MISIDENTIFICATION, MISEMBODIMENT AND THE PARADOX OF BEING A MODEL MINORITY

Abstract

Discrimination of Asian immigrants has a long history in the USA. After 9/11, violence against Asian immigrants, particularly Sikhs, has increased dramatically. Asian Americans are viewed as the ‘model minority in the United States’. Yet Sikh immigrants, one of the most successful Asian immigrants in the United States, experience discrimination that ranges from verbal taunts to physical attacks. The violent racist attack and the tragic killings of Sikh immigrants at the Milwaukee Gurdwara is an example of this trend. Often media portrays misidentification of Sikhs for ‘Middle Eastern Muslim’ terrorists as the reason for such mindless violence against Sikh immigrants. In this paper, I argue that misembodiment accompanies misidentification. Psychological research on immigrants needs to explore the phenomenological aspects of embodying a mistaken identity. Furthermore, in this paper I discuss the paradox of being a model minority who experience the most discrimination among Asian immigrants and its implications for developing culturally appropriate therapeutic interventions that could empower Sikh immigrant communities.