In the last few weeks, a slew of people have told me that I “have to read this article” in New York Magazine on how businesses treat Asian-Americans. The article is written by Wesley Yang and it is entitled, “Paper Tigers: What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?” and now that i have read it, I think you should read it too.
I do not think it is a great article (sorry to everyone who insisted to me that it breaks new ground) and in fact, I found it rather obnoxious in parts. For instance, I really am not impressed by someone who brags about how he goes his own way and flips everyone off while doing so. Guess what, I know plenty of people who do that without flipping everyone else off or writing an article bragging about it. In fact, does not writing an article bragging about how one has gone one’s own way indicate that the writer is actually seeking wider acceptance after all?
But having said that, this article (particularly the first two thirds of it) makes some excellent points and raises some important issues relating to how Asian-Americans tend to handle themselves in the workplace and on how others tend to view them. For these things alone, this article is an absolute must-read.
Many years ago, I was speaking at an Asian business event at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and I ended up getting into a discussion with a Korean-American (or was he Chinese-American, I cannot even remember) there from Los Angeles about the differences between the Korean communities of Los Angeles and Seattle. I relayed to him what all of my Korean friends had told me about how their community in Seattle was “much more vibrant” than that in either Los Angeles or in San Fransisco, in large part because the Seattle Koreans are much more integrated into the community at large.
This person agreed with that and then proceeded to tell me how he is a business/executive coach to Asian-Americans in mostly Los Angeles and in Silicon Valley and that they are always complaining to him about being passed over for promotions they feel they deserve. This guy told me that his initial response to their complaint is to ask the complainer to look at who sits with whom in the company lunchroom and think about whether that might have made an impact on their having been passed over for promotion. He said that at least half the time, the response is that it might but it should not have and then his response is to tell them that “should” is not what they are talking about and that if they want to deal in reality, he will try to help them.
This New York Magazine article very much reminded me of that conversation.
Anyway, if you are interested in what it is like to be an Asian-American in a business today, then I urge you to read this article. I, of course, do not know what it is like so it is quite possible I am wrong to view this article as being accurate, but it certainly seems to me to have nailed it.
What do you think? Do you agree with the article? Would you at least agree that it reaises important issues?
