Asian Americans petition for AAP minority status

Published: Friday, March 3, 1995

Current status perpetuates 'model minority myth,' tutors say

By Jennifer K. Morita

A group of Academic Advancement Program tutors are circulating a petition to get Asian Americans recognized in the university's support service for underrepresented minorities.

The program, which provides tutoring and counseling for historically underrepresented minorities and low-income students, now offers its services to Asian Americans and Caucasian students only if they can prove their low-income status, said program director C.Adolfo Bermeo.

Under California law, Asian American groups are not considered historically underrepresented, said Tooktook Thongthiraj, an AAP tutor.

Since the start of AAP in 1970, most Asian American groups have been excluded from underrepresented minority status, Bermeo said. African Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Pacific Islanders and Filipino Americans, however, do have underrepresented minority status.

But Asian American students who don't have low-income status are slipping through the cracks, and their inability to gain underrepresented minority status goes against the ideals of affirmative action, tutors said.

"It's perpetuating the model minority myth," Thongthiraj said. "They're not considered low-income students but they can't afford to pay $10 to $25 for private tutoring."

Although Asian Americans are showing success in their numbers at top universities, tutors say that these statistics are not enough to ensure a secure future.

"In the past eight to 10 years the numbers of Asian Americans in college has risen," said AAP tutor Lahn S. Kim. "That doesn't mean they don't have needs to be met.

"If we accept that Asian Americans are no longer a minority, we're saying that they don't need any help," Kim said. "There's still profound discrimination against Asian Americans once they get out of school. Success in school doesn't equate success in the future."

One tutor told a story about one of his students who wanted tutoring through the program but was denied services because she could not prove her low-imcome status.

"She was Korean," AAP tutor Daniel Barnardi said. "The argument is that Asian Americans have earned parity in academics, meaning there are enough of them in universities in relation to the community.

"But their parity isn't universal," he said. "There is still discrimination."

Most recently, the Academic Advancement Program has made an exception for one Asian American group -- Filipino Americans -- and if it can make one exception it can make others, Barnardi said.

Filipino Americans were considered historically underrepresented by the UC system until ten years ago, Bermeo said.

"The fact is that most Filipinos are from working class and low-income backgrounds," he said. "AAP simply continued to consider them under that status."

Students who don't qualify for AAP do have other options such as college tutorials in Griffin Commons.

"AAP's first priority is to low-income and underrepresented minority students," Bermeo said. "If we opened services to all students we just wouldn't have the resources."

Tutors plan to eventually present Bermeo with their petition, which has about 200 signatures so far. They want to encourage him to seek outside funds from Asian American businesses in order to support additional students.

"AAP does a tremendous amount of good," Barnardi said. "It brings people together. If you walk into a tutoring lab you'll see African Americans, Filipinos, Latinos and some Native Americans sitting down together struggling to get a grip on their courses.

"We're just asking the director to support us so we can bring even more students together," Barnardi said.