The stereotype of Asian Americans only excelling in math and sciences goes further to assign Asian Americans to jobs as engineers, doctors or scientists. Rarely do we think of Asian Americans as performers, sports stars, construction workers or politicians – anything that requires physical abilities, creativity or speaking capabilities. This may seem harmless, yet Asian American students who wish to break this stereotype and become an actor, baseball player or a public speaker may be limited by pre-conceived notions that are assigned to their race. Although often difficult to identify, this type of racism handicaps Asian Americans and thus discourages them from trying to attain their goal. Influenced by people telling them about the “difficulties” of that field, many Asian Americans are thus persuaded to a more reliable career in the math and sciences field.
Many view Asian Americans as the “smart” people. However, they don’t take into account the reasons why Asian Americans work so hard in school and the work place. Yet, according to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, Asian Americans, whose average education level is almost twice that of the general population, are much less likely to become manager or executives. Obviously, the notion that Asian Americans are hard working does nothing to promote the status in the work place.
Often times, Asian Americans don’t realize the disastrous effects of society's pre-conceived notions. A majority of Asian Americans are compliant with the roles that society has to offer them without looking further. They see that they will be able to get good, reliable jobs without taking into account notions of the glass ceiling or other limitations because of their race. However, the fact that they are quiet, and accept these notions is what’s most damaging. Their unwillingness to make a change, just allows society to carry on these notions past yet another generation, right on to the next.
Another extremely harmful result of stereotyping Asian Americans as hard working is that of racial violence. As all Asian Americans are thus grouped into one melting pot of hard-workers, other races see them as job stealers. The widespread means of classification by physical features makes Asian Americans, with their straight black hair easy targets for many to release their aggressions towards a race they believed to have taken over their job, or their industry.