Asian American and The Media

Cierra Anthony 313-358-7056 Cierra.Anthony@wayne.edu My Panel Paper November, 17, 2015 Asian American vs The Media How Asian-American’s are depicted in the media George Rodman, the author of ‘Mass Media in a Changing World’ say’s he defined media as the main means of communication such as television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet. According to the author of ‘Asian Americans Beyond the Model Minority Stereotype, Zhang Qin “Most racial-ethnic stereotypes about Asian Americans are constructed, activated, and perpetuated by the media.” He say’s people's perceptions of Asian Americans are consistent with media stereotypes and the media activated racial-ethnic stereotypes that can affect people's behavior with Asians.” Filipino-American activist Sharon Levowski say’s “the media is the reason people makes fun of our accents and the way we speak, when we speak in our language,” say’s Levowski “I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me if I speak that ching ching chong language, which is very prejudice and unprofessional. Writer for Peoples magazine Stephen M. Silverman wrote an article on Rosie O’Donnell impersonating Asians as a joke. “The joke outraged many, including the group UNITY: Journalists of Color, which represents more than 10,000 journalists, and New York City councilman John C. Liu, who sent a letter to View executive producer Barbara Walters, demanding an apology.” Journalist for the NPR’s ‘Code Switch,’ Kat Chow talks about different television shows that depicts the Asian-American culture in her article ‘A Brief History of Squashed Asian-American TV Shows.’ ABC’s ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ was the first show that Chow say’s is “depicted on TV in the US which, for the most part is sparsely.” Fresh off the Boat is a “show based on a memoir of chef Eddie Huang ‘The same name,’ which is about immigrants in America In the 1990s, Eddie, a hip-hop-loving 11-year-old, relocates with his parents and two brothers to suburban Orlando from the Chinatown section of Washington, D.C. As Eddie's dad, Louis, pursues the American dream by opening a western-themed restaurant named Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse, Eddie and the rest of the family try to acclimate to their new, strange surroundings,” according to imbd.com. Chow names another show “Gung Ho' ... is one of the more overtly racist television series to hit the airwaves since 'Amos and Andy,' " TV critic Ruth Daniel wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. "But since the jokes are directed toward the Japanese, who represent something of a minority's minority in the United States, ABC may be gambling that 'Gung Ho' will generate a minimum of protest." ‘Teresa A. Mok say’s “The mass media play an enormously important role in modern U.S. society. Not only are people informed of what’s happening in the news from around the world, but also are apprised of social norms, customs, and standards ranging from behaviors to beauty.” Qin name four Asian American stereotypes in the media starting with model minority stereotype “First, among racial-ethnic groups in the U.S., Asians are perceived as most likely to achieve academic success; second, Asians are most likely to be perceived as nerds; third, Asians are perceived as most likely to be left out; and last, people are least likely to initiate friendship with Asians and Hispanics.” Kathy Ramen has a Youtube video discussing the Model minority stereotypes in the Asian American community as well as Zang Qin. She say’s Asian American’s make up only five percent of the US, and they are so poorly represented in the media. Ramen say’s “although the model minority is a good stereotype there are still some really bad ones.” She say’s two of the negative stereotypes that are popular in the media is “ Asian’s are bad driver, and they eat weird food.” “Those stereotypes are all equally harmful for the Asian community.” Ramen say’s that all Asian’s aren’t smart and successful. “ The School of Education at John Hopkins 2010 has a study that shows that all it’s true that 42 percent of Asian Americans have a college degree as a whole, but that is not true that all Asian ethnicities have a college degree universally.” She also said that less than 29.4 percent of Vietnamese people have a high school diploma, and 37.4 percent of Cambodians have a high school diploma. “ So can we really say that all Asian-Americans are doing well academically, maybe not.” In the article, ‘7 things about Asian American’s that you’ll never learn in mainstream media’ writer Zak Cheney-Rice say’s “There is no shortage of stereotypes plaguing media portrayals of Asian-Americans. Regardless of their platform, the stories we do or don't tell about Asian people in the United States have not only enshrined harmful misconceptions, but have made a diverse network of cultures in this country invisible. The first thing Rice discussed was the Asian’s not being identified as Americans. "Asians are rarely identified as Asian-American,” says Rice “Most media portrays them as foreign, and often threateningly so, which contributes to stereotyping them as perpetually alien and therefore abnormal, unpatriotic, perhaps even disloyal. " The other example Rice gave was that all Asian-American’s are not martial artist. “ We are not all martial artist,” says Rice This should go without saying. But if you've so much as glanced at a TV over the past 50 years, you'll notice that "both Asian-American men and women are disproportionately depicted as martial artists," say’s Rice “I'd love to see Asian-Americans being and doing non-stereotypical things. An Asian-American action hero who can't do martial arts. An Asian-American who maybe struggles in school." He also say’s "I'd like to see stories about poor Asian families, LGBT Asians, overweight Asians, Asian kids who didn't grow up with a Tiger Mom or didn't have a mom, and Asians running for office. Writer Ethel Navales wrote ‘Breaking the Asian Myth: No, Not ALL Asians Are Short’ and she say’s that Being a proud member of the fun-sized community myself, I admit that there are quite a number of us. But is that enough to justify the pure shock and disbelief Asians get when they actually are tall?” Wayne State University professor Lui Haiyong say’s “all forms of stereotype comes from somewhere, some form of it has to be true in order for the media to have a certain idea about a specific race.”