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Stereotypes Dehumanize Americans

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Have you ever laughed at an Asian character, who is inhumanly awkward, has terrible broken English, is extremely nerdy, or is weird-looking or ugly? Many Americans would say yes. This is not necessarily their fault; it is the result of the way American pop culture views and portrays Asians that influences the wider public. These stereotypical Asian characters are often over exaggerated, and created to satisfy solely one purpose: to make people laugh. While many Americans might find it amusing and as a “light” joke, a lot of Asians are affected negatively. American pop culture dehumanizes Asians through stereotypes, leading to problems of monoculture and the lost of identities for Asians in America; in order to confront these problems, Asian …show more content…
In the movie Sixteen Candles, Long Duk Dong, has strong broken English, does not know how to use a fork, and bows all the time. This typical stereotype portrays Asians as not knowing any western culture and how to speak proper English for laughs, making fun of being a foreigner. This particular portrayal of a foreigner is problematic because it desensitizes Americans that humor can be cruel and make them more ignorant, marginalizing the overall Asian community. Beyond negatively portraying Long Duk Dong as a foreigner, despite the fact that the character is supposed to be Chinese, his name is Vietnamese and the character is played by Gedde Watanabe, a Japanese American. This interchangeability of Asian cultures proves that most Americans believe that all Asian countries are the same, referring to Asia as a single country. Monoculture develops, and people believe that every Asian country eats the same things and wears the same clothes. Besides problematic stereotypes, Asians are often not even portrayed by an actual Asian; Mr. Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a Japanese man, is played by Mickey Rooney, a white American. This character is portrayed with the classic “yellow-face”, which includes

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