I agree with you about the social skills, leadership, cunning. I think the biggest thing for asians is still we lack knowledge about how the game is played.

A lot of white kids with parents as doctors or lawyers have their parents tell them what they need to do, what to expect. Get recommendations from teachers, do leadership extracurriculars, play sports, basically show you're well-rounded and get good marks. Asian parents don't really know the game because they haven't gone through it themselves, they're just trying the best for their kid by piecing it together from what they hear from friends, so they have their kids focus on grades and don't realize being well-rounded is looked for too. Also, like little political moves like visiting the campus, talking to the dean, getting alumni to write a recommendation or something. They don't know a lot of people are doing these things or don't have the resources/connections. In the workplace, similar situation, chit chat with your boss often, go to all the socials, volunteer to do the company's charity events, etc. Basically we need to figure this stuff out all on our own. Our parents generally were lower or middle class workers, so they can't help us become leaders.

Similarly, white kids grow up with better social skills, leadership skills because of more opportunities when they were young. Either playing sports or summer camps or working at dad's work for the summer or volunteer work, etc Again, these are things the white parents consciously push their kids to do, knowing it will build the right character to help their kids succeed. Asian parents think its mostly about grades, which is still right, but optimally you add in 10% social/leadership activities or something.

In this way i'm actually optimistic about asians. We're kind of the first generation going through this. Gaining knowledge of the right path, it'll much easier for our kids, they won't have to stumble around figuring things out and making a hundred mistakes before they come on the right way. Lots of asians are making lots of gains despite these challenges, which is great.

Of course, its still a massive waste of this generation of asians potential. I think the best thing is to connect with older mentors, asian or not, and learn the social skills, politics. And as we get older and overcome hurdles, give back to the asian community and mentor the next generation. Also, we got to keep working harder than everybody else. We're the challenger, so its simply going to take more work.