Race, Gender and Progress: Are Black American Women the New Model Minority?

Building on the “model minority” concept especially focusing on East and South Asian immigrants in the USA, this paper argues that increasing pertinent data continue to show that African American women are gradually becoming a model minority too, despite experiencing the most severe form of slavery, racism and gender discrimination than any other group or sub-group in the history of the USA. Among the increasing number of examples presented in this paper to support the claim that Black American women are becoming a model minority in the USA are: (1) relatively high college enrollment and degree attainment rates for black women; (2) fewer black females die per every 100,000 of their population than black males, white males and white females; (3) Higher proportion of black women are 100 years and over, compared to black males and whites; (4) Proportionally, fewer black females than black males, white males and white females commit suicide; (5) Proportionally, fewer black females than all males commit crimes; (6) Proportionally, due largely to black females, fewer blacks consume alcohol and illicit drugs than whites, etc. © 2008, Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.