RACE & THE MEDIAYellow Peril, Orientalism and Other Imaginings

Charmain, Abigail, Jenny, Jaime & Kendra

YELLOW PERILMEDIA CLIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BYCdGflXVE

- Negative stereotype and racial stereotype that has been constructed in the west

- Asian Americans have been historically and racially triangulated as “aliens” or “outsiders” with regard to White American.

- Describes Asian Americans as “foreigner foreigners” who divert from U.S dominant cultural norms, are economic competitors and thereby undermine the White Nation.

- White Americans perceived people of Asian descent or “Orientals” as inassimilable foreigners who “would eventually overtake the nation and wreak social and economic havoc.”

- Consequently, this stereotype led to the exclusion of Asian immigrants and to the US colonization of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and Philippines.

- It also provided a justification or rationale for excluding Asian immigrants ,continuing US westward expansion beyond the west coast of the United States to the Asia and Pacific region and lead to the mistreatment of  Asian Americans.

MEDIA CLIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6h9h7ky0E

- During WWII the Yellow Peril came to mean Japan when Japan revealed its ambition to become and imperial power and conflicted US interest - After WWII, the communist takeover of china and the cold war replaced Japan with China as the embodiment of the yellow peril.

 MEDIA CLIP:http

://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opinion/why-vincent-chin-matters.html?_r=

0

- The Yellow Peril provided a justification of the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin and the violence against

Asian Americans  

MODEL MINORITY

STEREOTYPES- Racial meanings are concerned with legitimizing

colonialism - A group controls society not through coercion,

but through persuasion (Gramsci)- Stereotypes have to look “attractive” in order to

be accepted

THE MEDIA TENDS TO PORTRAY BINARY IMAGES

Racial stereotypes allows for the embracement of contradictory beliefs:

MODEL MINORITY- Positive- Feminine- Successful- Passive- Assimilated

YELLOW PERIL- Negative- Masculine- Dangerous- Aggressive- Alien

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTVKz94SNnM

HOWEVER…

…it is a circular relationship: “…silent and disciplined: this is their secret to success. At the same time, this silence and discipline is used in constructing the Asian-American as a new yellow peril”

WHERE DID IT START?

After WWII: the U.S supported Japan’s economic recovery with financial aid 1950s to 1970s: Japan experiences high economic growth due to the Korean War and the Vietnam War 1964: Japan became the first non-White country to host the Olympics and to be admitted into the OECD

1966: The first Asian ethnic group depicted as a model minority were the Japanese Americans

“Japanese Americans succeeded by their own unaided effort” NEW YORK TIMES Jan 9, 1966http://inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history/US_History_reader/Chapter14/modelminority.pdf

1980s: emergence of model minority coincided with “the explosion of works on the Black ‘underclass’” Racial Triangulation RUSH HOUR – NO AMERICANShttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8kH8ul5cbQ

“Asian-Americans have wasted no time laying claim to the American dream. They are smarter and better educated and make more money than everyone else. Now they are vaulting the last obstacles that stand between them and this country's corner offices.” FORTUNE November 24, 1986 http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/11/24/68318/  Asians in America: What's Holding Back the "Model Minority?"Forbes July 28, 2011 http://www.forbes.com/sites/sylviaannhewlett/2011/07/28/asians-in-america-whats-holding-back-the-model-minority/

 

“I AM NOT YOUR MODEL MINORITY”

http://spaces.ucsd.edu/?p=3682

REPRESENTATIONS

RACIAL TRIANGULATION

"Although Asian Americans are valorized as the model minority and are positioned to be superior to African Americans, they are ostracized as immutably foreign in comparison with White Americans. As a result, throughout the U.S. history, 'Asian Americans are, on the whole, persistently less advantaged than Whites and more advantaged than Blacks in the American racial order'”

MEDIA CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofNBvo-ABU

THE AMBIVILANCE OF STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes (Berg, 1990): "indicate cognitive mechanisms for making sense of the world (social, psychological perspectives), pre-existing categories in culture (sociological perspectives), ways of differentiating self from the world (psychological perspectives), fetishism (psychoanalytical perspectives), or dominant ideologies (ideological perspectives).

AS LOCAL (WESTERN) & GLOBAL (ASIAN) CONTEXTS CHANGE, MEANING REGARDING ASIAN AMERICANS ALSO CHANGE

SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS & STEREOTYPES

- Definition of this concept.- Made by those in power.- Representations result in social identities for

individuals and groups.- Stereotypes say more about the people who

create them.- Function of stereotypes.

REPRESENTATIONS OF GAY ASIAN MEN IN MEDIA

- Media use stereotypes to “patrol the margins,” and gay media is no different.

- These stereotypes define what it means to “be gay.”

News Story Clip on Australian Gay Asian men working for awareness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwR8WFqaCW0

‘’FAILURE’’ TO COME OUT

- Asian families are portrayed as having very traditional and strict families who expect their children to get married and have children of their own.

- The gay community is seen as open and accepting.

News Story Clip about being gay within the Asian community and hiding sexuality from family and wider Asian community— marriages

of convenience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pkf8891BFs