Chapter 3: Black Mormonism as an Example of Model Minority Discourse

This chapter will argue that Black¹ Mormonism is an example of model minority discourse. I will assert that model minority stereotypic discourse is used to instantiate the claim that with enough hard work, anyone can “make it” in the United States. The rhetoric and racist moniker of the model minority myth indirectly demonizes Blacks, by implying that Asians have achieved excellence due to their effort, while Blacks are understood to have been unsuccessful due to their own individual laziness and dependence on social support services, like welfare. Aggregated statistics are used to promote the notion that Asian Americans constitute a model minority. Blacks have been historically demonized, but oddly, in the same breathe, they are now beginning to be described as representing a “new model minority” (e.g., see Kaba, 2008).

But how can Blacks be demonized and also be considered to be model minorities? This chapter argues that they cannot, and that Black Mormonism serves as an example of a racialized (Smith, 2003), albeit disguised model minority discourse.