Asian Pacific American Studies: Popular Article Review - Research Paper Example

Asian Pacific American Studies: Popular Article Review Steven Heller’s article in The Atlantic digs into the history of America when racism against Asians was widely accepted and was even openly depicted in the works of artists, illustrations and cartoonists. Heller’s (2014) article represents the views of Wei Tchen who is an author of a book that explores American past of racism against Asians and against people from other cultures. A reader of the article will easily note the irony presented by Heller (2014) with regards to America being made up of immigrants yet blacks, Jews, Irish and Asian immigrants were often discriminated against.

The article accurately paints the picture of America’s history when Asian Americans were often targets for economic discrimination, legal disfranchisement, segregation, and ridicule. The first part of the article accurately observes how Asian immigrants in the 19th century and in the early 20th century were called all sorts of derogatory names and repeatedly told, in a myriad of ways, that they were outsiders in the American society. The yellow peril is mentioned several times in the article to demonstrate the amount of discrimination that Asians suffered since they migrated to the US but Heller (2014) does not go into the details of the yellow peril phenomenon.

Even before the arrival of the first Chinese immigrants to the US in 1849, most Americans had already developed unfavourable views of the Chinese as depraved heathens, beasts of burden and opium addicts (Daniels, 1988). These images served as a social agenda that aimed to keep the Chinese subordinated to the white Americans. The characterization of the Chinese and other Asians as the yellow perils sought not only to cast a negative portrayal of Asians but also to justify any mistreat of them.

The yellow peril myth depicted Chinese Americans as unfair competitors, which is something that still exists today going by the recent remarks that were made by former Washington DC mayor, Marion Barry (Bingham, 2012). The Chinese were also considered as threats to white economic, political and social stability in the US. White labourers always expressed the fear that Chinese migrant workers would force them out of work. Even if there was no competition for the work for which Chinese migrants engaged, the very presence of the group was a source of hostility and violence.

Social functions of the yellow peril myth served to encourage discrimination and violence against the Chinese and other Asian communities.Towards the end of the article, Heller (2014) explores some forms of stereotypes and discrimination against Asians that were meant to propagate hate and paint the picture of American-Asians being inferior to white Americans. The article mentions some of the negative stereotypes related to foods consumed by Asians that were uttered in a way to belittle Asian Americans.

Presently, the stereotypes of Asian Americans in American mainstream media are multiple, conflicting and often portray Asians in bad light. Even those stereotypes that appeared to initially portray Asian Americans in good light eventually did more harm than good to Asian Americans and a good example of this is the model minority stereotype. When the model minority stereotype emerged, Asian Americans were depicted as a success story and were not only used to set standards of how minorities should behave but were also used to silence accusations of racial injustice against communities of colour.

As much as the model minority myth upheld the American ideologies of individualism and meritocracy, it diverted attention away from racial inequality, sustained the whites in the racial hierarchy and pit minority groups against one another.ReferencesBingham,A (2012). Former DC Mayor Marion Barry Says Asians’ Dirty Shops .Ought To Go.’ Abc News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/former-d-c-mayor-marion-barry-says-asians-dirty-shops-ought-to-go/Daniels, R. (1988). Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850.

Washington, DC: University of Washington Press.Heller, S. (2014). The Artistic History of American Anti-Asian Racism. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/the-artistic-history-of-american-anti-asian-racism/283962/