Indians among Tiger Mother Amy Chua's list of six 'superior' people

Author Amy Chua sprang to international notoriety with her first book, The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, in which she wrote about stern parenting techniques to bring out the overachiever in your bundle(s) of joy. In her second book, co-authored with her husband Jed Rubenfeld, Chua is all set to ruffle feathers and raise hackles all over again. In her new book, The Triple Package, Chua and Rubenfeld list six “cultural groups” that they believe are exceptional: Chinese, Jewish, Indian, Iranian, Lebanese-Americans, Nigerians, Cuban exiles and Mormons. (Incidentally, Chua is Chinese by origin and Rubenfeld is Jewish.) [caption id=“attachment_1324637” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Amy Chua. AFP image[/caption] According to Chua and Rubenfeld, the three features that distinguish the six from others are superiority, insecurity and impulse control. “That 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,” write the authors. “In large part, this is because the topic feels so racially charged.” Chua says that a superiority complex gives a cultural group (read: race) an advantage and says that it is antithetical to mainstream liberal thinking. Insecurity manifesting as a need to prove oneself, the author goes on to say, can serve as a strong motivation for future success. The couple also conclude that impulse control can go a long way in ensuring future success and they posit these three factors are present in all three cultural groups. While Chua is careful to avoid using race or religion as a descriptor for the groups (hence the term “cultural” groups), the outcry against her writing has come quick and fast, with allegations of thinly-veiled racism being the biggest problem. “(The book is)…cat-and-mouse polemic, in which they claim they’re courageously agitating for a greater good: the revival of America itself as a “Triple Package Culture.” It’s a series of shock-arguments wrapped in self-help tropes, and it’s meant to do what racist arguments do: scare people,” says the New York Post. Reviewer Maureen Callahan says the book uses “specious stats and anecdotal evidence” to argue that Jewish, Indian, Chinese, Iranian, Lebanese-Americans, Nigerians, Cuban exiles and Mormons are superior to other races or cultures, and “everyone else is contributing to the downfall of America.” 

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