Stereotypes Of Asian Americans In The Media

Today, when society talks about diversity, often times, Asian-Americans are brought into the conversation and are talked about as highly looked up to individuals, but they haven’t always been this way. On television, many times, Asian-Americans are represented as “nerdy” and “socially incapable/awkward”, Asian-American males are mostly shown as being weak and stereotypically awkward, while Asian-American females are either shown as “exotic” or also stereotypically awkward and nerdy, as stated by Takaki in his book Strangers from a Different Shore on page 479,

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if

Throughout the day, many of us use stereotypes some noticed able than others; yet we do not know the affects they have on the person said to. The issue I want to get through is that we all go through most racial stereotypes every day not knowing it effects our health. People most affected racial stereotypes are Hispanics, Africans and Asian Americans, but how did they get those. Out of all the races in the United States Asian American have higher expectations compared to any other ethnics. Why are Asian American expectations so high? The positive stereotypes can make them stress even more than a negative stereotypes. Many race live up to stereotypes thinking that they have to be the stereotype even if it is negative because that is what people expect. Asians Americans are labeled minority model causing them stress that pressures them, to achieve higher expectations.

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

Throughout history, the media has been known to be influential towards how individuals of society perceive the world and their environment. This influence can lead to people creating prejudices towards those who are highlighted by the media. It also has the ability to change the attitude of one person towards another class of people and stereotype them in positive, but mostly negative ways. One population that has played victim to the repercussions of the mass media is Asian Americans, who have been oppressed and deemed a minority by Americans. The media’s portrayal of Asian Americans has had detrimental effects on one’s opportunities, performance, and their perception of the world.

For 20 years, Asian Americans have been portrayed by the press and the media as a successful minority. Asian Americans are believed to benefit from astounding achievements in education, rising occupational statuses, increasing income, and are problem-fee in mental health and crime. The idea of Asian Americans as a model minority has become the central theme in media portrayal of Asian Americans since the middle 1960s. The term model minority is given to a minority group that exhibits middle class characteristics, and attains some measure of success on its own without special programs or welfare. Asian Americans are seen as a model minority because even though they have faced prejudice and

By definition, Media Literacy is defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. The power of the media should not be underestimated. Millions of teens and adults spend hours watching television and surfing the web on a daily basis. With the use of media literacy, these individuals that utilize hours of their daily lives can be protected from pressures of media disinformation that also pushes them to become the idealistic human model it wishes them to be. By teaching majority of our communities about media literacy, we can free them from the standardized pressures of society itself. These free beings will no longer feel the needs to live up to the expectations of the media as they will discover the falsified truth when analyzed deeply. Educating the population will not only free their minds mentally, but it will strengthen their capability of thinking also. Media Literacy provides opportunities for anyone to build communication skills, boost his or her confidents to interpret multiple media sources at the same time, and as well as realistically designating the portrayal of his or her position along with others’ in a perspective view. One can take advantage of media literacy to improve his or her media use habits, such as constant television viewing behaviors. With the impact of educating the life of an individual with Media Literacy, we can advance the habitual uses of media of that human being’s family and develop more intellectual

Some may ask what exactly define an Asian American. The awareness of this controversies of the indefinite identity was during the emergence of the second generations of Asian Americans who were once known as “oriental” in the period between the 1900 to 1940s. They had shaped and constructed the idea of an Asian Americans by forging their own paths socially, politically, and economically through their experiences of being percepted as “oriental” regardless of their nativity and citizenship. In consequence, tensions among the first generations immigrant parents and second generation began to rise as changes began to transpire.

Over the weekend, as I was skimming through an online news publication, trying to reacquaint myself with the habit of news reading by clicking random headlines that bore a semblance of interest to me, a particular, and enticing, write-up on Huffington Post piqued my curiosity. In big, bold fonts, with cleverly capitalized letters at the start of every new word, the article’s heading happened to be titled “ ‘Ho Chi Chin’ Signs Targeting Asian Candidate Disrupt Maine Mayoral Race”. Intriguing, isn’t it? At the very least, it is from my perspective, taking into account not only the infrequent presence of the Asian-American community in the news media, but also the fact that that an Asian-American has managed to engage himself within the realm of American politics. The Huffington Post feature, in my opinion, accentuates certain salient points, for instance, highlighting how swiftly Dunne was to equate Ben Chin with Communism and Ho Chi Minh solely on the account that Chin is of Asian descent and “that his name rhymes with Chin”, despite the fact that Maine’s mayoral candidate Ben Chin is Chinese-, not Vietnamese-, American.

Racism isn’t as violent as it was today some people will blindly say that it doesn’t exist anymore but the truth of the matter is that it does. A lot of people believe in racial stereotypes in an article written by Joe Fagin he talks about how Americans and the media have downgraded the Mexican race by mocking their language and calling them aliens it’s the same thing with African Americans popular Stereotypes of African Americans are that we are criminals and people who are only destined to end up in jail if they don’t make it in sports or entertainment. One of the most recent problems occurring today is racism in the media. Stereotyping in television and movies has reached a peak. The media gives children negative views of African American lifestyle. There are T.V. shows that depict African Americans in a way that is not true. There's even a video game about with an African American as the main character and the only thing that he does is kill, rob and have sex with people. The people who stereotype are mainly people who haven't been around African Americans and go by the only thing that they see about African Americans. So therefore, the media is a large part of the part of stereotyping of African Americans. Back When Troy Maxon and August Wilson were growing up Black men were characterized as brutes who were unintelligent and prone to committing crimes such as rape and murder. The representation of others as inferior serves as a purpose in justifying the negative

During the process of producing a television series, the demand for the producers to introduce their characters with only their highlighted traits make it impossible for viewers to gain a deep understanding of the community that the characters represent. One of the stereotypic traits that is usually seen on movies and television shows is societal difference that each race is placed into. Michael Omi in his article In Living Color: Race and American Culture stated that “in contemporary television and film, there is a tendency to present and equate racial minority groups and individuals with specific social problems” (546). There are many films and television shows found today that ground racial minorities into a specific social problems that are related to the color of their skin. It can be inferred from the current popular culture that this stereotype still persists.

Throughout the day, many people use stereotypes. Stereotypes are the idea when people have an oversimplified idea of a particular type of person. Some are more noticeable than others yet a lot of people do not know the negative effects that stereotypes have on the person. The issue is that people go through racial stereotypes everyday not knowing it affects their health. Minorities are affected by racial stereotypes, and the most affected are Hispanics, Africans, and Asian Americans. Out of all the races in the United States, Asian Americans have stereotypes based on them; having higher expectations compared to any other ethnicities. Stereotypes can make Asian Americans stress because of how both positive and negative stereotypes tend to have a negative impact on an individual’s life. Many ethnicities feel like they have to live up to stereotypes, many Asians Americans who are labeled as the model minority which causes them stress that pressure them, to achieve higher expectations.

Native Americans may have been displaced or band from their lands, but because of their suffering they managed to keep their culture alive. Throughout the years Native Americans have been ignored and not taken into consideration in the media. When they are included in media depictions, they generally are portrayed as individuals from the nineteenth centuries or when shown as modern people they are represented as people with addiction, poverty and lack of education. This representation does not reflect among the wide diversity of hundreds of tribal cultures that exist within the borders of the United States. History is a story most often related through the subjective experience if the teller. With the inclusion of more and varied voices, histories

As you mentioned, I also think the stereotype of Asian Americans being perfect stem from the Asian culture itself that values on hard work and academic success. Because of this cultural value, Asian American parents expect their children to be a ‘straight As’ student and enter an elite college. In the past, as a minority in the U.S., the Asian Americans had to work harder than anyone in order to fully exert their power in the society. Having a better education and high-paid job have been the best way to get recognition from others, therefore, they have been focusing on academic accomplishment for better life. The stereotype of Asian Americans being geeky or nerdy shown in American films can be the portrayal of this American Asian cultural value.

In today’s mainstream media, there exists a visible lack of Asian American representation. When they are given roles in film and television, those roles often maintain the stereotypical ideology which has been dominant for decades. Asian American stereotypes in these media range from hard-working and servile to masters of the martial arts and often put forth a misguided or exaggerated impression of what Asian Americans are like as a group. I argue that these stereotypical representations of Asian Americans manifest themselves in viewers’ minds and affect the way they view the minority group far after the they power off their television sets. These stereotypes are challenged when individual Asian Americans emerge and do not fit the mold that Hollywood has created for them. The quotes “looking at independent media artifacts, we can see the difficulties of self-representation, the potential for changing and configuring problematic images from Asian American and the media”(Ono) gives us a understanding to what independent media is to Asian Americans. Along with the quote “Inspires the creative expression of “Asian Americans who have felt excluded by particular forms of racialization”(Ono). These quotes will illustrate the shifting paradigm within the media from mainstream media to independent self produced work becoming the norm and how it can change Asian American lives demonstrated in these two films WHITEWASHING & ASIAN REPRESENTATION | Diversity Speaks - 2017 LA Film