In the video, "If Asians said the Stuff White People Say," Yang challenges the Asian stereotypes in a light humored tone. Video turns the table by letting Asians asking Whites same questions that people of Asian background frequently asked in the U.S. such as "where are you? No, where are you really from?" Video establishes the perceptual foreigner stereotype by exploring topics such as culture, food and religion. No matter what generation an Asian is, or what citizenship status does an Asian maintain, the most asked question to the Asian ethnic group is "… where are you really from?" In the reading, "The Good Immigrants," Hsu explored how U.S. government banned Chinese from entering through Chinese exclusion act of 1882 and Naturalization act. The laws that were created a century ago are still resonating and gave a stereotypical impression in today's world that Asians are foreigners. It's a familiar stereotype: Asian people are good at math and science. In the video, this stereotype is reflected to whites, questioning "Are you bad at math?" In the article "The source of the 'Asian Advantage' Isn't Asian values," Wong …show more content…
Questions like "Do you have a normal name too, or just your white name?" Mirrors the question to whites and implicitly makes an assumption that Asian names are hard to pronounce and are foreign. In the reading, "Settling In: Immigration Adaptation," from the 2007 data presented, 67 percent of Asians are foreign born. Highest compared to any other ethnical group. This rises a stereotype that most of the Asian encountered have non-English or foreign name and hard to pronounce. Additionally, statements like "How do you eat with a fork and knife? That's so hard, I could never do that," again reinforces cultural stereotype. People often assume that Asians are masters at using chopsticks, but in reality, some of the later generations of Asian Americans too have trouble eating properly with
‘The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority’ by Ronald Takaki and ‘Growing up Asian in America’ by Kesaya E. Noda are both essays that depict the state of Asian immigrants in America. The authors are both Asian Americans themselves and their words bear fruit from a lifetime of personal experiences of being a viewed upon as an alien in their own land.
We cannot deny the fact that, as Americans, racial realism has always affected us and our way of thinking. In my personal experience, being an Asian, I have had
Overall, the object of this movie is to entertain the audience sitting at home watching it, laughing at the mishaps and situations that happen along the way. The question is, however, at who’s expense does the laughter come? Perpetuating this stereotype only goes to further damage the way Asian Americans are seen by the American public. Also during the time the movie was being made, the yen and the dollar were in competition over which had more value. This movie in a subtle way suggests that American workers can overcome any adversity, while the Asian cast is lucky to have such determined Americans to help them out of their problems. The movie serves to inspire Americans by relying on a stereotype of Asians to show that Asian are weak and Americans are strong, and that they can overcome any challenge they rally behind.
In addition to discriminating against Asians, what most people don’t realize is that they are discriminating against the other ethnic groups too, thus creating interracial tension. When one superficially praises the success of one group, they are indirectly bringing out the failures of the other group. For example, when comparing Blacks, Hispanics or Native Americans to Asian American success, they are disregarding the fact that Blacks, Hispanics or Native Americans can be successful too. The model minority myth also creates an exaggerated portrayal of Asian students as hard working, studious, and persevering, which can lead to Asian American students being bullied by their fellow peers.
As a minority, coming from an international country to a foreign nation has been the most crucial decision that my family has concluded to live the possibility of the "American Dream". However, growing up as an Asian-American student wasn’t simple; I was faced with the challenge of malicious racial slurs, spiteful judgment, and unjustified condemnation that attacked my family's decision to come to America.
Wu, Ellen D. "Asian Americans and the 'model Minority' Myth." Los Angeles Times. 23 Jan. 2014. Los Angeles Times. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. .
The United States of America is the place of opportunity and fortune. “Many immigrants hoped to achieve this in the United States and similar to other immigrants many people from the Asian Pacific region hoped to make their fortune. They planned to either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country (Spring, 2013).” For this reason, life became very complicated for these people. They faced many challenges in this new country, such as: classifying them in terms of race and ethnicity, denying them the right to become naturalized citizens, and rejecting them the right of equal educational opportunities within the school systems. “This combination of racism and economic exploitation resulted in the educational policies to deny Asians schooling or provide them with segregated schooling (Spring, 2013).”This was not the country of opportunity and fortune as many believed. It was the country of struggle and hardship. Similarly, like many other immigrants, Asian Americans had the determination to overcome these obstacles that they faced to prove that the United States was indeed their home too.
As an Asian American, I have several points to discuss in terms of stereotypes. Through a variety of media, Asian Americans are portrayed by socially constructed stereotypes that are either positive or negative to our community. By explaining the definition of a stereotype and listing three specific ones identified, these points reflect our cultural values. These stereotypes include the concept of model minority, the insinuation that Asians are highly skilled at mathematics, and assumptions of our food ways. In each stereotype, I integrate my own experiences to provide a deeper depth of meaning that will allow one to evaluate whether these stereotypes do mirror our society’s customs.
equality to be able to vote, and today women are still battling for equality in political
Media often exaggerate the characteristics of Asian and Asian Americans. Stereotypes in film maintain common ones like Asians who are masters of martial arts a...
These are the two questions that I get asked regularly by non-Asians. I always reply “Well I was born and raised in America but my family comes from Hong Kong.” I grew up constantly being told to take pride in being Chinese, however, I was also consistently told by my family to be proud that I even have the opportunity to grow up in America. There was never a definite answer as to what I was, so I learned to accept both. I am Asian American. Many people have questions about what “Asian American” really means and their questions brought on questions of my own. It was not until recently that Asian American influences became more prominent in my life. I was able to find books,
When you think about the culture in the United States (U.S.), it is considered to be very diverse. There are many different cultures and religions in the country, which increases the diversity. Asians are a significant part of U.S. culture as they have been around for years. However when compared to how other U.S. citizens are treated, Asian Americans are treated significantly worse. “Asian Americans, like other people of color, continually find themselves set apart, excluded and stigmatized-whether during the 19th century anti-Chinese campaign in California, after the 1922 Supreme Court decision (Ozawa v. United States) that declared Asians ineligible for U.S. citizenship, or by a YouTube video that went viral on the Internet in 2011 in which a UCLA student complained bitterly about Asians in the library” (Healey, p.330). Many Asian Americans have been treated poorly because of how they are perceived within the society. It may be because of a jealousy against their strong academic achievement or because of the many jobs that they have “taken away” from the American population. In Wu Franks Article, Yellow, he claims that when someone refers to someone as an American, it is automatically assumed that they are White, however when someone is thought of as a minority they are thought of as Black. Asian Americans neither fit into the Black or White category, therefore feel as if there is no place within society for them to fall into. Wu’s article in comparison to the documentary Vincent Who?, explains how Asian Americans have been treated in America in the past, and how those stigmas have not changed as much. The documentary Vincent Who?, goes to describing murder of Vincent Chin, who was brutally attacked and murdered outside of a ...
“Family Guy” is well known to be a cartoon of disgrace and ill-mannered portrayals of real life events. Asian Stereotype was no exception portrayals in “Family Guy”. In many of the Asian stereotypical scenes in “Family Guy”, one of the episodes shows a scene about an Asian woman driver causing wreckage on the freeway as she exits out of the freeway itself. The following is a dialogue of the scene:
We’ve all heard it said that Asian Americans are good at math; anything involving science, technology, and medicine. They study all the time, work really hard, and live a version of the American dream many of us never thought to dream of. And of course, we know these stereotypes are dangerous and often untrue, but perhaps we still find ourselves buying into them. Ronald Takaki”, the ethnic studies expert, writes about the idea that Asian Americans are more successful than any other American minority group in his article “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority. Takaki refutes this idea by strategically, and somewhat effectively, using reason, statistics, and word choice to show that Asian Americans still face some of the same hardships and barriers
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.