This interview on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco discusses Asian-American mental health issues with a frankness that is missing in the majority of the dialogues around Asian-American mental health. The fact is that Asian-Americans do also struggle with depression and similar issues — it’s just that the culture of “keeping face” often dissuades people from seeking treatment even when they need it.

As Danise Sugita notes in the interview, there is a lot of “keeping things in the family” when it comes Asian-American mental health issues. The prevailing sense that one should be able to deal with one’s problems on one’s own is incredibly destructive, though.

Sound off below: Would you seek mental health support (like counseling) if you needed it? Would your parents be supportive? Have you ever sought it, and if so, have you found it effective and culturally sensitive?

Earlier this week, D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry complained about Filipina nurses in hospitals, saying:

“In fact, it’s so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines, and no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses — and so that we don’t have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places—having to hire people from somewhere else.”

For the sake of this post, I’m going to ignore my personal disgust at Barry’s xenophobia and concentrate on the response that twenty-eight local and national Asian-American advocacy groups have launched, “Say Sorry Barry,” taglined “A campaign for respectful dialogue in D.C. politics.” The campaign’s website calls on Barry to issue a formal apology for his comments, and to uphold his commitment to meet with local APA community leaders after his inflammatory remarks about Asian-owned businesses, which Barry called “dirty shops.”

I encourage you to check out the Say Sorry Barry campaign and sign the petition to show solidarity with D.C.’s Asian-American community.

This article about the recent U.S. Census data discusses how, at a 53.9% poverty rate, Brooklyn’s Bangladreshi community is “poorer than blacks, whites or Latinos living in the county.” Pakistani and Vietnamese residents are also discussed as having high rates of poverty. 

The myth of the Asian-American model minority is harmful in two ways: first, in that it perpetuates an idea that Asian-Americans are inherently successful; and second, in that it makes it difficult for observers to wrap their heads around the idea that Asians can be poor.  For some reason — probably because many Asian cultures embrace conspicuous consumption whenever possible, and therefore affluent Asian-Americans end up making their affluence readily apparent — many people seem unable to conceive of the idea of an Asian-American family struggling economically. 

Sound off below: what do you think of the (untrue) myth of universal Asian-American financial stability? Do you think there’s an especial stigma attached to being an Asian-American whose family is struggling financially (I would argue there is to a certain degree, if only because it seems so unbelievable to such a huge chunk of the general population)?