Discrimination Against Asian Americans
Racism and discrimination have had its roots embedded in American history. Many ethnic minorities, people of colour, Indigenous groups and more have faced some sort of discrimination in their lifetime. Despite society progressing, racism is still hugely prevalent in American society, leading to movements like “Black Lives Matter”. Mainstream media mostly focuses on issues regarding Blacks or Hispanics, but there is very little focus on discrimination against the Asian American ethnic group.
Racism Then vs. Racism Now
While American society believes that Asian Americans are somehow “immune to racism” or are not discriminated against, many Asian Americans actually reported facing experiences of racial discrimination in their day-to-day lives (Sue et al., 2009). However, the form of these racist remarks has evolved dramatically. In the past, many of the racist remarks directed at Asian Americans were extremely straight-forward and overt, but current racist remarks are disguised behind a mask (Sue et al., 2009). Sue et al. describes these current forms of racism as racial microaggressions. This term is defined as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of colour because they belong to a racial minority group” (Sue et al., 2009). Evidently, these seemingly small and subtle racist remarks accrue quickly, causing serious negative effects on many Asian Americans.
Types of Discrimination
In the few studies that focused on discrimination against Asian Americans, there was a pattern of the most common racist experiences that they faced.
These were some of the main types of discrimination that were reported by multiple studies:
| Type of Discrimination | Example(s) |
|---|---|
| Social Alienation/Exclusion | Purposefully left out of social situations/conversations |
| Denial/Minimization of Racist Experiences | Denying an individual's experience with racism |
| Treated as a Foreigner/Second-class Citizen | Assumption that all Asian Americans are born elsewhere (Not truly American); Treated poorly because they're not White |
| Teased Aspects of Culture, Religion, Language... | Derogatory comments in regards to Asian food |
| Assumption of Intelligence/Success | Belief that all Asians are good at school, especially in Math or Sciences |
| Mistaken Ethnicity/Assumption of Ethnic Background | "All Asians look alike"; Speaking Japanese to a Chinese individual |
Discrimination Against Asian American Women
A Look at Intersectional Discrimination
As evident, there is little research in regards to discrimination against Asian Americans, but there is even less research in regards to discrimination against Asian American women. This lack of focus assumes that Asian American women experience the same situations as Asian men or White women, but that is certainly not the case. When exploring discrimination against Asian American women, it takes into consideration two axes of discrimination: Racism and sexism. Discrimination against Asian American women is known as intersectional discrimination as their experiences of discrimination stem from the fact that they are both Asian (an ethnic minority) and a woman. Asian American men face racism affected by their gender, while White women face sexism affected by race; however, Asian American women experience discrimination in both of those ways (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018), hence why discrimination against Asian American women must be studied separately. When exploring discrimination against Asian American women, it takes into consideration two axes of discrimination: Racism and sexism. Discrimination against Asian American women is known as intersectional discrimination as their experiences of discrimination stem from the fact that they are both Asian (an ethnic minority) and a woman.
Exoticization of Asian American Women
Many Asian American women have reported multiple cases of being ‘exoticized’, ‘fantasized’, ‘eroticized’, ‘fetishized’ or other sexual-related terms (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018). Asian American women are viewed as sexual-objects whose sole purpose is to please the sexual needs of White men. This puts Asian American women in a powerless place, where they are considered inferior to men or even other women of colour.
Although the intent behind exoticizing and fetishizing Asian American women is not malicious (usually originates from a positive intent), it has serious detrimental effects on the mental well-being of women that receive those comments. Many women take comments in regards to their ‘Asian features’ as derogatory, or experience cases of sexual harassment due to these fetishes that exist in Western society (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018).
Some other common stereotypes directed at Asian American women include:
- Docile, passive and subservient
- Erotic and sensual
- Hard-working
- Manipulative and untrustworthy
- Thin, small, cute, child-like
Discrimination Against Asian American Men
The case for discrimination against Asian American men is also a unique one. As opposed to Asian American women who receive mainly seemingly ‘positive’ attention, Asian American men tend to be put in the negative spotlight by Western society and media. Many Asian American men have reported facing situations of racial discrimination, with many forms of those being the more general types of discrimination faced by all Asian Americans (Wei et al., 2013).
Drive for Masculinity and Self-Esteem
Body image is most commonly thought of as a women’s problem; however, Asian American men face many experiences of discrimination in regards to body-image issues. In Western society, the ideal body image for men includes the following: tall, muscular, big biceps, wide shoulders, low body fat, and so on (Cheng et al., 2016). These are all characteristics that put Asian American men in a place for racial discrimination to occur because of their “biological predisposition to body types that don’t fit the White-centric ideal image” (Cheng et al., 2016, p. 216). Western media also often portrays Asian American men’s overall physique to be weak, small, nerdy, lacking sexual competencies and other negative characteristics (Cheng et al., 2016). While trying to live up to Western ideals of male body image, Asian American men also face pressures of conforming to Asian ideals of male body image, causing confusion and distress (Cheng et al., 2016). This constant back-and-forth puts Asian American men in a very difficult middle ground.
In response to the pressures of conforming to Western body image ideals, Asian American men are more driven to reach those goals to negate those stereotypes perceived by society in regards to them. Sometimes, they even go to extremes and put themselves at increased risks (compared to other men of colour or White men) in order to achieve those ideal characteristics (Cheng et al., 2016). Other forms of compensation include binge drinking (especially amongst college Asian American men), abuse of illegal substances, playing sports and more in order to fit in socially with Western society (Cheng et al., 2016).
References
- Kiang, L., & Bhattacharjee, K. (2016). A Narrative-Linguistic Approach to Understanding Asian American Adolescents’ Discrimination Experiences. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 7(1), 41-51. doi:10.1037/aap0000036
- Sue, D. W., Bucceri, J., Lin, A. I., Nadal, K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2009). Racial Microaggressions and the Asian American Experience. Asian American Journal of Psychology, S(1), 88-101. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.13.1.72
- Mukkamala, S., & Suyemoto, K. L. (2018). Racialized Sexism/Sexualized Racism: A Multimethod Study of Intersectional Experiences of Discrimination for Asian American Women. Asian American Journal of Psychology,9(1), 32-46. doi:10.1037/aap0000104
- Cheng, H., Mcdermott, R. C., La, S., & Wong, Y. J. (2016). Drive for Muscularity in Asian American Men: Sociocultural and Racial/Ethnic Factors as Correlates. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 17(3), 215-227. doi:10.1037/e562422014-001
- Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. (2013). Family support, self-esteem, and perceived racial discrimination among Asian American male college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 453-461. doi:10.1037/a0032344