In this town hall meeting we discussed three general topics: Asian Americans, the creation and perpetuation of minority group status, and gender inequality. Once again, I was forced to confront some of the stereotypes I have held since childhood and was able to learn some uncomfortable truths about myself while learning more about the realities of racial and ethnic prejudices in our society. We began our talk by examining a handout titled “Why does racism against Asians go ignored and unpunished in the United States” in which the author describes several areas where stereotypes and exclusion are common for Asian Americans today. Our first discussion question was what it means when they are referred to as “model minorities,” a label which …show more content…
Most of us had next to no exposure to Asian American history as children and, like myself, were not taught about the diversity of the group or about the way they have been victimized throughout our history. This led to the question “if we say we want equality for all, how can this happen if we exclude some?” One of the key steps we as a society need to take before we can answer this and pursue equality for all citizens is to make everyone, especially members of the dominant group, aware of historical events such as the Japanese internment camps of WWII and the Chinese Exclusion Act through education just like we are taught about the slave trade of African Americans in our school system. This must be combined with a concentrated effort to transform the media industry so that stereotypical representations of Asian Americans are as unacceptable as blatantly racist depictions of African Americans are. Otherwise, simple ignorance will keep this group marginalized by our …show more content…
Many of us did poorly, indicating that we have embraced the gender norms constructed by our society without realizing it. The two questions we addressed first regarding this handout revolved around gender, “What does femininity/masculinity entail?” We explored the way toys are gendered for children (i.e. calling some toys “dolls” for girls and “action figures” for boys), as well as the types of behaviors we will expect from them as adult men or women (i.e. men do not cry). These messages are internalized by children and lead to stereotypical thinking in adulthood and an inability to separate gender from the physical sex of individuals. In order to counter the negative consequences of these gender assumptions, we need to teach children that conforming to traditional gender roles does not make us men or women; our biology does not change due to our behavior. If we cannot grasp this distinction, we will be unable to address the inequalities produced by gendered thinking which disadvantages
Many minorities like Mukherjee and Divakaruni have expressed that although many traditional obstacles of prejudice have been made obsolete, discrimination still exists, especially in the negative responses of other Americans to their success. The peaking of Anti-Asian sentiment and violence on America’s streets and office buildings has reinforced this theme ten fold. Asians must seek to dissolve the racist love behind the distortions of the model minority paradigm.
Even though our country supports equality in gender, differences still exist. This issue of gender and sexuality of our society has had one of the biggest impacts in my life since I was raised with five brothers. Since birth, I was immediately perceived by my parents as my gender role of girl and daughter. My brothers were given action figures, cars, and guns to play with. I was given the traditional girl toys Barbies, baby dolls and kitchen sets. Of course, I enjoyed my traditional girl toys but it might have been nice to have a choice and be able to have the same toys as my brothers to play with. I eventually concluded that I should be satisfied with whatever toys were given to me by my parents.
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
I also researched instances of counter actions taken by Asian Americans to protest against these negative images. My research also has examples of Asians that have succeeded in breaking through the racial barriers in the media. The results show that even though racial stereotyping still exists in various forms of mass media, there are signs that show noticeable improvement in allowing a more balanced image of Asian Americans. Statement of the Problem There are close to 12 million Asian Americans living in the United States (U.S. Asian, 2000). Asian Americans are considered one of the fastest growing minorities (Pimentel, 2001).
Within the United States, the attitude towards Asian American immigrants have changed from being seen as a menace to society to becoming praised as the model minority. Under the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, the United States was looking to accept model immigrants by prioritizing those with higher education and desirable skills for the workforce. This immigration policy caused an influx of middle to upper class Asian immigrants to come to the United States, which is the root for the model minority stereotype that is attached to the Asian American community. Yet, the idea of being the model minority does not extend to all Asian immigrants especially those who came to the United States seeking refuge from various conflicts such as the Vietnam War. Thus, the model minority myth is damaging for the Asian American community because it ignores those who do not fits this stereotype which is reflected in Erika Lee’s book, The Making of Asia America, and the film Children of Invention.
However, Asians are rapidly becoming a greater force in American culture as the proportion of educated Asian-Americans rises. Despite small numbers, they begin to have more and more influence in the business and professional worlds as well as academics. They are an interesting group, however, caught between two extremely different cultures as they seek to strike a balance between the ideals of their parents and the world they live in.
As a second generation Asian American, I have not experienced much discrimination, since I have grown up surrounded by the American language and culture. However, after reading Strangers from a Different Shore, I realized that Asian Americans today are experiencing a new type of prejudice: “The Myth of the ‘Model Minority’” (474).` This stems from Asians’ success in school and in their jobs. The stereotypical idea of “Asian parents” also contributes to this misconception. The media helped spread the idea of this “super minority.” The New Republic praised the “Triumph of Asian-Americans” as “America’s greatest success story,” and CBS’s 60 Minutes presented a glowing report on Asian’s achievements in academics (475). This misconception leads many teachers and employers to assume that all Asians are intelligent beings and little powerhouses of work.
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 discrimination by other racial groups, they have succeeded socially, economically, and educationally without resorting to political or violent disagreements with the majority race. The “success” of the minority is offered as proof that the American dream of equal opportunity is capable to those who conform and who are willing to work hard. Therefore, the term ...
In the end, it is up to Asian-Americans to discredit the positive and negative stereotypes. By assimilating with other race groups, Asian-Americans will gain more understanding from their non-Asian peers. In addition, when Asians are more forth-coming with their struggles, it will unmask the myth of perfection and allow others to see them as an individual.
This discrimination initially began with the Naturalization Act of 1790, allowing free white-men of “good character” naturalization while excluding Native Americans, indentured servants, free Blacks, and Asians. In addition to extreme acts, the Chinese Exclusion Act, signed in 1882, had prohibited the Chinese from entering our country. Another example of the racism Asian-Americans faced occurred during World War II due to the war’s propaganda and the slurs that came about as a result of the war. The historical background of Asian-Americans and racism not only left scarring tendencies, but managed to transcend into modern society within a lower degree.
an Asian American perspective of how a community is viewed in today's society.. For many years,
...ding white, male superiority. Back in high school, I dated a non-Asian male from my class who often talked about how Asian women are “hot and sexy” yet “more faithful to men and less aggressive than White women.” At the time, I thought this was a compliment and I often tried to conform to this stereotype in order to satisfy my partner. Images of Asian-American women as both innocent and dangerous have legitimized any racist and sexist policies directed at Asians and women.
The Asian American community in the contemporary period face a lot of race relation issues which all interconnect within each other. Asian Americans face the basis of “Model Minority” that purportedly whitens Asians leading to the belief that there are no issues such as racism and poverty within the Asian American community. With that, they face the issue that there is no racial discrimination against Asian Americans due to the racial barrier being contextualized within a “black or white” framework. Another problem they face is mainstream America’s lack of awareness to the diversity of the Asian population, which causes a lot of misperceptions and misdirected racial hatred towards certain ethnicities within the Asian race. This causes the Pan-Asian community to not be supportive, unwilling to support each other, in order to avoid racism by avoiding being associated with that ethnicity just because they look alike. This causes the Asian American community and the ethnic groups within to be invisible to the American community as they lack organization and unification to have their voices heard.
...o “limit Asian Americans’ career opportunities.” In mainstream media, Asian Americans are often overrepresented in number-crunching professions that require minimal language proficiency (e.g., engineering and sciences), but underrepresented in social science and humanities fields that entail superb language and interpersonal communication skills.
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