Why Do Asian Students Perform Better in School than Latinos? (Hint: It's Not Simply a Matter of Socioeconomic Background)

It's easy, and politically correct, to attribute the "racial achievement gap" separating Asians and whites students from Latinos and blacks ones to socioeconomic status and class size.

But Asian and Latino students in the same socioeconomic boat (say, those who recently immigrated from Vietnam and Mexico) get very different grades in school - so what's the reason?

In this interesting article in the Los Angeles Times by Hector Becerra, students from the Lincoln High School discussed the issue still considered taboo by many:

Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian.

"A lot of my friends say the achievement gap is directly attributable to the socioeconomic status of students, and that is not completely accurate," O'Connell said. "It is more than that."

But what is it? O'Connell called a summit in Sacramento that drew 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts to tackle the issue. Some teachers stomped out in frustration and anger.

No Lincoln students stomped out of their discussion. Neither did any teachers in a similar Lincoln meeting. But the observations were frank, and they clearly made some uncomfortable.

To begin with, the eight students agreed on a few generalities: Latino and Asian students came mostly from poor and working-class families.

According to a study of census data, 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the neighborhoods around Lincoln High have median annual household incomes below $50,000. And yet the Science Bowl team is 90% Asian, as is the Academic Decathlon team.

Link

(Photo: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)


what an interesting and insightful article. coming from south carolina, we usually blame our 50% drop-out rate on poverty. per this article, parental involvement seems to have more influence than monetary status, but i'd be interested to learn the educational levels of the parents in question. an immigrant who recieved secondary or higher education in their home country may be more likely to encourage their kids to succeed. in this state, many of the kids dropping out of school have parents that dropped out, and their parents before them dropped out, etc, etc.
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I think this really should really emphasize to parents how important their support and encouragement is.

From the article:
"Let's say a Latino student is studying and an Asian student is studying," Martinez said. "The Latino parent will often say, 'Hey, come help me out real quick, then you can go back to your studying.' Where the Asian parent will say, 'Oh, you're doing your homework. OK, you finish, and then after you're done, you come help me.' "
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OK, since the lead-in to the post mentioned being politically correct... Do these "Asian" students include Indians, Pakistanis, Israelis, Arabs, and half the people from Turkey? Those countries are ALL in Asia, after all.

The adoption of the term "Asian" and denegration of the much more accurate "Oriental" is annoying to me. This fairly recent "asian" neologism seems to be particularly prevalent in the *Western* U.S., where people get seem a real bug up their butt if you ever use the term oriental. In the East, the "Asian" insisters are growing, but we still have plenty of "Oriental Grocery Stores" run by (and for!) self-described Orientals. I'm pretty sure "oriental" hasn't become a slur in Europe has it? What's the big deal?
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It's quite apparent. I just recently graduated from an IB program. My class of around 120 students was more than 85-90% asian. But then again, we have alot of asians in our city. All of our class is moving on to university.
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Asians and Latinos also have different cultures and perceptions about family. I know for some Asian families, the children are expected to take care of the parents when they're elderly. And most of the personal and monetary support their kids are getting now is to help the family in the long run.

And I'd also like to know what kind of Asians this article is talking about. There's a pretty big income disparity within the Asian population in America as well.
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The parenting method should be the thing that's put into question. Asian parents are tough...I can't even count the times that I've been beaten by a feather duster because I haven't done my homework, or get bad grades, etc. That and asian children are generally milder with the ideal that they must do well in school in order to make their family proud will make the children work harder in school. Every person has potential; some are nourished better than others.
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Sid Morrison-

Oriental was a term originally used to describe all easterners not just Chinese, Japanese and is a creation of the Western cultures. So even calling them Oriental would not just be offensive but also inaccurate.

or at least that's what I've been taught several times
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I can only speak of my experiences with Korean culture. I have found that they descriminate based on where you studied as much if not more than what clothes you wear, car you drive, neighborhood you live in.

As I understand it, there is a huge push from parents for their children to succeed. There are even 'helicopter parents' who will intimidate university professors to get higher scores for their children.

The factors behind this? I can not say for certain, but I had thought that confucian ideals place enormous emphasis on education. Hence why educators are revered in Korean (perhaps all east asian?) culture.

Even in China there is a saying, "If a son is uneducated, his father is to blame."

I can not speak to anything in terms of the Latino culture as I lack any proper amount of experience.
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I haven't bother reading the linked article, but did they bother taking residency status into account? Many more Latinos than Asians are here illegally, especially in southern CA. You have to imagine kids that live under constant fear of deportation are less likely to care about doing well in school.
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Sid, "Oriental" was orginally meant to describe Middle East and Near East Asia (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, etc.), not Far East (what most use "Asian" to describe now: China, Thaland, Korea, Japan, etc.).
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It's simply a matter of culture, the work and study ethic of the first several generations coming from Asia. Give 'em a few more decades and they'll achieve mediocrity too.
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@ mike_nc & EEM:
Duh. Of course I know Oriental is from the Latin for "East"... do you take me for a Latino educated in Los Angeles schools?

My question is why do some (not all) in recent years consider it soooo taboo to say "Oriental", while others label themselves and their businesses "Oriental" without thinking twice? There's NOTHING perjorative about the word! Obviously it is a *relative* term, but so what? People can freely use "Westerner" (or even Occidental, which comes from Latin for West) without any uptightedness. What is the big deal about "oriental" ? If its lack of precision is that troubling, why not replace it with something better, not something worse?

"Asian" is not more accurate, and as it's typically employed (excluding a whole lot of people native to Asia) is plainly wrong. Maybe if they called themselves "East Asians" it would be a little more accurate, but striking down "Oriental" in favor of plain "Asian" is a step backwards. Far Easterners (see mike nc post) works OK, too.

On a related note, is there anyone of Afrikaan heritage now living in the U.S. who checks the "African-American" box on Census and other demographic polls and surveys? I would *love* to do this. From time to time I do pick "Other" and write in "European-American" on the fill-in space, but being able to legitimately check "African-American" and monkey with the data (a wee tiny bit) would bring me great glee.
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as a chinese in south east asia, i have to admit that education is important in the chinese society, the real question is, why do asians prefer science over arts? If I told my parents I wanted to study graphic design, they would definitely oppose, reason? there is no money in arts.

In short, the chinese strive hard in edu not because they enjoy or love the subject but the idea of making lots of money when they are employed, maybe a study on creativity should be carried out.
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In the United States, the term "oriental" has connotations of the British Empire and of a time when some people in Europe saw the saw the East as backwards and exotic. I don't think that "oriental" is an offensive word in Europe, but activist in the U.S. discouraged use of the word beginning in the 1970s. When I hear the word "oriental," I definitely think of the 19th century and of a eurocentric and racist world view. I know some Asians who are offended by the word "oriental" and some who are not. And some who have no idea what the word means, since they have never heard it before.

Are you equally upset about the usage of Latino instead of Hispanic? Latino is the politically correct word for those from Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking cultures. The term Hispanic is taken as an insult by some people from South and Central America, since it has connotations the Spanish conquest. I guess the key is to not remind people of a time in which their native country was invaded and their people were forced to live under oppressive foreign rule. Seems sensible to me.
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So we're told by Hector Becerra that it's not socioeconomic status, but ... what exactly? Holy closet racism.

4000 misled educators working on this "problem" is seriously scary.
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Isn't this article just telling what we all already knew? I guess this just means that someone actually got the teachers to talk a bit about this.

I find it amusing how nervous the teachers seemed to discuss this topic. Unfortunately, they probably have good reason to. You never know when a lawsuit from an angry parent is just around the corner.

(I'd like to see Harvard's president talk about this issue.)
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I don't think it really matters what term you use when referring to a cultural group, at least in regards to this article. What this article does is point out parent involvement is crucial to a child's success as a student.

I live in a neighborhood predominately Latino and I'm also ten minutes from the Mexican border. Of the kids I see in my neighborhood, there seems to be very little parent involvement in their lives at all. Not just parental concern and supervision of education, but of their lives. A lot of them are on track to joining gangs, and already developing criminal records. Just a few months ago I caught a man beating a dog, he was the guest of a thirteen year old Latino boy whose mother rented an apartment across the street from my home. I confronted the man, and when he ran off the boy tried to get in my face about the issue. When I later cornered the mother she confessed to having no idea who her son was spending time with, and even having no clue as to where he was most of the time. Whatever future could this boy have with a mother who doesn't involve herself in his life? From whom is he supposed to learn life lessons if she remains detached from him? Certainly, the local thugs around here will gladly teach him how to graffiti, pimp, deal and "be a man". I feel bad for this boy, and others like him - regardless of their cultural heritage - whose parents take a hands-off approach to child rearing.

I've heard success starts at home, and I think this article provided the proof of that.
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I run a factory for a US company in China, and also work closely with our Mexico factory. There is a huge difference in work ethic. The Chinese workers are all very ambitious, work like crazy, love overtime to get extra money, and will stay with a company based on their judgment of the company's strength. They will leave for higher pay, but it has to be significantly higher and it is not an easy decision. My (Chinese) wife's parents had literally nothing (due to the cultural revolution), yet they instill a desire to achieve.
Our Mexican facility constantly loses people for literally 3 cents an hour higher pay, can't get people to do overtime, and has a hard time getting them to work during the day.
These are simply observations, but it sure seems there is a difference in attitude.
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dogrun81 incidentally no one needs to be a parent to be angry about attempts to associate performance with race, but it would definitely be better if more parents were.
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I think one important quote in the article was:

"High recalled a good Latino student she had a few years ago. He also was a gang member.

'He would wear baggy pants, and he would load up his pants with books," she said. "He looked around to make sure no one was seeing him so he could look like the baddest kid in the block.'"

It was important to the student not to be seen studying or making an effort on his education. In many ways, the thing we struggle to appear as, we become.
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I love the last 8 paragraphs of the article about how structure racism allows Asians to walk the hallways without hall passes as opposed to Latino students. Does the writer, Hector Baccerra, believe that walking the hallways without harrassment of having a hall pass allows students to focus on school grades, thus giving Asians an advantage in scholastic achievement?

It is also interesting to note the teacher Mrs. High was more than comfortable expressing dismay at the unfair hallway pass scandal but was quite silent about why Asians do better in school than Latino students.
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When I was in college, I worked part time at a restaurant. The cooks were all Latino and they would sometimes point out to me that they were making more money by working full time than I was by working part time and going to school. They couldn't see the value of an education as an investment for the future. They also saw work as something immediate and labor intensive. They told me that if I could be working, I should be working, since I was young, strong, and able to make money NOW.
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I forgot to add that I am a teacher now and that among some youth, especially black and latino, it's very uncool to be a good student. High achievers of those groups often get teased with names like "school boy", as if academic success was some kind of shameful sellout.
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When I lived in San Antonio, TX (85% Hispanic/Mexican population), the emphasis was on work (earning money now) over education (earning more money later). The son who drops out at 15 to work at a gas station is revered more than the son who stays in school for several more years to become a doctor.

Also, I covered Low Rider shows and met a really nice family of rather meager means. They were proud that they'd spent $30,000 fancy-fying an old car. That same amount of money would have bought both their kids a pretty nice college education, or at least the start of it, and the kids could have bought a fleet of fancy old cars.
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I live in a city that has a large Hispanic population and a fairly healthy Asian population too. I have friends from both of these ethnic groups. The major difference I've observed is cultural.

Education is everything to my Asian friends and their parents are fairly overbearing in their desire for their children to succeed. One old friend, Leslie, went into the arts, and is successful. She suffers greatly because of it. Her family is constanly admonishing her, for not becoming a doctor or lawyer, And her chinese Mother won't even speak to her.

In contrast my Hispanic friends look down on education, but highly value hard work, family and street-smarts. One friend of mine is a computer geek, like me, and his family is always putting him down for being too "white". I think they feel that education endangers their traditional values and that educated people act superior. Or as my buddy Gilbert puts it, "all stuck up and shit".

I realize that these stories are anecdotal and I can think of examples where this pattern does not apply. That said, I would have to assert that this more the norm in my circles than not.
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For someone who has considered the subject at length a few times, it's no startling insight that the differences between Asians and blacks/latinos is cultural and genetic. The fact that black and latino culture are creating a sort of crab mentality, and that as well, their cultures don't value academic achievement is the elephant in the room. As well, it might be controversial, but intelligence has a genetic component, and Asian immigrants are subject to very intense scrutiny from the immigration offices. It isn't outlandish at all to suggest that Asian children, as first and second generation immigrants, are just genetically more intelligent than the blacks/latinos who aren't subject to selective pressure which pushes for intelligence by immigration, having already been in the country for generations. Of course, you won't hear anybody discussing the genetic components of intelligence affecting scholastic achievement, because of course, The Bell Effect was very controversial, and American society nowadays happens to at large believe in a fanciful notion of tabula rasa, and nature being overwhelmed by nurture.
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yea i don't know why people insist on doing research on (average) child development because it ALL has to do with the involvement of their parents. children not only inherit genes, but behaviors and habits just the same. asian cultures (yes, even indians, pakis, and turks) have a better work ethic than we westerners. and since we're talking (specifically) about asian culture vs. latino culture, we have a smaller scope of comparison and the results are more varying. and it's not like the results are BAD.. it's not BAD that latinos don't do as well in school as asians; some cultures just aren't raised to appreciate book smarts. like some of the people wrote above, kids are ridiculed for being smart and actually have to hide that they care about their future. it also does not make asians BETTER than latinos because they get higher letter grades. it all depends on the variables in which you aim your comparison. is this article saying latinos need to step it up? or is it just making a recordable observation? what are we supposed to gain from this? and is it really helping by pointing out a problem to fix, or is it furthering the divide between cultures? it really depends on what you're comparing and what you mean to do with your comparison. because in all, none of this really matters.
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David Gu's comment about genetic influences may have some merit, but it actually runs counter to what is known about some Japanese attitudes, at least. While Americans sometimes talk about not having a "math mind", and put emphasis on inherent ability, the Japanese regard academic ability as a function of effort. Because of this, poor academic skills are seen as a sign of laziness, and are not excused as a lack of talent or genes.

The truth, as is often the case, probably falls somewhere between the two. My own anecdotal contribution relates to a conversation I had had with an Hispanic shuttle bus driver. She used to work at a food processing plant, but decided to get additional training in the operation of some of the machinery. With her new skills, she qualified for an increase in pay, which motivated her to take classes in computer science at the community college. She is now finishing her Bachelors degree at the local university. This was done while working full-time and raising two children, in whom she instilled an expectation of completing a college-level education.

I had been raised with all of the advantages of a middle-class background, but I don't think I could have done as well if I had been shouldering so many responsibilities at once. Her ability and expectation to do hard work, when applied to improving her education, let her come out from behind very quickly.

If a similar values/cultural change were to occur in the Hispanic population, I think people would soon be discussing the "superior genetics" of Latin America.
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It's about what people value. People forget about what the goals/values of bourgeois vs proletarian cultures historically have been. Bourgeois values have an emphasis on advanced education in a field that is important to succeeding in middle-class occupations. They value respectability and what others think about their attainment of social status, and thus have high levels of 'status anxiety'. Latino cultures are historically more proletarian (lower working class) than bourgeois... thus the emphasis between these groups are very different. Bohemian subcultures are different yet again, and their values are quite separate from these, but that is another topic.
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How it was when I was going to school years ago.

The reason certain people did better, asians over hispanic, or white over black.... was simply b/c of social circles.

It was OK and cool for the asian (i'm including indians as well) kids to be smart. It was ok for them to be in the math clubs and etc.

But the hispanic and black kids who did the same were pretty much shunned from their own. Called "sell-outs" or told that they were trying to be "white".

So kids who should've and could've been doing better didn't b/c they wanted to be accepted by their piers. It's actually pretty sad.

I hope things have changed since then, but... I doubt it.
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I think the reason is pretty clear.

Generally most of the Asian immigrants in the U.S. have higher expectations because, well, all the Asians with low expectations are still in Asia! After all, why would you leave your home country halfway around the world if you weren't ambitious or looking for something better?

And yes, IQ is largely hereditary, but that counts for nothing if you don't have the opportunity to use it.
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That article shouldn't surprise anyone. Whether a kid has responsible parents and a stable family will always make the biggest difference, more than just a bank balance.
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I went to a local high school where the cool kids worked on the newspaper and took AP classes. The not-quite-as-cool kids were jocks and the uncool kids flaked out and smoked behind the school. In that environment people of all races flourished because intellectualism was what people aspired to.

That said, I pulled my son from his elementary school and moved him to a different one because there really are cultural differences associated with wanting to achieve education or acknowledging or accepting what education is.

One example of this was that I spoke to a neighbor about 4 years ago where I said my dream was always to buy a house, fix it up, and rent it out and she blurted out, "You want to be a landlord? What and rip people off for doing nothing?" So I knew that culturally she was teaching her kids that being a landlord was bad or evil.

What I think would be more interesting is to compare the experiences between Cuban and Puerto Rican families where the local Cuban families are highly successful and Puerto Rican families are viewed as less-successful.
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Thank you for pointing us to this article. It should be required reading for teachers, parents, administration, and security officers, and used as a topic for group discussion to break down barriers.
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This one's tough. Since all ethnic backgrounds have exactly the same intelligence, it's quite difficult to quantify mysterious discrepancies like this. We all know that if we keep forcing PC false logic on the world it will eventually come true.
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Asians & Latino's have different views of Life. Latinos statement - work hard, play hard, learn hard. Asians - work hard, study hard, work smart. Education is the number one priority to Asians.
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Saying it's parents is also politically correct, since all the evidence we have shows that parents don't influence achievement. The dirty little secret is that East Asians raised by white parents still have higher grades.

http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/004064.html

Read the comment section as well.
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Matt said: "...all ethnic backgrounds have exactly the same intelligence."

Matt believes the usual left-leaning, feel-good statements that all races (not ethnic groups, though they are sometimes linked) have equal distributions of intelligence. This is a fallacy. Some genetic groups are smarter, some are stronger, some are faster, some handle cold better, some handle heat better.

However, I have seen no evidence that Asians are inherently smarter than Mexicans, although this may be possible. The single most important reason why Asians do well academically is the same reason why European- and Russian-descent Jews do well academically: their cultures and their families prize educational achievements and professional attainments. The intense desire for education makes the kids work much harder than average, and these kids succeed academically. Other groups in the U.S. do not prize education, and their kids do poorly and drop out at high rates. So, if Mexican and Central American immigrants or descendants of immigrants want their kids to succeed in school, they have to make education a family and neighborhood priority. They can't whine and play victim; they must convince their kids to work hard at school.
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At the level of high school and college it is sort of ridiculous to say intelligence has an impact at this level. Those who work hard and have developed better ways of processing information will due better. As one goes farther in the education process and specifically on the cutting edge than I think the difference would lie with natural talent. But it is only at that level. If we all spent a ton of time on homework, we would all would get A's.
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My Asian daughters raised by white parents aren't doing as well in school as I did (but they are improving). There is only one other Chinese student in my older daughter's class, and he makes straight As. He also never goes to the movies, ballgames, or birthday parties. His only extracurricular activity is tutoring after school (as if he needs it). Otherwise, he spends all his time at his mother's restaurant, doing schoolwork.
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The single most important reason why Asians do well academically is the same reason why European- and Russian-descent Jews do well academically: their cultures and their families prize educational achievements and professional attainments.

See post above. The evidence contradicts the role of family environment in behavior.
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I think that a lot of factors can be included in the asians v. latinos achievement theory. First of all, asians can not be grouped into a group as latinos cannot be grouped into a group. One must carefully realize that these are "RACES" and there are many "GROUPS" within these races. Thus, to truly analyze the reasons why asians succeed better in school than latinos, researchers must be more specific about which asians and which latinos they are comparing. That being said, the family values will greatly impact the actions of the students. Thus, families with negative attitudes toward educational achievement can discourage the individuals from trying hard in school.
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ok. Many Americans will look at this in a simplistic perspective and say that Asians are smarter but the fact remains in their goals, traditions, and impulses. A few years ago there Americans that had begun the idea of gangs and introduced it to hispanics. Hispanic therefore derived this as a standard way to remain safe. Also since California has many Hispanic gang-members It is natural for other Hispanics to do the same because it is normal. It is a method to fit in.
One of the most important factors is that Hispanics mainly come to the us for a better life and most parents have not had much education. Asians coke here with education being the only thing to look for while Hispanics concentrate on finding a way to live. Also most of the Hispanics are from California why not look at Hispanics from less rural areas. I'm sure that test results will change drastically.
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Yeah I read that article in the Times when it came out. You have to consider the socioeconomics of the two immigrant groups. You have to remember a couple of things. First, in order to emigrate to the USA, it's usually one of two categories, family or skills. Can we assume a lot of the Asian families came under the skills category? Probably yes.
Can the same be said of the Latino students? It depends doesn't it? For a lot of US border states, no. The immigration is via family unification. And yes, I am generalizing. But I am backed up my studies such as Population and Environment, Volume 20, Number 6, July 1999 , pp. 527-544(18) which basically say the same thing. In fact, Asian immigrants are more educated than their American peers.
As evidence, Asian immigrants and workers in Asia don't do nearly as well. Singapore, Hong Kong and other developed Asian countries import a lot of immigrant labor from poorer Asian countries and none of these emigrant groups have settled and done prospered.
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just freaking admit it, Asians are superior to Latinos culturally, historically and not to mention their huge fucking brains which are inherently bigger than anyone elses.
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Hell yeah adhiv...
Culture is a reflection of the genetics of the population. A superior culture derives from a superior genetic pool. Humans are the same as animals. Why do we consider pit bulls vicious and golden retrievers calm just based on their breed? That is because genetics influences the behavior.

Take Singapore as an example of how superior people overcome tremendous obstacles. Singapore is an island with no fresh water sources, no minerals, no self sufficient arable land, no large areas for military training, a small population, surrounded by enemies, impoverished at their founding, and the list goes on. Yet, the Singaporeans have become a 1st world nation. No black or Latino nation can claim the same. They are in their own country, ruling themselves, blessed with enormous natural resources, have the support of many Europeans. They should be one of the greatest areas in the world. Yet they are so dumb and poor and unimportant that even in America, they can't achieve much. If they can't do it in their own nations or in America, there is something inherently inferior in them.
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i was born in Ny under a non racist family...after all my years of school...i just notice that mexicans and blacks just do worse....mexicans talk like idiots and blacks i cant understand...they just go on rants and curse me out...not that i care...mexicans will always be stupid and eventually one day will rape our government and we'll be FUCKED
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Hahahahaha. I wonder how brainless is the people who stupidly and with no-foundation claim that there is any genetic matter involved in this issue. Of course they're not just ignorant but completely idiot. If these irrational people had some general knowledge, they knew what's going on. No INTELLIGENT person (and I mean, truly INTELLIGENT -of those very few who don't just absorb information you will find within any race) needs a inaccurate study to realize how things are. And let me tell you I have been involved with and observed thorougly people from every ethnicity; and absolutelly and indoubtedly, I'll say there are NO intellectual difference among them.

First of all, Latin America and Asian countries face different realities. While Asian countries are mostly homogeneous, Latin American countries are not; and, this represents a significant difference between both (That's for you stupid koolau). In almost all Latin American countries there will not just be socioeconomic but ethnic discrimination. And most of the large indigenous/indian-featured mestizo or black people are more likely to stumble with ethnic-based barriers to succeed in their own countries. They will be relegated to live in rural or marginal metropolitan areas without have even finished elementary school. In these countries there are too much more people than job positions. That's why if many capable people won't find any job, unfavored people are more unlikely to do so. They will be rather worried to SUBSIST than to get an education. They won't even have water, and the goverments, usually made up for discriminating light skinned ones, won't care about it. Then, while the middle-class people will be pursuing a post secondary education, these people -who hold the habit of subsistence- won't have any other choice but emigrate TO THE CLOSEST PLACES looking for a better future.

So usually you will see no matter how poor their countries are that those people who come from further places will demostrate better performance. The ones who are willing to change their lives in a significant way and can afford a journey from far away come with specific goals unlike the ones who move to the nearest place they find in order to subsist. That's what happen with some Asian and some Latin American immigrants in the USA. They are the ones of their countries' WHOLE population who decided to come to the USA, and they DON'T represent their entire race neither their countries. They came to the USA pursuing specific purposes. An example of this is that within Latin Americans the ones who came with VISA and some previous education (usually South Americans--you see, the further Latin America) will perform better than their counterparts those Mexicans who came from small towns crossing the border. Kids will be directly affected by this kind of situations.

It's more complex than what many of you think. It's not about immigrants' socioeconomic status IN THE USA, it's about how they lived before coming here, WHO they were and how they were treated in their own societies. Most of them will hold these values wherever they go. But Americans love to divide and categorize people without understanding the reasons why some things are the way they are. They will go against our human nature, and dehumanizing us, they will put us into categories; but by doing so, they're forgetting that no individual is identical to other. Anyway, the crowds will always be there to believe whatever others make them believe is true. It's sad to see how very few people can be really intelligent.
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I don't believe Asian perform better than Latinos. Asians are not far different than indigenous. It's the American society that place them in that category. There are more educated Latinos and future educated Latinos. I have my master degrees and in my classes I never have any Asian that perform more intelligent. I got good grades because I wanted to be educated. I have a daughter. She always had good 4.0 GPA. My three children are going to be college children because I teach them the values of education period. Intelligent has nothing to do with Asians or any other ethnic group. Years before my Puerto Rican old friend tried to enroll in college, she was told by admission that she couldn't attend college because she wasn't white. Now time change, this new immigration of Asians want to teach us what?
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Yeah, it's truly sad how American society wants people to believe they have to be certain way because of their race. C'mon!! Humans are all the same. There are no significant differences other than our skin color and physical features. I haven't met any asian who is NATURALLY smart. In contrast, I, being hispanic, can claim myself as one. I can do well in any exam I have (all subjects), and keep a 4 GPA WITHOUT studying ALL DAY LONG. Actually, I just pay attention in class and read what they'll be asking for JUST ONCE. Additionally, I use to observe and analyze people so that I will understand them better. And all Asians I've seen are just regular people who won't even understand lessons when they're given, but when a test is coming, they'll be about 24 hours studying to do well (later, some won't even remember small concepts they "learned"). But do people NATURALLY smart need to do so? NO. As simple as that. We truly "SMART" people simply learn and analize quickly and EFFORTLESSLY. We rapidly soak up knowledge and discern. And I can tell you there very few of us AND WITHIN ANY race who have these qualities.
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