Can AAPI Discrimination Be Solved with Business?
As a member of my school’s diversity forum, I sat amongst 15 students from different academic levels, interests, and races at the high school. The superintendent selected a small “sample size” of students, intended to be representative of the school as a whole. In reality, the forum revealed quite the opposite.
Welcome to South Brunswick, a high school where 64% of students are Asian. The number itself is not the issue; it’s the cultural cleavage that stems from it. As an Indian student myself, my team at Dear Asian Youth and I have conducted several social media campaigns on the Model Minority Myth: generalizations, like “all Asians are smart,” that place harmful pressure on Asian kids to fit society’s mold. Unfortunately, many Asian students report experiencing bullying or insecurity due to these stereotypes.
However, the forum allowed me to see a side of the issue I hadn’t seen before. Students from other ethnic backgrounds shared that sometimes, the mocking of the Asian community stems from feeling like their own culture has been overpowered. This issue is reflected beyond schools, as well. The only African market in town was recently replaced by yet another Asian grocery store–the 6th of its kind to open in town.
Seeing the high Asian population in South Brunswick, Asian entrepreneurs recognize the high demand for their services and flock to town, slowly saturating the South Brunswick business scene. Today, we see a repetition of the same business model on almost every street you turn: Apna Bazaar, or Patidar, or Nabiha Market.
In the long term, the rapid increase of Asian supermarkets isn’t profitable to anyone, really–even the grocery store owners themselves. As the number of these businesses increase, each Asian grocery store’s demand becomes more elastic since the number of substitutes also increases. This means that if an Asian grocer were to raise prices to compensate for supply chain disruptions, they would simply lose profit and customers, as the same products could be found cheaper elsewhere. Also, generally, our business scene is turning one-dimensional, squeezing out entrepreneurs from other demographics. This lack of cultural diversity in business has exacerbated Asian hate in our community and school environment.
To promote cross-cultural business interactions and encourage entrepreneurs from other communities, businesses could engage in profit-share agreements through joint ventures. Within this business model, Asian grocery stores could offer a rack to underrepresented entrepreneurs for them to sell products aligned with their culture and values. In return, both partners could share profits proportional to sales while allowing collaboration and co-ownership in the same space. Existing Asian grocery markets would benefit from a larger consumer base, and entrepreneurs from other demographics would be encouraged to emerge in the business scene. If inclusive entrepreneurship is encouraged, perhaps increased cultural diversity in the business scene could prevent the dominance of any race in South Brunswick culture as a whole.
Additionally, my experience with the Chamber of Commerce taught me the importance of a collaborative business environment. Through our weekly newsletters, we could send out a market snapshot identifying which industries are oversaturated and which are missing. This information could help guide new entrepreneurs to make informed decisions and launch high-need businesses, rather than repeating the same business model and limiting potential profitability.
In all, by encouraging joint-ventures between established Asian grocery markets and underrepresented entrepreneurs, we can establish a more collaborative business culture and embrace South Brunswick’s true cultural diversity. Hopefully, this translates to all aspects of our community, including less Asian stereotypes and cultural divergence at my high school.
