Minority Invisibility

Minority invisibility has gone unnoticed in the communication discipline. It denies the existence of racial problems by consciously or unconsciously downplaying, ignoring, or over-simplifying the issues. This is evidenced from the claims of color-blindness and reverse discrimination, the belief in model minorities, and exaggerated, negative, or purposeful racial displays that permeate American culture. Using in-depth interviews with Asian-American professionals from various metropolitan areas, this study investigates these professionals' perceptions on minority invisibility and model minority status. It explores Asian Americans' ethnic consciousness on four levels, discussing how the group perceives their individual invisibility, their group members' invisibility, the invisibility of other American co-cultural groups, and finally their expectations in changing minority invisibility in the United States. The work considers diverse viewpoints on minority invisibility, model minority, satisfaction and dissatisfaction with mainstream American culture, and co-cultural ethnic relations. This study is useful to graduate and undergraduate students and researchers with an interest in race relations, Asian-American studies, co-cultural theory, and intercultural communication studies.

Wei Sun holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from Howard University. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at Bowie State University, Maryland. Her research interests include intercultural communication, crisis communication, minority invisibility and media studies.