Jiyao Liu, A02, Week 2

After reading the article Taking Action: Asian American Faculty against Injustices in the Academy by Shirley Hune, I deeply agree that stereotypes about Asians do exist in our dailylives. For me, this stereotype seems like to downplay the racism, but this imposed stereotype itself is a discrimination. Even though it sounds good that Asian Americans are stereotyped as hard workers, high achievers, and economically successful-a model minority group that no longer encounters the racial discrimination of the past, this positive label is a double-edged sword. For instance, many Asian Americans work hard in order to get into an elite college is because that believe that the prestige of the institution will shield them from discrimination in the workplace, so people think Asians are technically competent, diligent and quiet, which makes Asiana less likely to be promoted into management and leadership positions.

In fact, racial discrimination is not abated. In the article Countering stereotypes about Asian Americans, the author talks about some researches to show that Asian Americans are targets of gendered racism. For example, Asian American men are often seen as effeminate or asexual, while Asian American women are viewed as sexually desirable, exotic and passive. Also, stereotypes would make people think that most Asian Americans are similar, but actually, each person has different strengths and personalities. As Tseng says, “the nature of all stereotypes is that they dehumanize people and prevent us from seeing them in their whole humanity.” Thus, it is necessary to eliminate stereotypes to Asian Americans. 

Image from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/12/countering-stereotypes

Reference

Hune, Shirley. (2013). "Taking Action: Asian American Faculty against Injustices in the Academy". Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy.

Hassan Adeel. (June 23, 2018). Confronting Asian-American Stereotypes. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/us/confronting-asian-american-stereotypes.html

Greenbaum, Zara. (December 1, 2019). Counttering stereotypes about Asian Americans. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/12/countering-stereotypes