While reading the textbook: Race, Gender, Class, and Media, keeping in mind the questions at the end of the chapter, really help to understand and really think about what we have read. The 7th question asks to research one out of five synopses, and extrapolate 4 important points mentioned and some that were not discussed.

The specific study that I chose to further research, is found on pg. 89 at the end of chapter 7. This study was conducted by Chiung Hwang Chen; “Outwighting the Whites: An Examination of the Persistence of Asian American Model Minority Discourse.”

Did you automatically think about how the topic of the reading could be about the stereotypical success of Asian Americans being compared and outweighing the value of the “whites” ?

Chen starts with describing the positive and negative effects of the “Model Minority” stereotype that originated during the 1950’s-1990’s. The Model Minority is the Asian American that has succeeded in all aspects and is associated with “fulfilling the American Dream.” These assumptions, that Asian Americans–which the term itself is socially constricted, and rather, that a variety of countries contribute to the “Asian” ethnicity–are in numbers substantially more successful in comparison to other minority groups, is a stereotype. Despite beliefs that such a stereotype could be considered a positive view of those of Asian ethnicity, but really it could be ostracizing the Asian people and their culture. Chen states that several Asian scholars believe that to be seen as such successful people overall is setting them and their basic human needs aside. Americans overall may not be aware that many people of Asian ethnicity lived in slums in America during the 1950-1990’s and therefore fewer opportunities were available to them during the 70’s-90’s.

So what do we believe? Who do we believe? Whose job is it to lessen the usage of this stereotype? (as well as stereotypes overall) Chen states that it is the duty of journalists to increasingly be aware of not referencing to the stereotype and further encourage the use of it. The media will continue to associate whatever they see with the belief that all Asians are doing fine. This stereotype is closely related to another: the Yellow Peril. The Yellow Peril stereotype is pre-World War II and was the fear that the success of Asians was taking away from the jobs of the white people. Some schools even altered their acceptance rates so that more whites over other minorities could be the top percentage of students as opposed to an Asian representing an American school.

To further agree that it is the job of the media to become aware and cease the use of stereotypes, I believe we could keep growing into generations of equality and respect amongst humanity will be vital. Chen discusses the issue of the stereotype discourse. The discourse, in a simplified explanation, is the particular ways of writing about particular subjects. An example referred to in the book was that in 1993, a Time article written by James Walsh, was about a young Asian girl, Took Took Thongthiraj, as the “personification of American promise.” While the author was praising the young lady that attended UCLA for her academic successes, he stereotyped her situation by stating that such a situation was “hardly unique,” thus minimizing the true success of Ms. Thongthiraj as saying that any of Asian ethnicity are able to achieve such as Thongthiraj has. Such is not always the case. Walsh’s article contributed in this way to the stereotype discourse.

The article continues to provide fascinating information and examples of a few other journalists that have contributed to discourse. The news is directly related to what the public understands about their current environment. We learn everything in the most subtle of ways from what we are exposed to and in the ways and where we receive our information from. It is the media’s duty to provide facts and cease the inferences of stereotypes in any way, only then such an issue will no longer be a problem. I found Chen’s article and study on “Outwhighting the Whites” very informational.