Amy Chua (better known as the Tiger Mom) has a new book, The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
Why do some groups rise? Drawing on groundbreaking original research and startling statistics, The Triple Package uncovers the secret to their success. A superiority complex, insecurity, impulse control—these are the elements of the Triple Package, the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives disproportionate group success. The Triple Package is open to anyone. America itself was once a Triple Package culture. It’s been losing that edge for a long time now. Even as headlines proclaim the death of upward mobility in America, the truth is that the oldfashioned American Dream is very much alive—butsome groups have a cultural edge, which enables them to take advantage of opportunity far more than others.• Americans are taught that everyone is equal, that no group is superior to another. But remarkably, all of America’s most successful groups believe (even if they don’t say so aloud) that they’re exceptional, chosen, superior in some way.• Americans are taught that self-esteem—feeling good about yourself—is the key to a successful life. But in all of America’s most successful groups, people tend to feel insecure, inadequate, that they have to prove themselves.• America today spreads a message of immediate gratification, living for the moment. But all of America’s most successful groups cultivate heightened discipline and impulse control.But the Triple Package has a dark underside too. Each of its elements carries distinctive pathologies; when taken to an extreme, they can have truly toxic effects. Should people strive for the Triple Package? Should America? Ultimately, the authors conclude that the Triple Package is a ladder that should be climbed and then kicked away, drawing on its power but breaking free from its constraints.
Apparently this makes her racist.
Ponder that for a moment. A minority woman (who’s a professor at Yale) writes a book saying that a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control which goes hand-in-hand with great self-discipline compel people to better themselves, and, not only is this news, it makes her racist:
Tiger Mom accused of being a ‘full-blown racist’ as her new book names the eight ‘superior’ races and religions that make better parents
Tiger Mom Amy Chua has penned a new parenting guide called ‘The Triple Package’ which lays out a controversial theory for success in modern America
Declares there to be only eight successful and superior groups of people in the United States
Includes the Chinese are one of these groupings along with Indians and Jewish to name two others
Published in the new book, ‘The Triple Package’, that she has written with her Jewish husband Jed Rubenfeld, Chua names the eight groupings that are exceptional in no particular order – and unsurprisingly, the Chinese are one of the top dogs.
The other seven are Jewish, Indian, Iranian, Lebanese-Americans, Nigerians, Cuban exiles and Mormons.
I would add that any parent anywhere in the world who motivates and guides their child to accomplish their potential through hard work, patience and perseverance is superior to a parent who does not.
Another Yale professor, Carlos Eire, a self-made man if ever there was one, writes about his experience:
Cuban exiles are among the eight groups identified by my colleague.
Perhaps identifying us as “superior” will end up causing her additional trouble. We are, after all, sowrong about everything, so thoroughly despicable, and so worthy of being herded into boats and shipped back to where we came from.
I could be wrong about this, but I think that there is no other group of immigrants or subculture other than Cuban exiles that is so open to criticism, denigration, or open hatred or ridicule.
Imagine anyone publicly denigrating any of the other seven groups singled out by Amy Chua: Jews, Chinese, Iranians, Indians, Lebanese, Nigerians, or even Mormons.
As someone at one of my public lectures said a few years ago: “You people are ruining this country… It’s because of you people that our country is in so much trouble…Why don’t you all just shut up or go back to Cuba!”
Liberals’ expectations of Latinos/Hispanics are such that Carlos’s experience is not unique. The phrase they throw at me (since I have no qualms to point out that I’m a US citizen from birth, upon hearing you people), is “You don’t even look Puerto Rican!”
Racism, indeed.
