U.S. Race Relations and the Asian American Achievement Paradox:Sociological Explanations and Implications
Abstract
Asian Americans are often characterized as a "model minority" because of their socioeconomic attainment. They are more likely to earn college degrees, and their children exhibit higher rates of school enrollment. In the labor market, Asian Americans have reached near parity with Whites in earnings, particularly among college graduates. Despite substantial growth in the Asian American population, they have received relatively little attention from the general public and from scholars of race and ethnicity. Arguably, this neglect stems from the fact that Asian Americans do not fit neatly into prevailing explanations of racial inequality. This talk evaluates existing sociological explanations for Asian American socioeconomic attainment in the United States.
Andrew Taeho Kim is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Department of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) (2024-Present). Prior to joining the faculty at UTK, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania (2023-2024). He received a Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of Kansas (2023). His research focuses on labor markets, stratification and inequality, race and gender in the labor market, Asian Americans, and quantitative methodology.
This event is organized by Institute for Asian Studies and co-sponsored by Department of Sociology.