Race and Racism Who Are You?

Race/Racism: Who are you?
Vietnamese Americans are Americans who have a Vietnamese heritage. Vietnamese people living in the United States make up close to have of the Vietnamese people leaving overseas. The Vietnamese Americans are one of the largest Asian American ethnicities. Other Asian ethnicities include the Indians, Filipinos, and the Chinese. The Asian Americans have a distinct characteristic from other Americans. I define myself as an Asian American. The media sources like the movies and television give little positives about the Asian Americans and neither are there many recognized role models of Asian American heritage (Mok). According to Mok the media fails to do justice to diversity of the American people and does not appreciate the culture of Asian Americans. The paucity of a conspicuous Asian image in the American society is responsible for affecting perceptions of the Asian Americans themselves, their race, and the broader society. 
Mok examined the autobiographical information and Asian American images from literature material in order to demonstrate the likely negative impact of being a minority person of color in the American society that has emphasized on a mono-racial beauty standard. Information gathered by Mok from primary Asian American sources frequently pointed to media as the potent information source dictating the manner in which attractiveness is measured and defined (185–202). Pham (1) describes the experiences of the Asian immigrants into America as diverse just as the experiences of their children born in the United States (Pham 1). The Asian American children grew to some awareness level in relation to their identity. They acknowledged that they have an Asian American heritage and had a specific ethnic background as Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Filipino etc. The immigration and growth of the Asian American society signaled the development of the consciousness of the Asian Americans (Pham 1). 
The Asian Americans distinguished their heritage based on their respective cultures. They also separated themselves from mainstream culture of the American people (Pham 1). The first generation Asians born in America never had the chance to benefit from the advantage of any existing Asian American models of consciousness because they happened to be the pioneer Asians in the American society (Pham 1). The Asian Americans struggled with defining and cultivate their own identities as Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, or Chinese Americans, Indian Americans or Vietnamese Americans etc. (Pham 1). Contrary to the first generation Asian Americans, those arriving from Asian Countries after late 1960s had opportunity to bear witness of the interactions and existence of various Asian American ethnic groups. This made it possible for the immigrants to witness various Asian American identities from which they could adapt, reject or alter the inherited perceptions. The second class of Asian immigrants had the chance to study existing pan-ethnicity of the Asian Americans giving them a collective identity (Pham 1).
A research by New York Times’ Hassan (1) revealed that there is a common stereotype that Asian Americans are smart, hardworking and competent people currently. Before, the Asian Americans were seen as undesirable, illiterate, inassimilable, and disease stricken (Hassan 1). Asian Americans were seen as a marginal component of the wider human race. They were deprived of the rights to get naturalized citizens of the United States and were segregated to their ethnic reserve (Hassan 1). There have been many human rights interventions in the American society that have given rise to a better and more inclusive American society. The 1965 United States immigration law changes gave preferential treatment to the highly skilled and highly educated applicants (Hassan 1). The new immigration laws paved way to the new Asian immigration wave. The Asian American seized the opportunity to get educated from American colleges and even had a higher chance of graduating from college than the American mean, a phenomena known as hyper-selectivity (Hassan 1). 
For instance, the immigrants from China living in the United States have a twelve times better chance of graduating from college than the Chinese person who never immigrated (Hassan 1). An Asian American also has a better chance of getting a college degree than a typical American (Hassan 1). Hyper-selectivity gave rise to the stereotype that Asian Americans are quite hardworking, competent, and smart (Hassan 1). Asian Americans have also been denigrated for being obsessively focused on academics, being one dimensional, having little personal skills, and being unnecessarily smart (Hassan 1).     According to Hassan one of the reasons that Asian Americans are inclined to getting elite college level education is their internal belief that institutional prestige offers them protection from the possibility of being discriminated at the workplace (1).  There is a common stereotype that classifies Asian Americans as diligent, competent in technical stuff but generally quiet (Hassan 1). It is this stereotype that derails them after college. Asian Americans have a less likelihood of being promoted into leadership and management positions (Hassan 1). 
A recent leadership diversity report issued by top companies in technology indicated that Asian Americans happen to be a racial group that has the least chances of getting promotion into executive and managerial positions (Hassan 1). The white women and men have twice as much a better chance to assume executive positions as the Asian Americans (Hassan 1). White women are increasingly breaking the glass ceiling into male dominated professions and executive positions. This is not the case for Asian American women. Asian Americans are a minority ethnic group that has been forgotten in many positions. Asian Americans also earn lesser (Hassan 1). An Asian American man born in America will earn 8% less compared to a white man (Hassan 1). Women of Asian descent have similar earnings as their white counterparts although they have a lower chance of rising to management positions (Hassan 1). 
The clamor for education is common with me as with other Asian Americans. This is not to mean that using education as a means to escape discrimination is a motivation behind my pursuit of higher education. There is a lot of truth to the fact that people of color have been discriminated against in the American society and that they get fewer opportunities even in the film making industry. The media has also played to the mono-racial standard by accepting and appearing to perpetuate the dominance of the whites in the corporate world despite the fact that people of color have everything it takes to assume executive and leadership positions. To this extend it is a conscious belief in me and in many Asian Americans that a person of color has to work multiple times harder as a white American in order to live a comfortable life. People of color are often judged by their ethnicity and their shortcomings than their abilities and potential. 
In summary
It is a common misconception that Asian Americans have no leadership credentials due to their quiet demeanor. The interpersonal skills of Asian Americans have been questioned. This has been used as a weapon to deny Asian Americans lucrative leadership opportunities even though most of them qualify for the positions. I have been raised to believe that America is a society of numerous ethnic communities. I strongly believe that it is easier to make a good living and succeed in life as an American than in any other place on earth. Save for the fact that people of color and minority groups have had some rough encounters before the white ethnic majorities America is a society that upholds constitutionalism, civil, and human rights. Equality of all ethnic groups is yet to be achieved although great strides have been made so far. Asian Americans are widely accepted as an integral part of the American society just as other ethnic minority groups.
In conclusion, as Huh would have it Asian Americans are the victims of neglect and degradation by the popular media and the consumer markets (Huh 1). The Asian American community has not been able to make a mark in the American pop culture. The measly Asian American representation is strictly controlled through the lens of distortion and inclined towards creating the perception that Asian Americans are only good comic relief artists (Huh 1). Due to insignificant Asian American representation in media platforms, the young Asian Americans have been forced to adopt personals from various cultures in the quest to mobilize themselves culturally and socially. All in all I believe Asian Americans should be more assertive in claiming their rightful place and sustaining their cultural, religious, and social outlook. 
 
Works Cited
Hassan, Adeel. “Confronting Asian-American Stereotypes.” The New York Times. Web. n.d.     <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/us/confronting-asian-american-stereotypes.html>  
Huh, Min. “Media Representation of Asian Americans and Asian Native New Yorkers’ Hybrid     Persona.” City University of New York (CUNY) Academic Works (2016): n. pag. City     University of New York (CUNY) Academic Works. Web. <     https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2381&context=gc_etds>
Mok, T. A. “Getting the Message: Media Images and Stereotypes and Their Effect on Asian     Americans.” Cultural Diversity and Mental Health1998: 185–202. Cultural Diversity and     Mental Health. Web.
Pham, Vu H. Cultural Crossroads: The Formation of Vietnamese American Consciousness for     the 1.5 Generation. , 1994. Print. <     https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb5x0nb45r&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text >