Asian Americans In The Media Essay

What is the current state of Asian Americans' representation in media, and how can it be improved? In light of the coronavirus pandemic and the recent backlash from screenwriters, the representation of Asian Americans has varied throughout the years. On-screen and in everyday media coverage, Asian Americans have faced the preconceptions and generalizations that the media covers about Asian Americans. Considering how Asian Americans have been portrayed on-screen, it is clear to show true Asian Americans in roles that aren’t assigned by their race but by their actual ability to act and depict. For example, in the Oscar-winning movie EEAAO (Everything Everywhere All at Once), the cast is prominently Asian, including Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan,

Not only biased towards Asian Americans, but the use of genderization in media has also made Asian American women hypersexualized, and men emasculated (Sugihara and Ju). Although Asian Americans' representation in media today is slightly increasing, there still needs to be a change to depict Asian Americans in a not-so-stereotypical way through their ability to act without the use of genderization.

From the rise of movies in the 1930s to the present, Asian Americans' representation in media was “whitewashed.” As defined by Merriam-Webster, the word whitewash is “to portray (the past) in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people” (Merriam-Webster). Another key term is “yellowface, " defined by

They are portrayed as intelligent, math-loving, competent, and hard-working individuals. The word “model minority” was created by White sociologist William Petersen and first published in a 1966 New York Times Magazine article, “Success story: Japanese American style” (Sugihara and Ju). Although used to describe Asian Americans, the term was loosely based on the purpose of systemic racism during the time of Black Americans during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. Stereotyping based only on one’s race makes people assume that they are what others say. Such as the question, “where are you originally from?” People believe what they figure is right about others is suitable for that race. In a TED talk by Peter Westacott, a then-senior psychology and sociology major at Ithaca College, Westacott discusses the stereotyping and representation of Asian Americans and how Asian Americans’ culture and presence are merely based on how they look on the outside (TEDx Talks and Westacott). The reasons why stereotyping is wrong are determined by the understanding, knowledge, and societal means. Stereotypes reduce Asian Americans to the characters portrayed in media which degrades Asian Americans to one society when it is a compilation of many. With this, Asian Americans are subjected to stereotypical racism because they are supposed to be intelligent and hard-working individuals. By