i know that every non white community is still miles behind where they should be, but i don’t think it’s talked about how far behind asians specifically really are in mainstream western media or even just celebrity culture in general.
when i was a kid, was there a lot of representation for other races? of course not! but i grew up watching the cosby show and that’s so raven and at least seeing the presence of other people of color on screen, or hearing rihanna, beyoncé on the radio
besides mulan, i quite literally did not see a single asian actor on a tv show that wasn’t a doctor or a ninja or some other racist idea until maybe the harry potter movies, and even then her name was cho chang which is about as close to ching chong as it gets, or the big bang theory which had raj being literally the epitome of a racist stereotype, or glee, which was... still racist. but i ate it up because at least they got to talk instead of being a nameless, wordless extra in a hospital! and asian singers don’t get to be just pop singers, they have to be kpop singers or bollywood singers. their identity in their career isn’t their music, it’s their race and culture. how many asian mainstream western pop artists can you name that get to be categorized as just “pop” or “rock” without their nationality or race tacked on?
how many asian actors have been nominated for any major award? how many have actually won? how many asian actors can you name that are a-list, AND got there without playing racist stereotypes OR without being in a film or tv that was literally about being asian? i still think about the time korean sandra oh played a character whose last name was “gupta” because asians are so interchangeable, and i bet it killed her to do it, but what choice did she have? i’m thinking about chloe bennet who fits the exact mold for the white washed, marketable asian actress that hollywood eats up, and she STILL had to change her last name to get cast in things
the karate kid was a huge success, but would it have been if it wasn’t pushing the story of a white boy and a white girl? fresh of the boat was fairly successful, but even then it was FOR asians, whereas modern family can be enjoyed by anyone
i remember i gave up on makeup when i was a young teen because i couldn’t find any tutorials that would teach me how to work with monolids, and i remember knowing so many east asian people who didn’t wear eyeliner or eyeshadow because they “just didn’t feel like it” but really it was because we didn’t know how to do it. dyed hair, colored contacts, having panic attacks at age nine over getting too tan, not wanting to smile too wide in pictures so our eyes would look more open. asian boys have to be buff and athletic, or what good are they for besides undersexualized engineers?
to be clear, i’m not saying any community of color is represented enough or well, and i don’t want this post to come across like comparing oppression because that’s absolutely not the point. there has been a (well-deserved) rise in how film, music, and tv is showcasing black individuals, and that is amazing and a great step forward, but i don’t understand why it’s seen as a collective win for every community of color when humanized, complex, respectful asians are still totally invisible in movies, tv shows, music, modeling, and other types of media
honestly, people saying “be grateful there’s people of color in media at all” when asians speak up about lack of representation reads a lot like people saying “be grateful there’s lgbt people in media at all” when lgbt people of color speak up about how the majority of mainstream lgbt rep is white. like. hello. we can strive for more than ticking one box?? poc cannot be just lumped together, the black experience says nothing for the asian experience, and the asian experience says nothing for the latinx experience and on and on and on
