As children we were young and our minds were pure, but as we began to understand the

world our desires and opinions started becoming stained with the negligence of the media
around us. It was everywhere, media was always around us everywhere. It consumed our lives
while obstructing our happiness and leaving us with confusion on our very own identity. They
said they wanted to give us representation, but what did they give us? They did not give a
representation of our beautiful cultures, they gave us a representation of what their vacant
minds felt the need for us to be seen as. They gave a representation of one person, one
stereotype and many assorted lies.

Yes we do see representation of different communities in all forms of media, but they are
representing us how they want us to be seen not for who we truly are. Differences are beautiful
and the differences from other communities should be celebrated, yet these differences are
grouped together and being mocked safely behind the name of "representation". They set
boundaries, boundaries that they would not accept if we crossed. No matter what culture you
are proud to be a part of, you carry potential. We all carry potential to reach our goals and
become something more than these stereotypes by crossing these boundaries. They see our
people as pawns in a game. The truth is that there are people who have crossed these
boundaries that have worked hard and earned high paying jobs, but we do not see that being
shown in the media because it is not a part of their "representation". In the media I see myself
and the rest of the South Asian community being represented as nerds. They want us seen as
people who are automatically smart and our main priority is school. Our entire lives, the children
of the South Asian community only see their value through academic validation because that is
what we have been continuously shown. It is crazy to think that we know who we are, because it
is us, yet we question it because of something someone else is telling us. For the children that
do well in school, it is not out of luck or where we are from, it is because we worked hard and
gained that achievement as an individual. Through representation we extensively deserve that
complete recognition.

In 2010 I immigrated to Canada with my parents from India. I was a child at the time. At that
age I had always been extremely shy and quiet. My first teacher automatically stated that I
would not be able to learn English and I would need to go into ESL otherwise I would not
succeed. In reality I was able to learn English quite fast without many difficulties. The teachers
would provide different treatment for the other kids and it would make it feel like the whole world
was against you. In the classroom, two people could be phenomenal at their work but the hard
work of a South Asian would not be praised. The impacts of all of the relentless false
representation not only affects our communities and causes harm but it also shapes a morphed
perception of us in the eyes of another community. It impacts all of us. It had been two years
since we came here and I was moving schools, on my first day I had. a peer ask "do you speak
english?". We begin to assume things about people that we look at while walking pass them in
the grocery store just because of something we saw in the news. In reality we do not have a
clue on who that person is. We all are profoundly guilty as we all have dwelled in certain
stereotypes of other people, but we must break out of the chain. The start of this chain is a false
representation. It completely blocks who we want to be as an individual but groups us according
to someone else's beliefs. According to the media, I am a South Asian girl who is a nerd with
unaccepted ethnic features, who must be studying all the time and always has to do well in
school.

We all grew up watching television, so you must have heard of the show Jessie. Now there
was a character named Ravi, he was a loveable character used to bring representation into the
show. But once again like every time in history, he is being represented as your "typical" South
Asian. He had to carry a slightly different accent in his voice while he talked compared to the
other characters. He was the smartest child in the family and was utterly shown as a complete
nerd. We all got fooled into thinking that the representation was a change occurring and that it
was proper representation because we felt we could relate to the content and connect to the
characters. They wanted us to connect to the characters in order to continue following those
characteristics in our own lives. There is a Netflix show called Never Have I Ever, we all thought
this show was a win as the main character was a brown girl. It was an excellent show to watch,
but it only reinforced the stereotypes of an Indian family. They showed a strict mom, the
arranged marriages, the high levels of expectations put onto a teen girl for school
achievements. This show did give us something to relate to but it did not show us that we have
power as an individual or that we can be different. As a young child I would watch haul videos or
morning routines of girls different from me. I became obsessed with the thought of why my
lifestyle did not look like theirs. It made me feel like my own home was wrong, because I never
got to see another girl like me online. But this is not real representation. If this kind of
representation continues we will only be reinforcing the stereotypes. For real representation
they must be able to show our communities out of the stereotypes and carrying different
characteristics along with our full potential, this is the way to bring that change.

Our culture may be something that we are proud of but we must acknowledge that our
individuality can not be defined through what you see our culture to be. Our culture is important
to us but we have our own potential, we have our goals in life and we deserve to be seen as
capable of achieving them disregarding what the media may be describing us as. We deserve
to see the success of our community in the media more often, because we are people who are
constantly growing, we are human as well. You can not define us.