Minority Races in America’s Media
Being born in California and growing up in California I have seen countless amounts of American Hollywood films. When my parents were here before going back to China, they would always take me to the movies to watch all the mainstream films. I was five or six years old when my parents took me to watch my first movie at the movie theater. The first movie they ever took me to watch was the movie Titanic and also Spider-Man. As a young kid, I never asked my parents the question about why there weren’t any Asians in the movies. Maybe at that time it just didn’t occur to me because I was too young to realize that it might’ve been an issue to the minorities living in the U.S. Even though Asians have been in America for over 200 years they were treated very poorly and were not given the equal rights as the “whites.” When Asians first started coming to the U.S, they were merely “imported” to the U.S. with the promise of a better life. What they didn’t know is that they were “imported” to the U.S for their cheap labor wages. The “white” Americans would promise them that once they made enough money, they would be allowed to bring their wives and children to the U.S but the majority of them never made enough to do so because of their poor treatment either through their low working wages or mistreatment through racism. It is not only the Asians who were mistreated. Dating back to the 1700s-1800s there was the slavery of Africans. They were mistreated even more poorly because their white superiors were able to beat them and also hang them if they were ever to do something wrong. The whites would rape their African women slaves and split their families apart. Soon after the abolition of slavery, there were still many instances of mistreatment amongst all minority races. When the Asians first came to America, they were used to make railroads, mine for gold, and many other harsh tasks. Even though minority races have been a part of American culture, there still hasn’t been much change over the 300 years that they have been in the U.S.
It never occurred to me that they there weren’t any Asians in the movies till I started watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies. Even though some Asians were starring in American films, they were only cast because of the Asian stereotypes such as Asians knowing how to kung-fu or Asian girls being seen as the “China doll.” In an article on Huffington Post titled, “Jackie Chan Finally Wins Honorary Oscar After 56 Years And 200 Films” is an example of the misrepresentation of Asians in the United States. It took Jackie Chan over 200 remarkable films and 56 years for him to be recognized in America. Even though he has produced many films that American people enjoy watching he was never allowed the privilege that most “white” Americans have. In the Huffington Post articles states, “After 56 years in the film industry, making more than 200 films, after so many bones, finally,” Chan, 62, quipped at the star-studded gala dinner while holding his Oscar.” This just shows how hard Asians and other minorities have worked in the U.S to be recognized but even after all the hard work it still not enough in the eyes of the superior “white” class. Also as I have written before in my previous blog post about Asian Americans in the media still play the stereotypical roles of either being the nerd, the doctor, or just a part that isn’t the primary character. Even though many other actors have recognized Jackie Chan as one of the greatest actors in many films made in the U.S many people still fell like he isn’t. Another quote from the Huffington Post article states, “The actor was introduced by his “Rush Hour” co-star Chris Tucker, actress Michelle Yeoh and Tom Hanks, who referred to him as “Jackie ‘Chantastic’ Chan.” This just shows that even though many other great actors have recognized his work, there is still some form of racism in U.S mainstream media.
In other instances, racism is still alive today, and we can see it through the misrepresentation of minority races even though minority races have been living in America for a very long time. We can also see how racism is still alive through the past election for a new president in the United States. During Donal Trump’s campaign, there were many instances of racist acts and even after Donald Trump was elected it started to show with his supporters harassing minority races.
Soon after Donald Trump’s election as the new president, there have been countless acts of racism towards minority groups especially towards Asians who are citizens, have a job, and who have been living here all their lives. Before Donald Trump’s election, all the racist “whites” did not have the courage to go out and say these things. It wasn’t until Donald Trump announced that he was running for president that the “whites” felt that they have the right to be racist.
We all know that after the election of Donald Trump, the topic of “racism” has become even more of an epidemic in America. Many people are starting the trend of hash-tagging “#thisis2016” which symbolizes the racist acts towards minorities after the election of Donald Trump. This is 2016 and America have come a long way to stopping racism, but it seems as if it will never go away. This issue of racism has been huge in the United States, and we have given the United States over a hundred years to stop and yet after the election of Donald Trump it seems as if all the privileged white people feel as if it is okay to be racist again. With this in mind, it seems like there is no cure for racism. It has become an epidemic in the United States and will continue spreading until all minority races come together to put an end to it. It might take a lot of time, but hopefully, if all minority groups come together and stand strong, there might be a little bit of hope of getting America back on the right track again despite the election of a new president who treats minority races poorly as well as women.
