativity.)
Another factor in Asian scholastic
GLVWULFWV RU PDNH RWKHU VDFUL¿FHV IRU
children’s education, such as giving success may be the interaction of so-
prime space in the home to kids to FLDO VWHUHRW\SHV DQG VHOIFRQ¿GHQFH
Scholars like Claude Steele have found
study.
There’s also evidence that Ameri- that blacks sometimes suffer from “ste-
cans believe that A’s go to smart kids, reotype threat”: Anxiety from negative
while Asians are more likely to think stereotypes impairs performance. Lee
that they go to hard workers. The truth and Zhou argue that Asian-Americans
is probably somewhere in between, but sometimes ride on the opposite of “ste-
the result is that Asian-American kids reotype threat,” a “stereotype promise”
are allowed no excuse for getting B’s that they will be smart and hardwork-
— or even an A-. The joke is that an A- ing.
Lee and Zhou also say the success
is an “Asian F.”
Strong two-parent families are a fac- of Asian-Americans, far from reveal-
tor, too. Divorce rates are much lower ing a lack of discrimination, is in part a
for many Asian-American communi- testament to it. They say Asian-Ameri-
ties than for Americans as a whole, and cans work hard to succeed in areas with
there’s evidence that two-parent house- clear metrics like math and science in
holds are less likely to sink into poverty part as a protection against bias — and
and also have better outcomes for boys in any case, many Asians still perceive
a “bamboo ceiling” that is hard to break
in particular.
Teachers’ expectations can also play through.
To me, the success of Asian-Amer-
a role. This idea was explored in a fa-
mous experiment in the 1960s by Rob- icans is a tribute to hard work, strong
families and passion for education.
ert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson.
After conducting IQ tests of students Bravo! Ditto for the success of Jews,
at a California school, the experiment- West Indians and other groups that have
ers told the teachers the names of one- shown that upward mobility is possible,
¿IWKRIWKHFKLOGUHQZKRWKH\VDLGZHUH but let’s not exaggerate the lessons here.
Why should the success of the
special, and expected to soar. These
VSHFLDO VWXGHQWV LQ ¿UVW DQG VHFRQG children of Asian doctors, nurtured by
grades improved dramatically. A year teachers, be reassuring to a black boy in
later, 47 percent of them had gained 20 Baltimore who is raised by a struggling
single mom, whom society regards as
or more IQ points.
Yet in truth, the special students a potential menace? Disadvantage and
were chosen at random. This “Pygma- marginalization are complex, often
OLRQHIIHFW´ZDVDFDVHRIVHOIIXO¿OOLQJ deeply rooted in social structures and
expectations. Teachers had higher ex- unconscious biases, sometimes com-
pectations for the special students and pounded by hopelessness and self-de-
made them feel capable — and so that’s structive behaviors, and because one
group can access the American dream
what they became.
Lee and Zhou, for their part, think does not mean that all groups can.
So, sure, let’s celebrate the success
that positive stereotyping may be part
of an explanation for the success of of Asian-Americans, and emulate the
respect for education and strong fam-
Asian-Americans in school.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re Chinese ilies. But let’s not use the success of
and you’re good in math,’” the book Asians to pat ourselves on the back and
quotes a girl called Angela as saying. pretend that discrimination is history.
Paying bills is a must
for Chinook port Wanted: A tea party speaker
E
ven by the standards of our rel-
atively nonindustrialized area,
the Port of Chinook, Washington
is not a big-time operation. Even
so, it is critically important to the
life of its small town, to crabbers
delivering to Bell Buoy and to the
company itself, and to hundreds of
UHFUHDWLRQDO¿VKHUPHQZKRFURZG
it every August.
Like many of the smaller gov-
ernmental entities in Columbia-
3DFL¿FFRPPXQLWLHVIRU\HDUVDWD
time, the Port of Chinook is largely
invisible to the outside public. But
the port’s peace and quiet were
recently broken by news that its
¿QDQFHV DUH WURXEOHG 7KLV KDV
caused much upset in Chinook,
with some “taking of sides” now
going on.
It is newsworthy that the port is
LQD¿QDQFLDOKROH7D[SD\HUV¿QG
it worrisome whenever examples
arise of government bodies spend-
ing more than they take in. We
expect small boards and commis-
sions to balance their books, while
FDUU\LQJRXWWKHVSHFL¿FIXQFWLRQV
for which they were created —
which in our area can consist of
everything from operating small
ports, to running little sewer and
water systems, diking districts, ru-
UDO¿UHGHSDUWPHQWVDQGVRRQ
Like other states, Washington
and Oregon each conduct sched-
uled audits to monitor these small
entities, but these occasional visits
don’t catch everything and aren’t
meant to substitute for following
common business practices. There
is likely to be a more in-depth audit
of port books to pinpoint whatever
led to it getting behind in paying
its bills. This is very appropriate
— there’s nothing like good, pro-
fessional accounting to showcase
how things went awry and how to
avoid similar issues in the future.
Until this audit is complete,
it’s premature to judge any one
employee’s performance or con-
QHFWLRQ WR WKH ¿QDQFLDO VKRUWDJH
It may turn out to be the result of
“robbing Peter to pay Paul” over
an extended period. Port expendi-
tures — largely for fuel — don’t
perfectly align with when the
money is on hand. Clearly, a bet-
ter way needs to be developed to
track expenditures and income, for
example by carefully segregating
fuel income and promptly paying
those bills. This problem probably
isn’t a crime to prosecute, but a
matter of instituting better proce-
dures.
Realizing the port’s importance
in Chinook’s small economy, cred-
itors and potential lenders are like-
ly to work toward a satisfactory
resolution. It is good of them to do
so.
Moving forward, port com-
missioners clearly must better
PRQLWRU SRUW ¿QDQFHV DQG FRP-
mit themselves to making sure
they are on a sound footing. Like
most local boards, these are essen-
tially unpaid and volunteer posi-
tions. Citizens do not clamor to do
these essential jobs. Even so, port
board members must recommit
themselves to attending meetings,
understanding the budgets they
approve, and making certain that
staff comply with these budgets
and other policies.
Without its port, Chinook
would be just another residential
village. Keeping it dredged and in
business takes a substantial invest-
ment of political capital. It must
do a better job of making sure the
IDLWKSXWLQLWLVMXVWL¿HG
By ROSS DOUTHAT
New York Times News Service
I
n an earlier, cozier Washington,
John Boehner could have been
the kind of House speaker whose
memory is held dear by high-mind-
ed chin strokers on Sunday morn-
ing television programs: An icon
of sadly bygone bipartisanship, a
cutter of the grandest bargains, a
man who, by God, made legisla-
tion move.
In
this
Washington,
alas for him,
Boehner was a
humble bomb
defuser,
and
the only grand
bargains he cut
were between
Ross
his more in-
Douthat
transigent back-
benchers and
the demands of political and constitu-
tional reality.
And now D.C. looks at his record,
his resignation and his possible succes-
sors and asks: Can anyone do better?
Probably not anyone with Boeh-
QHU¶VSUHFLVHSUR¿OH3UREDEO\QRW.HY-
in McCarthy, another genial dealcutter
distrusted on the right, who would have
recapitulated Boehner’s struggles had
his candidacy not been doomed by
gaffes and whiffs of scandal.
But maybe the lesson of those strug-
gles is that the speakership simply isn’t
a job for a professional dealmaker and
institutionalist at the moment. Instead,
maybe it’s a job for a conviction poli-
tician, an ideologue (in the best way!)
who’s also interested in governing.
Maybe, in other words, House Re-
publicans need a speaker who’s an
ambassador from the tea party to the
GOP’s K Street/Chamber of Com-
merce wing, rather than the other way
around.
The reality is this: The only way
the Republican House majority can
become less dysfunctional and chaotic
in the short run is if the next speaker
wins the trust of enough conservative
wonkish spirit, but he wouldn’t have
that baggage. The ideal speaker, in
fact, would probably have led Tea
Party-driven brinksmanship at some
point in the Obama-era past, the better
to channel it more productively in the
future.
6XFKD¿JXUHH[LVWV8QIRUWXQDWHO\
he’s in the other chamber: He’s Utah’s
junior senator, Mike Lee.
Lee has an insurgent’s résumé: He
was elected with the tea party wave in
2010, defeating an incumbent Repub-
lican, Bob Bennett, along the way. He
was Ted Cruz’s partner in crime during
Susan Walsh/AP Photo
the government shutdown debates. His
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah concludes scorecard with Heritage Action, often
a conference call in his Capitol the scourge of Republican leaders, cur-
Hill office in Washington June 3.
rently stands at 100 percent. And unlike
almost every member of the House and
backbenchers to quell or crush revolts Senate leadership, he’s a genuine foe of
from the rest. And the best way to win comprehensive immigration reform.
At the same time, like Ryan (and un-
that trust is to be seen as fundamentally
on the insurgents’ side, which is a feat like Cruz), Lee been a real policy entre-
that Boehner, given his background and preneur. He authored a pro-family tax
priorities, could never hope to manage. plan that breaks with some (if perhaps
Hence the recent appeal of drafting not enough) of the Republican donor
Paul Ryan to replace him. Ryan is the class’ orthodoxies. He has offered seri-
Republicans’ leading policy entrepre- ous proposals on transportation, higher
neur, his blueprints have plainly pulled education and religious liberty. And
the party’s center of gravity rightward, just this week he was part of a bipar-
and he has stronger movement-conser- tisan breakthrough on criminal justice
YDWLYH ERQD ¿GHV WKDQ DQ\RQH HOVH LQ reform, one of the rare issues where
the late Obama years still offer hope for
the House leadership.
compromise.
The suspicions that the
In Lee’s ambitions,
right always had about
you can see what the
Boehner, and would have Boehner
House insurgents want to
had about McCarthy —
was a
be — a force that moves
that they care more about
the deal than about the
humble conservative policymak-
ing away from donor ser-
outcome, more about the
bomb
vice and toward genuine
party’s donors than any
reform — rather than the
GH¿QHG VPDOOJRYHUQPHQW
purely nihilistic force they
principle — does not attach defuser.
often threaten to become.
to Ryan in the same way.
So he would enter the job with a deposit You can see the outlines of the kind of
of ideological credibility that might do agenda that might satisfy (some) intran-
more than all of Boehner’s backroom sigents and also provide some (very)
skills to keep (some) of the caucus’ modest ground for bipartisanship.
And then in his record and persona,
ULJKWZDUGÀDQNLQOLQH
But Ryan is not really of the tea par- you can see a — let’s be frank — trib-
ty. In the Bush era he voted for bills like DO LGHQWL¿FDWLRQ ZLWK LQVXUJHQF\ WKDW
No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part might make easier for him to persuade
D, and TARP, all of which today’s con- WKH*23¶VULJKWÀDQNWRDFFHSWWKHUHDO
servative insurgents despise. And he’s a limits on the House’s power.
Unfortunately the House insurgents
dove on immigration, the issue where
the party’s base always expects — with do not appear to have a Mike Lee in
good reason! — their leadership is their ranks.
But there is also no rule preventing
poised to sell them out.
A more ideal speaker would share the House from electing a senator as its
Ryan’s conservative credentials and speaker.