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Yesterday, Think Progress reported via Politico that the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) 2010 blueprint for winning Congress noticeably omits Reps. Joseph Cao and Charles Djou. Cao, a Louisiana lawmaker, was the caucus’s first Asian-American member in 2008, and even got top notch support from House Minority Leader John Boehner, who penned a memo titled “The Future is Cao.” Djou joined Cao last spring after beating the odds in a heavily Democratic Hawaiian district. The two were seen as having opened the door for a crop of young, Republicans of color who soon followed, including first generation Filipino Steve Austria.

Now, both lawmakers are facing tough re-election bids in their home districts, and there’s little evidence to show that they’ll get any help from party leaders. Republicans are going on the offensive heading into November, buying billboards and ads in districts currently held by Democrats. But the gesture hasn’t extended to Cao and Djou.

While Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans tend to do well when compared to their white counterparts, the same can’t be said of Vietnamese, Pacific Islanders, and Cambodians, as well as Hmong and Laotians. Among Vietnamese, for example, per capita income is $23,080 — compared with just over $30,000 for whites — with an overall poverty rate of 13.3 percent, compared to 10.5 percent for whites. Likewise, only 13.3 percent of Cambodians and a scant 9.3 percent of Laotians have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to nearly 30 percent of whites.

Simply put, the “model minority” myth obscures the diversity of the Asian American community, as well as the problems faced by many of its members. The sooner we move away from it, the sooner we identify and talk about the many disparities that exist within the community.