According to Amy Chua, a Chinese American law professor at Yale and author of the soon-to-be-released book \u201cThe Triple Package: Why Groups Rise and Fall in America,\u201d the answer to this question is yes.<\/p>\n
According to Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, co-author of \u201cThe Triple Package,\u201d there are eight cultural and religious groups that are inherently more likely to succeed because of three specific traits.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, the daring duo happens to belong to two of the groups who made it onto their exclusive list:<\/p>\n
The underlying message in this book that some groups of people are \u201cjust superior to others and everyone else is contributing to the downfall of America\u201d has already sparked a firestorm of controversy and has become a hot topic of discussion in the social media world.<\/p>\n
Chua and Rubenfeld explain that these eight \u201ccultural groups\u201d — carefully avoiding the words \u201cracial\u201d or \u201cethnic\u201d — have three traits in common, the so-called \u201ctriple package\u201d: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The sense of superiority allegedly generates a belief in deserving the best, while the underlying inferiority complex fuels the need to compensate for feelings of worthlessness. Impulse control is seen as not only the ability to delay gratification, but also the strength to persevere in the completion of difficult tasks.<\/p>\n
As a follow-up to her previous highly controversial book \u201cBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,\u201d\u00a0where she boldly declared Chinese mothers to be superior, Chua and Rubenfeld are asking their readers to adopt a thought process which is eerily reminiscent of the type of thinking which fueled some of history\u2019s most horrific events, such as slavery and the Holocaust, and which encourages belief systems that, to this day, continue to empower radical groups like the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church, by suggesting that one entire group of people is better than another simply based on race or religion or some other aspect of diversity.<\/p>\n
According to the New York Post<\/em>, “As for why African-Americans don\u2019t make the list, the authors believe that the Civil Rights Movement took away any hope for a superiority narrative, and so the black community is screwed \u2014 even as they cite Mitt Romney\u2019s loss to Barack Obama as evidence of Mormon ascendancy. \u00a0‘In this paradoxical sense, equality isn\u2019t fair to African-Americans,’ they write. ‘Superiority is the one narrative that America has relentlessly denied or ground out of its black population.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat certain groups do much better in America than others — as measured by income, occupational status, test scores and so on — is difficult to talk about,\u201d Chua and Rubenfeld write. \u201cIn large part, this is because the topic feels so racially charged.\u201d<\/p>\n Is it a racial issue?\u00a0 Is it a religious issue?\u00a0 Does Chua make a fair argument here?\u00a0 Are some of us predisposed to live a \u201csuccessful life\u201d and some of us not?\u00a0 What defines \u201csuccess\u201d for you?\u00a0 If you happened to have drawn the short straw and were placed into this world within a cultural group other than the elite eight, such as myself, are we truly at a disadvantage and better luck next time?<\/p>\n Believing in the illusion of superiority could be one of the most damaging choices one can make to the well-being of humanity as a whole, not only because it perpetuates the disparity between the haves and the have-nots and fosters a “them” and “us” mentality, but it suggests that if God did not create you as one of the chosen few \u2013 or eight, as Chua opines<\/i> \u2013 or if you do not select to associate yourself with the appropriate religion, that, well, you are doomed.<\/p>\n Your thoughts? \u00a0Your opinions? \u00a0Your insights?<\/p>\n