After watching Hasan Minhaj's episode on affirmative action in the "Patriot Act," it became clear to me that the socioeconomic disparity between Asians and other minorities in the U.S. eliminates any solidarity amongst people of color, making the fight against racial inequality much more difficult. In the episode, through many iconic hand gestures, Hasan references many Indian and Chinese "uncles" who argue against the case for affirmative action in the college admission process. Now, I'm not saying Asians and Asian-Americans don't work hard for their success. Believe me, we do. However, so do Latinos and blacks who have resided in this country for essentially hundreds of years with little to show for it.

The lack of empathy of Asian-Americans for other people of color is justifiable, to them, through the term "model minority." As an Asian-American, it first makes me feel proud and slightly arrogant, but then for some reason, I feel shameful and pathetic in my pride. That is because this term fails to acknowledge the enslavement of black people for centuries, the dispossession of Mexican land, and the genocide of Native American peoples... all of which Asian Americans did not suffer from. Tell me, what do I have to be proud of? Privilege? The truly dangerous part is the fact that we, people of color, are still falling for this tactic of "innate superiority" or "inferiority." Simply put, the term is evidence of a larger pattern practiced by the West: placing a small group above other minorities based on a slight, false difference. If you look back at history, you'll see that white colonizers consistently used hierarchy amongst non-whites to distract them from those at the top: whites.