Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy & Survey Methodology

Northwestern University Law Review's on-line blog, Colloquy, features a debate this week about empirical support for the belief that white Americans hold negative stereotypes associated with viewing Asian Americans as a "model minority." According to Colloquy's editors:

"Robert Chang and Rose Cuison Villazor respond to McGowan and Lindgren's prior piece, Testing the "Model Minority Myth," which argued that empirical data do not support the belief that white Americans hold negative stereotypes associated with viewing Asian Americans as a 'model minority.' Chang and Villazor argue that McGowan and Lindgren's argument is flawed because it relies heavily on data produced by asking white respondents questions about their racial attitudes in face-to-face interviews.  Chang and Villazor assert that this methodology is unlikely to yield true data about racial attitudes, as it is infected with problems of response falsification, is unable to ferret out subtler forms of racial bias, and is limited by the 'perpetrator perspective' on racial discrimination."