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One of the dumbest things
you can do is pay to be insulted
by Min Ping Mei
One of the dumbest things you can do is pay
to be insulted, yet many Asians and Asian Americans do it on
a regular basis. Both Asians and Asian American
indiscriminately pay to see movies - movies that constantly
depict them in stereotypical roles, martial arts masters,
accented untrustworthy foreigners, sneaky dragon ladies,
terrorists, or evil gangsters, exotic, submissive sex
objects, asexual, or chauvinistic Asian men and Asian women
who exclusively date White/Black men (as depicted in media),
or who are oppressed.
Needless
to say Asians are portrayed negatively and repeatedly in
mainstream media. This has long lasting implications. First,
constant exposure is detrimental to Asian and Asian American
youth. Asian and Asian American youth are essentially
brainwashed into believing they are inferior and will
eventually harbor self-hate. Second mainstream media
perpetuates and enforces existing negative stereotypes about
Asians. The perpetuation and enforcement of these
stereotypes promotes hate crimes against Asians and reduces
Asian Americans to second class citizens. Quite simply the
media is responsible for how Asians are perceived.
Ask yourself have you as an Asian or Asian American recently
paid for a movie ticket or bought a DVD where Asians are
depicted in one of the stereotypical roles listed above?
Sadly,
the answer is probably yes.
Take a
minute, breathe, yea you were paying to be insulted and
humiliated.
Paying
to perpetuate and enforce stereotypes about yourself!
Paying
to have racist thugs spray paint “Chink and/or Gook” all
over your house!
Paying
to have several racist thugs beat you down with baseball
bats, spit in your face and probably get away with it!
If you
didn’t already know Hollywood’s reach is global.
By now I
hope at the very least you’re asking yourself what can be
done to remedy your pitiful situation.
1)
Boycott movies, television shows and
products that use racist advertising. Hollywood is a quick
learner and once they realize they're losing the Asian and
Asian American market they will change their ways.
2) Send
polite emails to companies responsible for producing movies
and ensuring they make a profit (ex., Universal Studios,
Columbia Pictures, Warner Brother Pictures). Tell them you
will be boycott a particular movie as an Asian or Asian
American because…… and you will tell your friends to do the
same. Sending a handwritten letter is even better because
emails are easy to ignore. And finally, if you can call, do
so. Contact information can be found on company websites.
3) Support
positive images of Asians in media. According to one
Hollywood executive there are few Asians in media because
“There is no demand for Asians. Asians and Asian Americans
spend like whites.” Essentially Hollywood does not need to
reach out to the Asian market. That demand must be created
through support of movies and television shows that depict
Asians as multidimensional human beings. Show Hollywood
Asians wanted to see Asians in film.
Some
good mainstream films to support include Harold and Kumar Go
To White Castle and Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantamano
Bay. Many great Asian American films have also been produced
including Better Luck Tomorrow and Shanghai Kiss.
Asian
Americans should also continuing supporting Asian films if
they are not already doing so. Films produced in China,
Korea and Japan are just as entertaining. You may need to
read subtitles, but at least you’re not paying to be
insulted so that should put a smile on your face.
Supporting a film means buying a movie ticket and/or buying
it on DVD, not downloading the pirated version.
Support
Asian American Actors
Ex: Ken Leung, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, Aaron Yoo, John Cho
Support
Asian Artists and Bands
Ex: Stevie Hoang, Tatum Jones, George Nozuka
Asians
and Asian Americans have a lot of spending power. It’s time
to throw that weight around. Asian Americans alone have over
200 billion dollars in spending power and that figure is
expected to increase.
If you
are Asian or Asian American and after reading this article
you do not feel compelled to act and would prefer
complacency believing that you alone can do nothing,
remember to words of Robert Kennedy. "Few will have the
greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to
change a small portion of events, and the total of all these
acts will write the history of this generation... It is from
numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is thus shaped. Each time someone stands up for an
ideal or acts or strikes out against injustice, he/she sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a
million different centers of energy and daring, those
ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest
walls of oppression and resistance."
Make a
ripple.
Pass
what I have written here along.
Translate it into Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese,
Hindi, Urdu and more. Let’s take the war against Hollywood
to Asia.
Contact
Me
Batraven888 - AIM
Urbanpolitics@yahoo.com
www.asianunity.s5.com
I
created this site years ago with no web design experience.
It decided against promoting it simply because frankly I’m
embarrassed about the quality of the work. I am looking for
people willing to devote time to designing a layout and
hosting the site.
The site
should allow staff to login and post updates on what Asians
and Asian Americans should be boycotting or supporting with
the contact information of companies we need to politely
express our opinions with.
Possible
names for new site.
YellowList ….. kinda like blacklisted.
When a movie, television show, or product has been racist,
it will be yellowlisted. Kinda catchy?
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