If you doubt that is what he said, then read the third section of his April 14 post "Why Do Democrats Feel Sorry for Hillary Clinton?" Referring to the Asian American Dr. Dao, who was famously and brutally removed from an overbooked United flight, Sullivan makes the point that the incident had nothing to do with race (or white supremacy) by making the further point that "Asian-Americans, like Jews... [have] done so well... in a profoundly racist society." I wish white commentators like Sullivan, and New York Times' Nicholas Kristof ("Asian Advantage"), would spend a little time with posts like this one in Bloomberg: "It Isn't Just Asian Immigrants Who Thrive in the U.S." The point:
According to Census data, more than 43 percent of African immigrants hold a bachelorâs degree or higher â slightly more than immigrants from East Asia. Nigerian immigrants are especially educated, with almost two-thirds holding college degrees â a significantly higher percentage even than Chinese or South Korean immigrants. African immigrants are also very likely to hold advanced degrees, many of which are earned at U.S. universities. By many measures, African immigrants are as far ahead of American whites in the educational achievement as whites are ahead of African-Americans.
What do these educated black Africans have in common with educated Asian Americans? They are immigrants. As a consequence, a bunch of significant and accidental factors apply to this group that are missing from established POC communities, one of which is they don't have a deep history with racist white Americans, and so they have a greater tolerance for their bullshit.
Also, you will find distance plays a role in all of this. Those who come to the US from Asia and Africa can't use their legs. They must do so by boat or plane, by water or air. This costs much more money than plain walking. And so, already, the class composition of immigrants from Asia and Africa will be very different than that, of say, immigrants from Mexico. The poor in Zimbabwe, for example, walk to South Africa. Those with enough money fly to the UK, Canada, Australia, or the US.
Of note: Black and brown non-immigrant Americans are actually working more hours than they did in the past!
All of this Asian-American prosperity talk is new. When I came to Seattle in the early 1990s, the talk wasn't about Asians doing better than whites and taking over the universities. The newspapers were instead filled with stories about Asian gangs. Beacon Hill, which, like today, had a large Asian American population, was seen as a poor and dangerous neighborhood. Things changed rapidly and recently. But let's forget all that and believe it has something to do with Confucianism or the strong Asian work ethic or Tiger moms or what have you.
