Why are Asian-Americans so successful in America?

Well, that's just generalized nothingness there. Can you not be any more specific? Precisely what "public policy" do you believe has favored Asian Americans over the rest of America to help explain this result? What geographical advantages did they enjoy over the rest of us? What accidents of history?

 

I don't know. The other explanation is that they have better DNA.

 

So what we've essentially established, Dick, is that you are as profoundly clueless about this topic as anyone else. Which is why it was probably ill-advised to come jumping in with the self-righteous preachy manner you first did. But, hey, at least you got to fire off a few more N-words...

 

Your testiness on this topic is kind of making me scratch my head.

The success or lack thereof of distinct groups seems pretty clearly to come down to two choices:

1. They are a product of their environment;
2. They are a product of their DNA.

Is this controversial?

 

This was in the original piece that YF posted:

This stuff about white privilege is nonsense, and if blacks lag, the reason lies in the black community itself. Just look at Asian-Americans. Those Koreans and Chinese make it in America because they work hard. All people can succeed here if they just stop whining and start working.

In other words, I didn't jump in to act "self-righteous." It was part and parcel of the original argument: Why don't blacks succeed to the level of Asian-Americans? My response: Asian-Americans were not enslaved.

 

I know of two Asian families, where the mothers both have PhDs and stopped working to basically ride their kids.

One of the kids is brilliant and a terrific musician. He could have gone to Julliard or anywhere but his father almost made him quit because he was afraid it would take away his time to study and eventually get into med school. I can't remember if he ended up at Harvard or Yale.

Instead of chatting with friends ont he bus on band trips, his mother would sit with him as he wont over SAT type questions on his iPad.

The other kid went to the top public high school in the MST program but is probably only an above average student but has a lot of parental involvement. He is going to a public college probably on a modest scholarship but he at least has some freinds.

If your basic expectation is that your kids will go to med school or law school, most kids can achieve that if they work hard.

It's the same way in Jewish families. Without stereotyping, I think it's pretty clear that Jewish people are inordinantly successful in the arts and banking and other industries compared with the average.

 

Hey, and there are tons of black people in pro sports! It all makes sense now!

 

Now does this approach to child rearing get classified under public policy, accident of history or geographic advantage? Because if it's not one of those three, then it MUST be due to DNA. There are no other possibilities.

 

No. Whitey is, as always, at fault.

 

Of course. I mean, look at all the trouble they cause at Chick-Fil-A.

 

Environment or DNA.

What is the third possibility?

Fire away.

 

OK, so I am going to take this in a friendlier direction. I read something a while back about how Americans (white, black, whatever) talk about their children so differently than do Europeans. The gist was that Americans are always going on about how their kids are smart -- "Little Johnny got all A's in Pre-K at St. De Blasio last month" -- whereas Europeans focus on how well-adjusted their kids are.

Here's a link to the story about the study ...

How Parents Around the World Describe Their Children, in Charts

So maybe it's just that Asian-Americans are raised in more typically "American" homes than anyone else.