Introduction
Asians are invading the world over. In America alone, the influx of immigrants from the Orient is increasing every year. This is due to the sole reason of attaining a “greener pasture” as compared to the economy of the country they left behind. Consequently, they are gaining popularity because of their notable contributions to America’s social, economic, political, and technological fields. Despite these achievements, they are still facing various forms of “discrimination” and “stereotyping”. “Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians are ethnic stereotypes that are found in many Western societies.
Stereotypes of Asian people, specifically East Asians and Southeast Asians, like other stereotypes, are often manifest in a society’s media, literature, theater, and other creative expressions. In many instances, media portrayals of Asians often reflect the dominant Eurocentric ideas of them rather than their actual customs and behaviors” (Kashiwabara, ).
Discussion
In layman’s words, Asian men are labeled as feminine and feeble; predators of white women; misogynistic, insensitive, and disrespectful towards women or male chauvinists; while Asian women are considered: cunning, servile, war brides, or prostitutes. In general, Asians are stereotyped to lack some skills, such as creativity,abstra ction, analytical thinking, divergent thinking, lateral thinking, critical thinking, and thinking outside the box. They lack leadership, verbal, and management skills and speak poor English. Various laws were legislated to limit the entry of Asians into
The U.S. Moreover, they commit the greatest number of suicide attempts among the minority groups. Asian Americans are Americans of Asian origin. They include sub-ethnic groups such as Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Pakistani Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans and others whose national derivation is from the Asian continent. They comprise 15.2 million or 5.1 percent of the U.S. population (US Census, 2008).
Asian minorities also are considered “perpetual foreigners” of which Asian Americans are conceived, treated, and portrayed as perpetual foreigners who are inherently foreign regardless of citizenship or duration of residence in America. This was evident even in government actions such as Takao Ozawa v. the United States and the Chinese Exclusion Act of the United States. Likewise, statements made in the nation’s literature and publications also indicate such a demeaning attitude (Gotanda, 2008). Specifically, the statement of Justice Harlan in the 1897 court case of the United States v. Wong Kim Ark illustrated this stereotype of Asians saying that Asians are “strangers in the land … incapable of assimilating,” (the US, 1898).
Another issue with Asian minorities in the US is the “Racial triangulation theory” which has been noted by political science professor/author/scholar Claire Jean Kim. Kim argued that Asian Americans have been racially triangulated in American society about America’s pre-existing black-white bipolar racial dichotomy.
Racial valorization assumes whites as the dominant “superior” group, the blacks as a subordinate “inferior” group known as lazy, cultureless, and primitive throughout American history, and Asian-Americans as “superior” to blacks, and are stereotyped as being hard-working intelligent people with ancient but venerable culture. However, they are still considered lower to whites, unable to assimilate to being an American “insider” and inherently fixed in their own exotic Asian cultures (Kim, 1999).
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report indicated that bigotry and violence against Asian Americans existed and remained a serious national problem until today. Incidents include the vicious bias-related murders of Vincent Chin, Jim Loo, Navroze Mody, and Hung Truong, the massacre of Southeast Asian schoolchildren in Sacramento California; attacks on Asian American homes and places of worship; racially motivated boycotts against Asian-owned businesses; racial harassment of Asian Americans on college campuses; and racial slurs made by public figures (CVR, 1986). It has also been suggested that for every incident reported, many more have not been reported.
Racial prejudice, misplaced anger caused by wars or economic competition with Asian countries, resentment of the real or perceived success of Asian Americans, and a lack of understanding of the histories, customs, and religions of Asian Americans are considered the root causes of bigotry and violence. Incidentally, the media contributed to prejudice through the promotion of stereotypes of Asian Americans highlighting the criminal activities of Asian gangs and failure to provide in-depth and balanced coverage with little attention to hate crimes against Asian Americans (CVR, 1986)
Conclusion
From the major contributions of Asians alone, I strongly believe that Asian Americans and the other minority groups in the U.S deserved to be respected and recognized not discriminated against and stereotyped. As Stansbury wrote, “Those who don’t let racial or ethnic differences affect how they view and treat their fellow human beings can stand proud. They are an elite and enlightened minority in the United States who realize that no group on Earth is genetically predisposed to any attitude, belief, ability, or lack thereof, behavior, habit, taste, or interest. They understand that someone’s thoughts, behavior, abilities or inabilities, likes and dislikes have more to do with individual personality, upbringing, culture, education, training, environment and heredity,” (2006).
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, abolished the national-origin quotas that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924.
Recommendation
I, therefore, recommend that administration legislators should formulate better Legislations protecting the welfare of Asian Americans including the other minority groups in the U.S. to attain global peace and prosperity. In addition, the media should start to respect the reality that racism is evil and that every human has the universal right to exist and co-exist with all races, colors, origins, and economic status. As much as they are selling and benefiting from the global integration, integration per se must be properly and ethically observed.
References
Commission on Civil Rights, “Recent Activities Against Citizens and Residents of Asian Descent (Clearinghouse Publication 88, 1986).
Claire Jean Kim, “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans,” Politics & Society, Vol 27. No. 1, 1999, 105-138.
Neil Gotanda, “Exclusion and Inclusion: Immigration and American orientalism” 2008.
The United States v. Wong Kim Ark (169 U.S. 649 1898: 731).
Kashiwabara, Amy, Vanishing Son: The Appearance, Disappearance, and Assimilation of the Asian-American Man in American Mainstream Media, UC Berkeley Media Resources Center Stansbury, Darren, 2006, American Chronicle.
US Census Press Releases, of the United States Census Bureau, 2008.