Asian-Americans

Portrayal in the Media

Caele, Lark, Matt

Historical Overview: Treatment in the US
1850-1870s
● Chinese workers arrive in California for the Gold Rush
● Chinese workers recruited for Transcontinental railroad
● Burlingame-Seward Treaty: mutual emigration
● Naturalization Act
1880-1890s
● Chinese Exclusion Act
1900-1940s
● Asian Exclusion Act (1924) makes most asians ineligible for
citizenship
● Watsonville Riots, 1930
● Congress Repeals all Chinese Exclusion Laws with the the
Magnuson Act (1943)
● FDR signs Executive Order 9066
1950-2010s
● McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act
● COVID-19
Current Challenges

● Two primary stereotypes:

1. “Model Minority”

2. Yellow Peril

● All Asians are grouped together

● COVID-19
Stereotyping in Family Guy

Model Minority Yellow

Peril

Model Minority Yellow

Peril
Stereotyping of Jeremy Lin by the NBA Community

● Jeremy Lin as…

○ Underdog
○ Intellectual
○ Eternal Foreigner

Model Minority Yellow

Peril
 Christian and Biblical insight
God Doesn't only call us to accept in Intercultural Communication but to actively engage in it. As communication is developing we are
seeing media play a more important role in this process. There are a few ways to help intercultural communication they we have
discussed in class that I will talk about at the end.

Colossians 3:11-In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,
slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Ultimately even though we are one in Christ we all have differences. Each of us have a cultural background being able to understand and
communicate within different cultural groups will help us become one in christ but still have the individuality of our different cultures.

Muted group theory-dominant group members create a communication system that supports its own perceptions/beliefs. This works
for the media’s take on Asian Americans as the Dominant culture creates a communication system(media) and perceives this co-cultural
group in a certain way.Coming from a Christian background we are taught not to judge or we shall be judged. In the context of media
How do Asian-American feel about their portrayal in media?

The New York Times Style magazine did a report on Asian portrayal in media. An member of the Asian
American co-cultural group had this to say “I, too, (when asked about asian portrayal) am half Chinese, though
I have always been told (by other Chinese-Americans, by white people who were under the impression I was
one of them) that I’m not the right kind of Chinese. I’m over six feet tall and my eyelids have creases, and I
have come to anticipate the pause in a conversation with strangers as I watch them — like someone calculating
the size of someone else’s apartment — square the fact of my ethnicity with my appearance”. What this shows
is members of the Asian American community feel boxed in by the media portrayal that has been given in the
dominant culture media. From a Christian standpoint Gods calls us to accept all,and as Chrsitnas would
shouldn't stereotype anybody. 1 Samuel 16:7 says But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his
appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man
looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”. In this specific case we shouldn't look at
the appearances or how a co-cultural group is perceived,but more deeply at what makes them who they are.
How does God call us to improve Intercultural
communication?
These are a few things we have talked about in class to help intercultural communication in relation to being
Christian.

-Limit stereotyping, stereotyping can lead to generalizing everyone in a group from the characteristics of a few. God
calls us to see a person heart and not outer appearance. So as Christians we have a responsibility to work of
stereotypes whether they are conscious or unconscious

- recognize prejudice and deal with it in a Christian way. Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a group of people
because they belong to that group. Obviously is not christian and to recognize it whether it's you or others then acting
on it can help with future communication between groups.

-Last and the worse is discrimination. This can lead to things like “scapegoating” and normalize tokenism. As
Christians especially we have realize how discantion can have a negative impact on communication with Intercultural
groups. God especially calls us not to discriminate and to help those who are being discriminated against.

All these things happen all the time but specially in media they are most hurtful. In media it's hard to have immediate
feedback so as Christians who want to help Intercultural communication we have to recognize when media is
engaging in things like stereotyping or having certain prejudices.
To Conclude...

“Every human is like all other humans, some other humans,

and no other human”

— Clyde Kluckhon
References
Force, T. (2018, November 06). Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television?
Retrieved November 02, 2020, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/t-magazine/asian-american-actors-representation.html
Gunderson, Lee ( 2020, July 27). “Racist stereotyping of Asians as good at math masks inequities and
harms students.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/racist-stereotyping-of-asians-as-
good-at-math-masks-inequities-and-harms-students-132137
Kawai, Y. (2005). Stereotyping Asian Americans: The Dialectic of the Model Minority and the Yellow Peril.
Howard Journal of Communications, 16(2), 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170590948974
Kurylo, A. (2012). Linsanity: The Construction of (Asian) Identity in an Online New York Knicks Basketball
Forum. China Media Research, 8(4), 15–28.
STROCHLIC, NINA (2020, September 2). “America's Long History of Scapegoating Its Asian Citizens.”
National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/09/asian-american-racism-covid/.