The New War on Asian American Excellence

My fellow General Partner at Y Combinator, the brilliant founder and investor Ankit Gupta, flagged something disturbing this weekend: a viral thread from a conservative commentator arguing that Asian Americans are ruining American education with their “grind culture” — and that white families are engaging in “educational flight” to escape us.

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racist framing of Asians as good at test scores and white kids as “following their passions first and pushing themselves later”. we should celebrate students being serious about getting smart early regardless of race and create spaces where more students can experience that. Asian kids I grew up with had plenty of passions outside of math and science and still do. They acted on those passions then and do now too. they just also took academics seriously and did well at it. we don’t need to DEI-code other kids’ inability to keep up.

Ankit Gupta @agupta February 01, 2026

This is the oldest form of American racism, dressed up in new clothes. And Ankit is right: we should celebrate students being serious about getting smart early regardless of race. Asian kids I grew up with had plenty of passions outside of math and science and still do. We don’t need to dress up discomfort with competition in DEI language.

The Same Bigotry, Different Century

While a lot of people have grown skeptical of performative DEI talking points, Helen Andrews, a conservative commentator, has been arguing that Asian immigrants pursue “grind culture” that’s “killing off” traditional American education. She claims Southern colleges are booming because of “white flight” from Asian educational norms.

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Asian immigrants are often openly contemptuous of American education norms—like that Vivek tweet—because they think the only reason someone would opt out of grind culture is because they’re lazy and stupid. Actually, American education is traditionally quite demanding, it just tells you to find your passion first and then push yourself to the limit of your talents, as opposed to indiscriminately maximizing test scores and then picking a high-status career. Personally I think our way yields better results, but grind culture is absolutely going to kill it off soon if immigration continues. [Quoting @herandrews]: A white Mission High student told the author she was thinking about transferring to a different school with fewer Asians. At the other school, "You're not every day hearing that you're white, you're dumb. There, you might hear it once a week." https://t.co/iAs936l5GW https://t.co/VWc7lh12l4

Helen Andrews @herandrews February 01, 2026

It’s inexcusable for people to be called dumb for their race, and growing up in Fremont at American High School, that wasn’t something me or any of my Asian American friends would ever say. No kid should be told they’re ‘dumb’ because of their race, full stop. But the fact that this is how she experiences Asian academic success – as a reason to leave the school – shows how often excellence gets treated as a threat rather than something to rise to.

Entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand made a devastating observation about this rhetoric:

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Anti-Asian bigotry is the only type where the main complaint is: they're too good and we can't compete. The rhetoric Helen uses below is the exact same that was used to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: other workers were complaining that the Chinese were "unfairly" hard-working. Rather than be admired for this, they were resented. Same idea here: Helen says Asians pursue "grind culture" (meaning they work too hard) which is unfair to other Americans because it makes them feel "dumb" while all they need is a safe space to "find their passion," which is supposedly the American way. Which is immensely ironic given Helen's credentials as a conservative intellectual: "find your passion" and "give kids safe space to explore" is literally the progressive education philosophy that conservatives like her would normally mock as participation-trophy culture. It's the education ethos they've spent decades ridiculing as "woke"! 😅 Last I checked, conservatives are supposed to believe in meritocracy, hard work, and competition... But I guess all those principles are only good until the wrong people start winning... [Quoting @herandrews]: Asian immigrants are often openly contemptuous of American education norms—like that Vivek tweet—because they think the only reason someone would opt out of grind culture is because they’re lazy and stupid. Actually, American education is traditionally quite demanding, it just tells you to find your passion first and then push yourself to the limit of your talents, as opposed to indiscriminately maximizing test scores and then picking a high-status career. Personally I think our way yields better results, but grind culture is absolutely going to kill it off soon if immigration continues.

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand February 02, 2026

Anti-Asian bigotry is unique because the complaint is essentially: they’re too good and we can’t compete. This is exactly the rhetoric used to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 — Chinese workers were “unfairly” hard-working. Rather than be admired for hard work, Asian Americans are resented. Then and now.

A Conservative Abandons Conservatism

Here’s the obvious irony: Andrews says Americans should “find your passion first” and get a “safe space to explore.” That’s literal progressive education philosophy. This is the exact rhetoric conservatives have spent decades mocking as “woke” and “participation-trophy culture.”

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This is a bizarre and racist framing of Asians as grade grinders with little creativity and white students as passion-driven folk pursuing diverse interests. Excellence should not be race-coded via intellectually lazy arguments. https://t.co/M0Kq1Fn7ij

Soumitra Shukla @soumitrashukla9 February 02, 2026

For some pundits on the horseshoe fringe of the hard right, those principles only apply until “the wrong people start winning.” Horseshoe theory is real, with the hard left and the hard right unified in looking to curtail Asian American excellence. As Bertrand put it: last I checked, conservatives are supposed to believe in meritocracy, hard work, and competition. But I guess for some, like Helen Andrews, those principles are only good until people with the wrong skin color start winning.

The Data Destroys the Stereotype

Now let’s look at what the 50CAN survey of 20,000 parents actually shows about Asian students:

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There’s a general misconception that students who succeed academically are holed up in some corner, memorizing facts all day But high achieving students are likely to have diverse interests. Asian students are no exception: surveys show high participation in sports and the arts https://t.co/b6wISMy27n https://t.co/eVGPdAir0i [Quoting @soumitrashukla9]: This is a bizarre and racist framing of Asians as grade grinders with little creativity and white students as passion-driven folk pursuing diverse interests. Excellence should not be race-coded via intellectually lazy arguments. https://t.co/M0Kq1Fn7ij

Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold February 02, 2026

• Organized sports participation: Asian students at 63% — HIGHER than the national average of 59%
• Arts, dance, and music: Asian students at 59% — HIGHER than the national average of 51%
• Community service: Asian students at 38% — HIGHER than white students at 28%

As Neetu Arnold of the Manhattan Institute points out: “There’s a general misconception that students who succeed academically are holed up in some corner, memorizing facts all day.” The data proves the opposite.

Academic Success Correlates with MORE Activities, Not Fewer

The 50CAN survey data demolishes the zero-sum framing entirely:

• Students with all A’s: 66% sports participation, 58% arts participation, 40% community service
• Students with D’s and F’s: 24% sports participation, 27% arts participation, 22% community service

The correlation is clear: academic excellence doesn’t crowd out other activities — it accompanies them. Excellence breeds excellence.

Even China Thinks Pure ‘Grind Culture’ Is a Problem

Here’s the complexity Andrews ignores: Asian countries themselves push back on test obsession. In 2021, China banned most after-school tutoring to combat “neijuan” — pointless competition. Two-thirds of tutoring employees — millions of people — were thrown out of work.

This isn’t a simple “Asian culture vs American culture” binary. Andrews’ framing ignores that American Asian families have ALREADY adapted and integrated. We’re not importing some foreign system — we’re succeeding at the American one.

The Real Story of Asian Americans in Suburbia

This pattern of resentment has a long history. The book Trespassers? documents decades of resistance to Asian Americans in Silicon Valley suburbs.

Mission San Jose High School became one of the nation’s highest-performing schools — and faced backlash. White parents complained about “pressure cooker” culture, preferring schools where kids could “grow socially.” Asian malls, Asian schools, Asian success — all met with municipal resistance dressed up as “concerns about aesthetics.”

This pattern repeats: success is reframed as a problem to be managed rather than a model to learn from.

We Create Jobs. We Work Hard. We Will Not Apologize.

Asian Americans founded or co-founded companies that created millions of jobs: Nvidia, AMD, Yahoo, YouTube, Zoom. Y Combinator has backed thousands of startups, many founded by Asian American entrepreneurs.

We don’t “grind” because we’re automatons — we work hard because we believe in building things. The immigrant story IS the American story — sacrificing for the next generation. Excellence is not a threat. Hard work is not unfair. Meritocracy means the best ideas win, regardless of who has them.

The real lesson here isn’t about “Asian educational norms” vs “American educational norms.” It’s about what happens when a group starts succeeding at the game everyone else set up. The rules suddenly need to change. The goalposts need to move. Hard work becomes “grind culture.” Academic excellence becomes “pressure.” And the people who should be celebrated as models of the American Dream get reframed as threats to it.

Asian Americans aren’t trespassers. We’re founders, investors, teachers, doctors, engineers, artists, and athletes. We create jobs. We build companies. We strengthen communities. And we will not apologize for existing, for succeeding, or for teaching our children that hard work matters.

To Helen Andrews and everyone who shares her views: the problem isn’t that Asian Americans work too hard. The problem is that you’ve confused your discomfort with injustice. We’re not going anywhere. And neither is our commitment to excellence.

Follow @garrytan for more.