During World War II, the United States government used the image of Japanese Americans as a model minority to promote the idea that they were loyal and assimilable, in contrast to other minority groups who were perceived as being disloyal or unassimilable. This was done in part to justify the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during the war.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the model minority myth was used to suggest that Asian Americans had achieved success without the need for affirmative action or other forms of civil rights protections. This myth was used to argue against affirmative action and other measures to promote racial equity, and it helped to fuel the idea that minority groups who were not as successful as Asian Americans were somehow inferior or undeserving of assistance.

Passed in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first federal law that specifically targeted a particular ethnic group for exclusion from the United States. The Act was motivated in part by anti-Chinese sentiment and racism, and it was not repealed until 1943. The Act helped to create a negative stereotype of Chinese immigrants as being undesirables and helped to fuel discrimination against them.

In 2011, the publication of The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a memoir by Amy Chua, sparked a national conversation about the supposed superiority of Asian parenting styles. The book helped to reinforce the idea of Asian Americans as a model minority, and it contributed to the myth that their success was due to their cultural values and parenting practices, rather than systemic barriers and discrimination.