and plays into the very type of broad brush assumptions and stereotypes of Asians that you claim is going on with Caucasians (e.g., your comment "they do have a strong family base that encourages education"). It's this sort of thing that exacerbates the problem.
There are many different Asian ethnic groups who live here in Philadelphia and a Korean is no more similar to a Vietnamese or Chinese or Cambodian than a Jamaican would be to an Ethiopian or a multi-generational mixed-ethnic African-American - all living here in this city.
There are
http://www.southphillyreview.com/news/73706222.html">Asian gangs in S. Philly and some of the most heinous and vicious crimes have recently been committed here in the various Asian communities. There is a little-discussed major Asian drug trade going on in South Philadelphia and
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20100825_Woman_at_center_of_Asian_drug-trafficking_ring_gets_nearly_six-year_term.html">one of the kingpins was recently sentenced. So much of it flies under the radar because overall, their population is small compared to the rest (but they are often linked to the more-discussed California Asian gangs).
In many high schools, there is alot of "trash talking" between and among all the races/ethnic groups and it sadly escalates resulting in harm to those who don't want to bother with the crap and just want to go to school to learn. Bullies are bullies no matter where they came from and no matter the ethnic/racial group. Other parts of the city and other high schools, where you have poor Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks defacto-segregated after a century of redlining, have the identical problems of racial/ethnic intimidation yet it has so become "the norm" that it doesn't stand out like this situation.
If anything, the common denominator is economic despair.
I grew up in a neighborhood that is not only racially diverse (including inter-racial marriages), but religiously diverse (and inter-religious marriages), and gender diverse (i.e., GBLT and their families have been welcomed for decades and many are or have gone to other states to marry). The difference? Economically middle - upper-middle class.
The definition of "racism" to many of us with respect to application to the majority race - Whites - and specifically those who practice bigotry based on race, has the caveat that that community has always had the POWER (whether by the laws that
they enacted or by sheer numbers of population) to ENFORCE their bigotry. For these microcosm segregated communities, where Asians are a small minority, the "street" has "made the rules" enforced by the "majority" (who may be Black). However what trumps all this is the real law that no Black controls (although Obama may to some extent - the first time in this nation's history).
This country's "forefathers" created a nightmare for pure economic reasons and convoluted means for increasing their wealth were devised to maintain the brutal subjugation of non-Europeans for free labor (reducing their need to deal with the hassles of indentured servants). And the insidiousness of their methods persists today as we continue to navigate their booby-traps and land mine tactics now being used by all groups against one another.