Stereotypes Hinder Minorities’ Attempts to Reach Managerial Ranks

Almost 60% of Latino journalists surveyed in California this year said they plan to leave their jobs within 10 years. About 36% of Asian-American journalists said they are likely to leave journalism altogether within five years.

Unlike whites who leave--in much smaller numbers, generally citing boredom and poor pay--minorities mostly cite their lack of advancement opportunities.

More minorities than whites say they want to go into management--some because of personal and professional ambition, some because they see journalism as a vehicle for exposing and even correcting longstanding inequities in U.S. society. Frustrated by their inability to attain positions of authority on their newspapers, a growing number of minority journalists are deciding to look outside journalism to achieve their objectives.

Some Asian-American journalists feel their prospects for advancement may be particularly bleak because of stereotypical perceptions about them by white managers.

The stereotyping begins at the reportorial level, where Asian-Americans are far more likely to be made education and business writers than, say, film critics or sportswriters. When it comes time for promotions, Asians say, they are often erroneously seen as “techno-coolies”--hard workers, meticulous, conscientious but not especially creative or imaginative; they’re also regarded as too passive, not assertive or aggressive enough to be editors.

That means that Asian-Americans are far more likely to be made copy editors than city editors or managing editors.

But as K. Connie Kang, an assistant metropolitan editor at the San Francisco Examiner, points out, in “Confucian-steeped cultures, talking about your virtues is a shameful thing . . . speaking up is not a polite thing. You’re supposed to expect people in positions of authority to recognize your abilities and appreciate you, rather than you having to go to them and . . . ask for a raise, ask for a promotion.”

Simon Li, deputy foreign editor at the Los Angeles Times, says the emphasis on education in most Asian families leads many Asians to believe that their achievements are measurable and that rewards will come accordingly, without being specifically sought. Because of these factors of cultural conditioning, many Asians not only think it inappropriate to ask for promotions, they may refuse to apply when openings are available.

But some white editors, unaware of this cultural difference, may think the talented Asian-Americans who don’t apply for a given job don’t really want it or would be insufficiently aggressive to do it properly if they got it. Editors also argue that if Asian-Americans want to succeed in a Western world still dominated by white attitudes and practices, they’ll have to adapt--to push themselves for promotion the way many whites do.

Craig Matsuda, an assistant editor in the View section of the Los Angeles Times, argues, however, that if he has to make such a fundamental change in himself to get promoted, then what he’s won is, at best, “a Pyrrhic victory.”

Ironically, Asians who do not fit the stereotype, who speak out and push themselves just like many whites, are often regarded as troublemakers precisely because they don’t behave as expected. So they may not get promoted either.