Professor Ellen Wu - Historian, Scholar and Author of "The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority"

Professor Ellen Wu is the Associate Professor in the Department of History at Indiana University Bloomington and Director of the Asian American Studies Program. She is the author of the book “The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority”. Her commentary has been featured by a number of outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and NPR. Professor Wu obtained a PhD in History from the University of Chicago, and an M.A. at UCLA.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Professor Wu and I highly recommend you read her book, The Color of Success. In the book, Professor Wu does a superb job of weaving together the complex and changing attitudes towards Asian immigrants in the United States from the 1800s when Asians were outcasts of society to the mid-20th century when they were labelled the “model minority”.

In this episode you will learn about:

How Asian Americans progressed so much over the last 100 years
How World War II was the catalyst that accelerated civil rights and socioeconomic opportunities for Asian Americans
Why the term “Model Minority” isn’t as positive as you might think
How Asian Americans can do a better job of supporting African Americans

Especially in light of all the social injustice that is happening in the world right now, I believe it is more important that ever to better appreciate the arc of Asian Americans in history to recognize our privilege and be emboldened to bring more equality in the world.

Follow Professor Wu on Twitter: @ellendwu

Buy Professor Wu's book, The Color of Success at your favorite bookstore: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691168029/the-color-of-success