Cases of Discrimination against Asian-Americans
Author(s):
Stephen Chen
The following cases are composites of actual Asian-American experiences. There are discussion questions at the end of each case and overall questions after the last case.
Charles Tang: Background
Personal History: First-generation Chinese-American, born in Taiwan and raised in San Francisco. Came over from Taiwan when he was six, and now he and his parents and his younger sister are all citizens. His father is a staff physician at a local hospital, and his mother teaches Mandarin Chinese at the local community college. Their social life centers around a Chinese immigrant community in San Francisco.
High School Accomplishments: Graduated in the top 10 percent of his senior class, an accomplished tennis player, National Merit finalist, second-chair violinist in the San Francisco Youth Symphony.
College/University: Graduated from the University of Chicago with B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical
engineering. Dated one Asian woman, but the relationship ended badly. Has not dated since.
Employment: Accepted offer as Design Engineer at Dynamo Disk Incorporated, the world's second-largest manufacturer of disk drives for personal computers. Moved in with a buddy (Caucasian) from his high school tennis team who works for another high-technology firm in the Boston area.
Case
Charles's first assignment was a project to cost-reduce Dynamo's popular but mature product, a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drive. He had initial problems because his first supervisor was abusing alcohol. The supervisor's behavior finally resulted in his leaving the company. Unfortunately, Charles's career took a hit.With new supervisor, Charles got back on track and contributed well. He was a quick study and soon made suggestions which were later implemented. A year later, the project had exceeded its objective of a 20% cost reduction, largely due to Charles's ideas. However, his supervisor credited others more than Charles. His subsequent assignments were similar. He worked well on small teams with his contributions generally underestimated due to a perception that his quietness was a sign of a lack of understanding or confidence. Since he rarely complained, his supervisor thought that he was generally satisfied with his job. Having been at Dynamo for five years, Charles began to observe that many of the people who had started at the company with and after him were moving into managerial positions. His roommate was now a department head at his company. Charles felt that he was doing an excellent job and wondered why his opportunity to move up had not arisen. What Charles did not know was that his peers were effectively networking. They belonged to the same churches and outside organizations as their bosses. Their children played together, and many were active in various social groups.
Discussion Questions
- In Charles's early years at Dynamo, what were some of the obstacles he faced?
- What could Charles have done differently?
- What could his supervisor have done differently?
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Jessica Chang: Background
Personal History: Second-generation Chinese-American, born and raised in Storrs, Connecticut. Both parents are originally from Hong Kong and are now citizens. Her father is a physics professor at the University of Connecticut, and her mother teaches science at a local high school. Has one younger brother. Parents are not active in community affairs.
High School Accomplishments: Salutatorian of senior class, All-State chorus, flautist, gymnast, National Merit finalist, hospital candy-striper volunteer. Rejected for admission to Yale.
College/University: Graduated from Cornell with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. Met and married fellow graduate student Barton Buchanan III.
Employment: Accepted offer as Design Engineer at Dynamo Disk Incorporated, the world's second-largest manufacturer of disk drives for personal computers. Husband works for another firm in the Boston area.
Case
Jessica worked for Dynamo for six years and began to notice that several people who started working at the company after her were becoming managers. She felt that she had been doing a good job and wondered why she had not been offered a managerial position also. After much consideration, Jessica scheduled a meeting with her supervisor and shared her feelings that time was running out on her in terms of keeping up with her peers, most of whom were one or two promotions ahead of her. Her supervisor expressed surprise that Jessica was interested in becoming a manager. He said that she always seemed to be cheerful and happy with her work. In fact, Jessica reminded him of the wife of one of his "closest" friends, Richard Wang. Apparently, Mrs. Wang was a wonderful cook and mother. When pressed, Jessica's supervisor said that she wasn't "leader-like" and needed to be more assertive.
This meeting angered Jessica, and she had a long discussion with her husband. After a period of soul-searching, Jessica selected Marge Ross, one of only two women managers at Dynamo, as a role model. Although Jessica was uncomfortable with some of Marge's behavior, which she considered "masculine", she learned and became more outspoken. She began to interrupt at meetings, learned to hold the floor when others tried to break in, and honed her presentation skills. She developed a thick skin when encountering sexual and racial jokes, especially during customer meetings and business trips. Two years later, she was offered a promotion.
Discussion Question
- Should Jessica have selected Marge Ross as her role model?
- Why or why not?
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Belinda Liao: Background
Personal History: First-generation Chinese-American, born in Hong Kong and raised in a suburb of New York City. Came over from Hong Kong when she was three, and now she and her parents are citizens. Her parents were professors before immigrating, and now they own and manage a small neighborhood grocery store. Their social life centers around a small neighborhood Chinese immigrant community. Gatherings with non-Chinese people are rare.
High School Accomplishments: One of three Valedictorians of her senior class, Academic Decathlon Team, cross-country team, Westinghouse finalist, president of the Math Club, an accomplished pianist. Admitted to every college where she applied.
College/University: Graduated from MIT with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. Married a post-doc, Alex Epstein, and divorced two years later.
Employment: Accepted offer as Design Engineer at Dynamo Disk Incorporated, the world's second-largest manufacturer of disk drives for personal computers. Recently promoted to a managerial position after working at Dynamo for 11 years.
Case
Belinda encountered difficulty as a first-line manager. Lacking a sympathetic mentor, she encountered unexpected opposition from her subordinates, who viewed her entry as an affirmative action appointment. It seemed that her people were constantly testing her, no matter how small the incident. With great determination, Belinda found ways to support her people, cards on their birthdays, congratulatory notes, and uncommon listening skills. Slowly, she won them over and her group was soon developing an excellent reputation. She also quieted her management peers by being better prepared for meetings, underrunning her budget, and delivering her key commitments ahead of schedule. Belinda's success was occasionally tempered by self-doubt. Many of her high school friends were raising families, and her parents often hinted about their desire to have grandchildren. Her life also seemed a little out of balance, since she worked an average of over 60 hours per week and rarely took vacations.
Nevertheless, Belinda's reputation and good work caught the attention of a sympathetic sales director. He valued her strong technical background and her Chinese heritage. Would she be interested in leading Dynamo's negotiation team with a key personal computer maker based in Hong Kong? Her social life took a back seat, and Belinda jumped at the chance, approaching this new task with the same enthusiasm as she did her previous assignments. She studied the history of the Chinese firm, talked to other suppliers, and knew their buying habits and idiosyncrasies. She reviewed her Mandarin Chinese in a night-school class.
Her first customer meeting turned out to be less than she had expected. The customer, while polite, seemed strangely distant. Subsequent meetings resulted in little progress. Belinda befriended an engineer in the Hong Kong company, who confided in her. He indicated that Dynamo had lost credibility by sending a woman, since senior management was more comfortable negotiating with a man. Her heritage presented them with another problem because they expected that her loyalty would first be to the Chinese people and then towards Dynamo. Thus, when she opened the talks with a strong pro-Dynamo position, they were upset.
However, they were impressed with her technical depth and felt that Dynamo's offer was a technically superior one. Unfortunately, it also had the highest price. This engineer felt that if Belinda sweetened the offer with red envelopes (containing money) given to the right decision makers, Dynamo would win the disk-supply contract. He offered to help and even indicated that the amounts need not be large, but that the respect this gesture showed was important.
Belinda realized that the contract was critical to Dynamo's survival. A recession in the United States had significantly hurt earnings, and rumors of more layoffs were rampant. She knew that such practices were commonplace in many parts of the world and that other firms had found ways to hide the payment of these funds. After many sleepless nights, Belinda decided to maintain her integrity and quietly informed her friend in Hong Kong that "red envelopes" were not forthcoming. The firm awarded the contract to Dynamo's chief American competitor two weeks later.
The result of this loss was felt quickly. Dynamo announced major staff cuts. Belinda, unable to deal with the guilt and resultant stress, resigned.
Discussion Questions
- In many of the incidents, Charles/Jessica/Belinda was the victim.
- What responsibility did
Dynamo, as a corporation, have, if any, to help him/her?
- Some sociologists and psychologists have observed that the failure of some Asian-Americans in business results from factors in upbringing and environment. Select a few of these and discuss them (e.g., lack of role models at home, emphasis on scholarship, racism, sexism).
Stephen Chen, AT&T Bell Laboratories abstract by Online Ethics Center staff