A study by Change Lab found the five most watched Sunday talk shows mentioned Asian Americans a total of just 10 times in 2012 over 26 weeks and 129 episodes, reports Scot Nakagawa for Beyond Chron.
The references were just incidental, often to make a point about something other than Asian.
Change Lab looked at Face the Nation, Meet the Press, State of the Union, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and Fox News Sunday.
When you add MSNBC into the mix, discussions about Asian Americans increases significantly–85 times on that cable network alone. But 70 of those references happened in one program.
Unfortunately the program was riddled with the model minority stereotype. Here’s a quote from the program from political analysts William Schneider.
There’s one distinctive thing about Asian Americans as a constituency, they have not relied on politics to get ahead, as many other disadvantaged groups have done. African Americans have faced terrible disadvantage in this country. Asian Americans certainly faced discrimination. They managed to get ahead in businesses, professions, science, popular culture. Look at Margaret Cho, a woman of great accomplishment and great courage who has gotten ahead through her talent and her determination. But like many Asian Americans, they have done it themselves, they haven’t had to rely on politics as much as other groups.
You can read more about the study and an analysts of Sunday talk shows in 2013 in Beyond Chron.
