Research Method

For my topic of racism against Asian-Americans, I will be performing "participant observation". I will go to numerous public places and see how people will react in certain situations that involves an Asian-American (me). I believe this will truly show if racism against Asian-Americans is still practiced or not. I look forward to see the actions of people and the results of this observation.

Judging a Book by its Cover

Most of us can admit that when we think of Asian parents the following jokingly come in mind:

Their kids probably have no social life.

They probably make them study 24/7.

I can't even imagine the punishment they give their kid if they got an A-.

They most likely make their child play piano, violin, cello, or all of the above.

When people hear Asian parents, many people tend to label them as the "The World's Strictest Parents", "Tiger Mom", etc. All jokes aside, many Asian parents are always trying to make their child the best they can be, but they're not the only culture that does this! As I was looking through many funny Asian memes, I found that most of the memes had to do with strict Asian parents. They are portrayed as intimidating, but in reality, they're not even that bad compared to what society compares them to.

It irks me that people almost always turn to the stereotypes when judging a person. As a result, people treat them based on their label. In this case, people end up treating Asian parents harshly because these people think Asian parents deserve it for treating their children so cruel. The assumption that Asian parents are strict and do not care about their own child is absolutely not accurate, which is unfair to the parents that do not even portray these stereotypes. My question to the people who think so horribly of Asian parents is: How would you like it if you were based on an assumption, when you are the total opposite of it? Never judge a book by its cover!

Think Before You Speak!

As I was searching for an article for this week's blog, I came across this crazy article. Recently, a college student made a four and a half minute Youtube video rant listing reasons why he would hate to be Asian.

Some of his reasons are summarized as followed: 

1. Most Asians look alike
2. If I were an Asian man, I'd most likely be with an Asian woman and I do not find them attractive
3. I suck at math
4. The only way you can be in show biz if you know kung fu or if you play an Asian mobster
5. I'd be short
6. I hate sushi and it would be “everywhere” if I were Asian. 

This situation mirrored an incident a couple years back that involved a UCLA college student ranting about Asian students in the campus library. After receiving harsh criticism, this college kid said the whole video was just a joke. Come on......you're supposed to be a mature college kid and you thought this wasn't gonna get you in trouble?! I am utterly disgusted at how inconsiderate people can be in what they verbally say. 

Since this situation has occurred before, incidents like this show that racism does continue to exist in our world. Even though the college kid said it was purely a joke, the video is seen as complete racism and a huge offense to the Asian community. People need to realize that there is a fine line that exists when blurting out a racial joke is okay and not okay, but this college student completely crossed that line. Never forget that saying: Think before you speak!