Ellen D. Wu is a second-generation Chinese American historian and professor of history and Asian American studies from Indiana. She is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Indiana Bloomington.
Quick facts Ellen D. Wu, Occupation ...
Ellen D. Wu |
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| Occupation | Associate Professor of History at Indiana Bloomington |
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| Known for | Contributions to field of Asian-American studies |
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| Education | Ph. D |
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| Alma mater | Indiana Bloomington, UCLA, University of Chicago |
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| Discipline | History, Asian-American Studies |
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| Sub-discipline | 20th century history, immigration |
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| Institutions | Indiana Bloomington |
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| Main interests | The Model Minority Myth, immigration, migration, Asian-American studies |
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| Notable works | The Color of Success (2015) |
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Career
Wu completed both a bachelor’s in arts and a bachelor’s in science at the University of Indiana Bloomington. Wu completed her Master’s of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then completed her Ph. D in History at the University of Chicago. After finishing her Ph.D, she returned to her home state of Indiana, where she became a professor of history at her alma mater in 2007.[1] [2]
Wu teaches multiple classes across the university revolving around Asian American studies. Wu offers perspectives on migration, immigration, imperialism of the Pacific, and wartime American life. From 2010 to 2015, Wu served as the director of Indiana Bloomington’s Asian American Studies Program.[2] For Indiana University’s Bicentennial Celebration, Stephanie Nguyen and Zack Hegarty, Wu created a digital exhibition titled “Past, Present, and Future,” which explores the history of the Asian American studies department at the university.[2]
Wu has received many awards over her time at Indiana Bloomington. In 2017, Wu was named a “Champion of Diversity” by Indiana Minority Business Magazine. Wu has also served on the boards of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society and the Indiana Advisory Committee for the United States Commission on Civil Rights.[2]
Published Works
In 2015, Wu published her most well-known and critically acclaimed work, “The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority Myth,” which explores how the reputation of Asians in the United States shifted from “yellow peril” to being held up as model minorities. It explores how Asian-Americans participated in WWII society, navigated the Black Freedom movement, and sought solidarity with other racial groups over time. Wu reveals how the implications of the model minority myth influence how Americans understand racial hierarchy, economic opportunities, and national identity.[3] “The Color of Success” received praise from several prominent publications, such as The Journal of American History, and Wu’s peers in the field, such as professors from Yale and USC.[3] The book is featured in the Princeton University Press.
Wu has published several articles, op-ed, and has been featured in documentaries centered on the Asian-American experience over her career. Wu has had her featured in many notable publications, such as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, goop, NPR and the Youtube Series “Adam Ruins Everything." One of her most notable op-eds, “Asian-Americans and the Model Minority Myth,” was published in the Los Angeles Times on January 23rd, 2014. The article centers around one of Wu’s foundational areas of expertise, the model minority myth, in response to controversy surrounding author Amy Chua’s book "The Triple Package" on social media, which faced backlash for naming eight ethnic groups of Americans as superior for their rates of academic achievement.
Wu is currently writing her next work, titled “Overrepresented,” which will also be published by Princeton University Press. “Overrepresented” plans to center Asian-Americans in a telling of the United States’ history of racial justice, and how inter-community conflict and governmental intervention have made Asian-Americans a wild card of U.S race relations. In her research for “Overrepresented,” Wu has collaborated with students and professors of Indiana University's Digital Arts and Humanities Data Science departments.[2]
Work on the Model Minority Myth
The model minority myth was first defined in the 1960s in an article by cultural sociologist William Petersen in his article “Success Story: Japanese-American Style.” In this article, he argued that Japanese-Americans, through a mix of “culture,” including the willingness to work-hard, had successfully overcome the barriers of racial discrimination in the U.S, thus assimilating and thriving.[4] The term has since evolved to reflect the broader stereotype that argues that Asian-Americans broadly work harder and have a superior culture than other minority groups, particularly African-Americans in Petersen's original article, hence achieving better economic and academic success. The civil rights movement, and the protests and unrest that came alongside it, was a manifestation of what many sociologists of the time called “the negro problem,” or the inability for African-Americans to successfully integrate into American society. Peterson argues in "Success Story: Japanese-American Style" that Japanese-Americans, after Internment, had been able to do what Black people could not, which was to overcome racism and discrimination through hard work and a superior culture. Wu argues that this not only ignores the clear systemic injustices that Asian-Americans face, but it unfairly blames African-Americans for their own subjugation, blaming their inability to achieve economic and education goals not on systemic racism, but on a "culture" problem.[3][5] This comparison between African-Americans and Asian-Americans can be further explained by racial triangulation theory, or the idea that white Americans have historically positioned Asian-Americans as superior to African-Americans, yet still subordinate to whites. Triangulation can explain why Wu considers Asian-Americans to be a historical "wildcard" when it comes to race relations in the United States; where Asian-Americans stand and how they have been discriminated against in the past becomes murky due to the model minority myth, triangulation, and their ramifications making the collective memory of anti-Asian racism in the United State blurry.[3]
Wu states that the model minority myth overlooks the hard work that Asian-Americans have had to put in to overcome systemic racism and discrimination that has impacted Asian-Americans since their arrival in the United States. Wu references racist legislation, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and which contributed to attitudes of "yellow peril," or the idea that Chinese-Americans specifically stealing the jobs of white Americans. In order to overcome this discrimination, Asian-Americans kept their stores open for longer hours, put intense effort into doing labor that communities they worked in lacked, and more. These methods of attempting to overcome the racist treatment they were on the receiving end of lead to the assumption that Asian-American were "naturally" hard working, rather than adapting to discrimination.[3]
The model minority myth also misrepresents Asian-Americans as a monolith, despite Asian-Americans having many diverse ethnic subgroups (i.e Japanese, Chinese, Hmong, etc.)[6]
Appearance on "Adam Ruins Everything"
Wu appeared on the educational Youtube series "Adam Ruins Everything," titled "Adam Ruins a Storm," which was uploaded on January 22, 2019. The episode centers and explores the origin of racial stereotyping, segregation, and gender roles. Wu was brought on to this episode to speak on her knowledge of the model minority myth, or how Asian-Americans are typically stereotyped to be smarter and higher achieving than other racial minorities.[7]
Other Works
- The Complex History -- and Ongoing Realities -- of the "Model Minority" Stereotype[8]
- Asian Americans' Place in the History of Racial Justice[9]
- Distinguished Asian American Political and Governmental Leaders (Distinguished Asian American Series)
- "America's Chinese": Anti-Communist, Citizenship and Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War[10]
- It's Time To Center War In U.S Immigration History[11]
- Race and Asian American citizenship from World War II to the movement[12]
- Chinese-American Transnationalism Aboard the Love Boat[13]
- Asian Americans in Dixie: Race and Migration in the South. The Asian-American experience[14]
