Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity | Director of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems
The Model Minority isn’t a Model of Health - But is Often Seen as One It’s common practice for health data to group together Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders but simplifying a diverse group into one racial category can often obscure crucial insights, and even contribute to the harmful “model minority” myth. Take cancer data: When grouped together, Asian Americans’ leading cause of death is cancer. But for Indian Americans specifically, deaths due to heart disease were *twice* as common as cancer. Asian Americans are not a homogenous group, so many commonly shared statistics about how AAPIs have stronger health outcomes than other racial groups, conceal real concerns within smaller communities. I encourage you to check out this insightful article from Forbes to learn more about how equitable data practices can help us dispel the ‘model minority’ myth: https://lnkd.in/drpxD-Df #DataEquity #DataJustice #AAPIHeritageMonth
