A cultural clue to why East Asians are kept from US C-suites

The title here is straight from the article, but it gives false the impression that there is some external force that prevents East Asians from becoming executives.

The primary cause identified in the article is a lower level of assertiveness than whites (or South Asians, who are more likely to be executives). Assertiveness is at least somewhat a choice (though people have different predispositions, for sure), so it's perhaps not quite right to refer to East Asians being "kept from" accomplishing something.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it's "holding them back", which is a descriptor that could apply to both internal and external forces.

This could start further upstream. Is it possible US immigration inadvertently selects for unassertive East Asians?

East Asians were banned from the country for a long time, I would not be surprised if there was a specific selection criteria put in place when that ban was lifted.

One would expect the more assertive to openly/unapologetically defend their history and decisions of leaders like Mao. Thanks to tremendous western propaganda that's probably a red flag (no pun intended) for most immigration agents.

Obviously not the same, but this has a lot of overlap to introverted vs extroverted leadership.

Not that East Asians are introverted by nature, but just that many of the same discriminating factors are in play.