Week 3: Yellow Face

By openly preferring Caucasian actors over Asian actors in an open casting call, Paramount demonstrated their innate racist assumptions – that a no name White actor was more capable of increasing box office numbers and (perhaps) “acting” than an equivalent Asian actor regardless of the Eastern-based characters in the series. Additionally, by casting Asian actors as secondary or supporting characters, Paramount clearly wished to create an “authentically diverse” universe, one that is distinctly Eastern and non-Western in its roots. 

We as consumers support movies that clearly exploit, manipulate, and misguide us in every sense. This is institutional racism because we as consumers need entertainment of some sort, so we keep supporting. It is just within the last two decades that black actors are winning Oscars, Asians have roles on t.v., that Mexicans get portrayed as more than a gang banger. Even then, the shows minority actors are on, those actors are not true to themselves, or play a stereotypical role of their ethnicity which adds to the racial divide our country already has.The article face painting left me flabbergasted because i did not know directors of movies were so racist. I say racist in the sense they openly prefer white actors over a minority actor, even if it for a minority role. not only did this article surprise me, but i also felt insulted. I felt insulted because directors know with the correct make-up and technology enhancing programs that they can trick their viewers, but they don't care what we prefer, or what we think would produce the best movie. Face painting is not only done to Asian actors and actresses, but also Latino, Native Americans, and black.Yellow face, brown face,and black face are all insults because it says to the people in these ethnic groups that they are unable or incompetent to perform these role properly. However when reading the article"a Certain Slant: A Brief History of Hollywood Yellow face i learned that film producers and directors were not the first to participate in yellow face. in fact it originally started with plays. Regardless of Yellow face start it upsets me that it is still used today in movies such as The Last Air-bender. As a consumer and not producer, i have no control over the casting process. however i do have control on what i spend my money on. i think consumers should demand more. We need to not pay to see movies that use yellow face,  brown face, black face tactics. There are more than enough talented Asians, Latinos, Blacks and other minorities capable of playing a specific role. We also need the help of actors and actresses to worry less about their paycheck and more about equality. Yes it shows talent to act as someone else  while no one knows. i believe it takes more talent to represent your character the best way you can when their are so many temptations. As mentioned before i find the concept disrespectful to the consumers of the product we are buying. I would not want  to purchase a shirt thinking it is an XL to find out it is really a small, or chips that are really rice cakes. We as consumers should not be ok with paying to see a kung fu movie with all Asian actors to find out the actors are white, but its really Asian stunt devils. How unjust, disrespectful and misleading can it get?

http://www.asianweek.com/top-25-yellow-face-performance-20-16/ This link shows the 25 most infamous yellow face film performances. 

Week 2: Yellow : Neither Black nor White

Both of these men are of Asian decent but have decided to adapt black culture as their identity. The one of the left, as many Asian Americans today are adapting black hip hop culture. Many do so in their way of dress, slang, and learning to Americanize themselves more. I can only assume it is because of the unfair oppressed stereotypes in America. It is becoming more common, especially in media that Asian Americans are adopting black ethnicity culture, probably stemming from the racial oppression that Black and Asian culture have experienced.In the documentary we were assigned to watch it says that there were only two races, black and white. Well if Asians are being told that they are not at all white, they may as well feel forced to adopt black culture. Yellow may be a safe zone for them, as well as Asian Americans taking a stand and saying they wont be in the black or white category, but instead make a category of their own, where they feel like they can be themselves. I think that Asian Americans deserve to identify with whomever they want and not be forced in a particular category, but this is what makes the powerful people in our society most comfortable and people go along with it because they don't know any better.The article "Neither Black nor White focuses on the movie "Do The Right Thing" where movie fiction has some truth to real life. The movie exposes some of the racial discrimination that Asian immigrants/Asian American face when they come to America and live in inner cities.The article "Neither Black Nor White gives credit to the film because it exposed it viewers to the real life outcomes in inner cities across the nation regarding race relations. The movie "Do the Right Thing" shows an Asian grocer in the middle of a riot in Los Angelos, in the process of the Asians store being vandalized the grocer yells out that he is black. Now the problem lies in between, because of the Asian economic status from owning a grocery store black people don't see the grocer as black, and because of the economic status white people don't see the grocer as white.This sort of problem leaves Asians confused because truthfully Asians are neither black or white. However the racial discrimination leaves Asians and blacks feeling less than equal to their white counterparts. The racial divides are tricky in many ways. Majority of Asians IQ match their white counterparts, as well as most Asians economic, and social status matches their white counterpart more closely than black, so this may cause Asians to code switch. Depending on the situation, environment, and people Asians are usually put in a predicament where they switch who they more closely relate to black or white.The biggest problem with the whole idea, is that race relations is only narrowed down to black or white, when there is more than black and white people. Our country current race relations approach eliminates acknowledging any other minority besides black. Every minority is not black, there are Latinos, Native American/Indians, Asian, pacific Islander.I understand that blacks have been the largest minority group since the beginning of our country, however i believe that our country needs to do a better job including other ethnic groups in equal treatment. In turn all minorities in the country have been treated unfair, which cause them to ralate to black people because the unfair treatment is similar. At the very least they feel as though black people can understand and respect Asians. Asians as constuctive blacks to me is a sign that progress is not being made, because they are still forced to identify with a group based ethnicity and lack of rights and unfair treatment. 
This bothers me because i it back and think what will it take for all minorities, all women, all gay, all handicapp people have the chance to be treated and respected fairly and solely on their character, and not their outer physical appearance, or preference.

Week 1: Lets Begin

 Hi, my name is Kandyce McGowan. I am a senior graduating in May. I will have a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology. After graduation a have a variety of interest i would like to pursue, but not definite in what i will do right away. My career goals are to help troubled youth, and women.

This is not my first online class. I have taken a online science class, a sociology class, status and power, and also a sociology institutional racism course. I enjoy online teaching as long as it it concise and organized. Problems that i have encountered from online teaching is professors may not give specific instructions to assignments, and if there are online quiz/test with a time limit has also been a problem.

Asian Americans in media and in general life have been subjected to stereotypes similar to other inority races. Often times they are seen as very smart people in academics, but dont offer much to society. This link is to a webpage that explores several sterotypes of Asian Americans in media. It covers sterotypes that deals with Asian women, men and children. Media Representations of Asians.