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Mic: 7 Misconceptions about Asian Americans from the Media

Asian American
Photo by Maryland Gov Pics

It’s difficult for Asian Americans to get any play in mainstream media. When images are presented, they are often wrong or misleading.

Zak Cheney-Rice of Mic talked to Jennifer Fang who writes the blog Reappropriate and Lauren Jow, a journalist and communications professor in Los Angeles about 7 common media-created myths about Asian Americans.

Here are a few common myths.

  • We are foreigners.

The American in Asian American is often dropped in descriptions. Asian Americans are often cast as the “other” or the foreigner regardless of our long history in this country that predates the Gold Rush.

  • We are the model minority.

“In advertisements, Asians typically are cast in the role of the educated techie or nerd,” Jow said. “There’s the stereotype that Asians are good at math and science, they’re really into gaming, they’re obedient and submissive, they’re intelligent and unemotional, they value education and hard work but they’re not leaders.”

  • Asians Americans are Chinese and Japanese

We are so diverse and so much more than that. As AsAmNews has tried to emphasize, Asian America includes a wide array of backgrounds–including Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Filipino Americans, Cambodian American, Pakistani Americans, Korean Americans and Pacific Islanders when referencing the Asian American Pacific Islander experience. We are from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Fang and Jow elaborate on each of those myths and discuss four more in the Mic.

 

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