The Ties that Bind: Asian Americans and Subtle Discrimination in Social Networks

Asian American stereotypes include the following: good at math and science, unassertive, poor leaders, quiet, hardworking, uncreative, and impersonal. These stereotypes are subtler and outwardly less negative than those attributed to other races, and thus open to more subtle forms of discrimination. Such subtle discrimination may be expressed in the form of negative performance reviews or failure to consider Asian Americans as for supervisory positions. More importantly, such discrimination may be articulated through the exclusion of Asian Americans from the employment-based social networks that are vital for psychosocial support, mentoring, and promotion and wage increase. This article explores the effects of social networks on discrimination in the promotion and support of Asian American workers. This article argues that current employment discrimination jurisprudence is inadequate to address social network exclusion and wage and promotion inequality among the various racial groups, focusing in particular on Asian Americans. Utilizing sociological literature on organizational and social networks, this paper demonstrates that through the process of social closure and exclusionary information networks, Asian Americans and other racial groups have limited access to opportunities for job advancement compared to white employees. Current census figures and demographic studies indicate that the human capital (education and qualification) of Asian Americans is equal to or exceeds that of their white counterparts - yet Asian Americans are promoted to fewer supervisory positions than whites. What is thus relevant to work authority determination is social capital, or the demographic similarity and social tie strength that lends itself to offering career-enhancing psychosocial support and mentoring between supervisors and employees. Social tie strength affects the employee's access to career-enhancing formal and informal social networks, and tie strength increases and deepens the greater the similarity in race or ethnicity between supervisor and employee. The exclusion, or social closure from such networks is often due to individual and group-level discrimination based on prejudice, or institutional practices that operate as structural barriers to the inclusion and advancement of racial minorities. Social network exclusion based on prejudice or stereotypes about a racial group's personality or character is thus greatly problematic within the context of current employment discrimination jurisprudence. Examining the cases of Kim v. Nash Finch Co. and Nguyen-Truong v. International Rehabilitation Services, this article argues that in both cases Asian American stereotypes operated to exclude Asian American workers from career-enhancing social networks and supervisory roles. Even after the plaintiff has shown a prima facie case of employment discrimination, courts to a great extent defer to the employer's proffered legitimate non-discriminatory reason (LNR) that the failure to promote was due to some perceived deficiency in the employee's qualifications. However, when the determination of such qualifications is based on stereotypes about the employee's race group (unassertive, uncreative, poor managers) or is the function of social network exclusion, such deference to the employers by the courts to potentially pretextual LNRs perpetuates wage inequality and job segregation.